NAME : HANDRIA FEBRI AMELIA
ID NUMBER : 19320221 / EK
MID TERM TEST
1. There are some assumptions about the origins of human language, one of which is
‘the genetic source’. Explain what you understand about it.
We can think of the human baby in its first few years as a living example of some of these
physical changes taking place. This almost automatic set of developments and the
complexity of the young child’s language have led some scholars to look for something more
powerful than small physical adaptations of the species over time as the source of
language. Even children who are born deaf become fluent sign language users, given
appropriate circumstances, very early in life. This seems to indicate that human offspring are
born with a special capacity for language.
It is innate, no other creature seems to have it, and it isn’t tied to a specific variety of
language. As a solution to the puzzle of the origins of language, this innateness hypothesis
would seem to point to something in human genetics, possibly a crucial mutation, as the
source. The investigation of the origins of language then turns into a search for the special
«language gene» that only humans possess.
2. Explain about the origin of language in Islamic perspective.
3. Language on its capacity as the formulation of concept provide the possibility for
humans to learn all conceptions of their thought through the method of
symbolism. When humans use a name of «horse» for a group of