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What is Language?
The simplest way to define language is as a system of communication used by humans. Languages can be spoken or signed, and some have a written form.
Language is a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings
Language is one of the most important parts of any culture. It is the way by which people communicate with one another, build relationships, and create a sense of community
Characteristics of Language
Linguists mention some characteristics that are unique to language. These are the ones that distinguish language from other sounds/noises made by animals. Animal’s ways of communication are not regarded as language because they lack these qualities.
Among the characteristics of language are:-
1. DUALITY
Language has two levels. The level of sound and that of meaning. For example the sounds /t/ and /i/ may give eat and teas depend on the way they are arranged.
Therefore duality is the property of language by which language allows simultaneous existence of meaning and sound.
2. PRODUCTIVITY/CREATIVITY
Human language is productive because it is possible to combine their structure (words, phrases) to produce new utterances never been heard before but which are understood by the speaker and hearer without difficulty. Eg black + board = blackboard (a new word)
Animal communication is not productive because the sounds produced are always the same and in the same way.
3. SPECIALISATION
A language of a particular society is special in that society’s environment and situations.
It reflects the physical realities of the environment that surrounds it.
Hence a language of society living in a certain environment tends to have more words for things found there than in a language found in another environment. E.g. one language could have many words for say “rice” than the other language depending on the environment.
Animal communication does have special sounds according to the different environment.
4. INTERCHANGEABILITY
Human language allows communicators to exchange positions. At one time the communicator is a speaker and a listener at another. For instance when one person is talking, the other is listening. He/she becomes a speaker and the person who was previously a speaker becomes the listener. This is not obvious in animal communication.
Characteristics of Language – English Language 1 Notes Form 5 & 6
5. REFLEXIVENESS
Human language can talk about itself. For example we are now using language to talk about language. Animals cannot cry about their cries. Therefore this property differentiates human language from animal communication.
6. DISCRETENESS
The sounds in human language are meaningful distinctly. For example the words “bad” and “bud” differ from each other only because they differ in vowel sound.
Therefore in human language, there is possibility for one to identify individual sounds like /v/, /a/, /j/, /i/ and /p/.
It is the discrete sounds of human language that helps us to distinguish between “pig” and “big”, “pack” and “bag”
7. CULTURAL TRANSMISSION
Human language is not genetically transmitted from one person to another but through cultural activities. This through acquiring or learning it depending on environment to which one is exposed.
Animal communications are natural and not cultural.
8. ARBITRARY
Human language is arbitrary because:
- There is no natural or direct relationship between the symbols (words) and the referents (concepts or objects meant)
- There is no any deliberate choosing of the sounds of words to be used in the language
- This leads to languages having different words
- Animal language lacks this property
9. DISPLACEMENT
Human language is capable of talking about present, past and future aspects and other arbitrary concepts.
NOTES 2: Characteristics of Language – English Language 1 Notes Form 5 & 6
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / FEATURES OF HUMAN LANGUAGE
Human language has a number of defined properties which uniquely distinguish it from communication systems (form) of other creature such as animals and insects. i.e. there are several features which are uniquely manifested (found) in human language and are unlikely to be found in the communication system of other creatures, this acts as a prove to the fact that it is only human beings who communicate through language where as other creatures do not use language as their means of communication.
The following are the unique characteristics or properties of the human language:
1. Duality/ Double articulation
Human language is organized or produced at two levels simultaneously
(a) Sound level at which human beings are capable of producing the individual sounds which do not convey any intrinsic meaning when they occur separately.
(b) Grammatical/ structural level at which a human being produces the Meaningful units such as words or phrases. This is achieved when the sounds combine together to form the meaningful and grammatical units such as words or phrases.
At this level it is possible for the same sounds to form different words with different meaning for example /i, b, n/ can combine to form nib and bin /e, t, a/ can combine to form eat, ate, tea.Thus with a limited number of distinct sounds, we are capable of producing a very large number of words which are distinct in meaning.
This makes human beings economical in the use of language. This feature cannot be manifested in the communication system of other non-human creature i.e.There signals are used at only on level.
2. Productivity/ Creativity
This is the feature of all human languages that novel/ new utterances are continually being produced or created i.e. language allows speakers or writers to produce and understand new utterances/ sentences that they have never produced or heard before.
This implies that due to the use of language, human beings are capable of producing and understanding the new sentences produced by others.
This makes human language dynamic because all the time he or she strives to produce or create new words, sentences or an utterance that is being understood by both a speaker or writer and the hear or reader.
However at childhood, children try there level best to produce new utterances or words. The features that cannot be found among communication systems of other creatures, these creatures produce the signals that are usually static i.e. they are the same and this cannot be produced in other forms to communicate experience and events.
3. Arbitrariness
All human languages have arbitrariness in the sense that there is no direct or natural connection or similarity correspondence between the linguistic symbols and the message, meaning or concept being represented by those symbols. I.e. the linguistic signs or symbols have arbitrary relationship with the reality or meaning (objects or concepts) they represent or indicate. For example the word table has no similarity with the object known as table.
However for the majority of animal signal, there does appear a clear connection between the convey that message. For example a hungry cat produces the cry that represents the actual state.
4. Interchangeability/ Reciprocity
Human language is unique because any person using the linguistic system can both send and receive the message. I.e. human language allows communicator to join here exchange position. At one time the communicator is a speaker and a listener at another time.
This imply that when one person is talking, the other is listening and when the listener starts responding, he or she becomes the speaker and the person who was previously a speaker becomes a listener.However this feature cannot be manifested among other creatures because there is no room for animals and other creatures to interchange positions as they usually produce their signals at the same time.
5. Displacement
Human language is displaced in the sense that the human language users (human beings) are capable of producing and understanding the message in relation to time and place. I.e. Human beings are able to communicate the message of the events of different times and places. This means that human beings can convey the message of present, past and future time as well as the message related to the event taking place at different places or locations e.g. distant event such as football match in England.
However with human language human beings may convey the message on both concrete and abstract phenomena. This is due to the fact that, animal communication lacks this property as they can only be able to produce and understand the message in relation to only the immediate time and place. I.e. they can convey the message on the event happening now and here but not yesterday, tomorrow and there.
6. Cultural transmission/ learner ability
This is the process whereby language is passed on from one generation to the next. I.e. human language is transmitted from one individual to another not by physical inheritance but by learning – Human language is not inherited genetically from parents instead it is acquired or learned depending on the environment to which one is exposed. That why we say language is culturally transmitted from one duration to another as it is acquired in culture with other speakers and not from parental genes.
This implies that any human language is acquired through learning from one generation to another. I.e. Every person gets language through learning but not through inheritance from parents.However the general pattern of animal communication is that the signals are instinct/ inborn and there are not learning i.e. Animals and other there signals instinct without learning them.
7. Specialization
Human language has the feature of specialization in the sense that every society has its own physical and social experiences which determine how the society sees its physical world i.e. the language of a respective society would tend to describe and reflect the physical features and social experiences which only exist in that society.
This is proven by the fact that it is very difficult to translate one language into another since experiences in each language is different.However communication systems (signals) used by animals and other creatures cut across the whole species of animals without specializing to a particular group of the same species.
8. Discreteness
The sounds in human language are meaningfully distinct I.e. the sounds used in language are only meaningfully especially when they are part of a language. For example the words pig and big differ due the presence of /p/ and /b/, ten and pen differ due to the presence of /t/ and /p/. This implies that each sound in language is treated as discrete.
9. Reflexiveness
This is the feature which enacts that human language has the ability of talking about itself. For example we are now using language to talk about language this property of language by which human language talks about itself is what is referred to as reflexiveness.
However it is not easily imaginable that animals are able to cry about their cries so this property makes human; language different from human communication.
Competence and Performance in Language
Competence refer to the knowledge of the whole language i.e. the ability not only to apply the grammatical rules of a language in order to grammatically correct sentences but also to know when and where to use those sentences and to
It also means the subconscious ability to judge the grammatically of expression as used in a certain language.
NB: The communicative competence includes the following
1. The knowledge of grammar and vocabulary of a language
2.The knowledge of rules of speaking and knowing to communicate according to topic and speech events
3. Knowing how to use language appropriately i.e. Using language according to social setting the relationship between speakers as well as according to a particular occasion performance refers to as the actual use of language in concrete situation.
It is determined by choice of writing words suitable for the right situation. It also refers to the actual use of language by individual in speech and writing i.e. the ability of a person to use the knowledge of language to produce and understand the sentences without necessarily adhering to grammatical rules.
NB: Competence and performance go together due to the fact that competence proceeds performance. Competence gives corrections to wrong expressions through performance. But there are times when the two are not connected as one can have performance without competence and vice verse.
IMPLICATIONS OF COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE
– To show that our ability to use language is governed by certain intuitive capacities. This is the reason to why native speakers of the language is capable to say whether the construction is correct or not even if they are unable to explain it technically.
– It also shows that language ability of an individual can be improved through the use
– Uses of the language have more in their linguistic stores than what they produce. This is due to the fact that language performance is affected by the number of
– Likewise it shows that language is governed by rules. As it is common for the language users to correct errors and mistakes in different constructions of language.This is made possible because intuitively we are embedded with those rules
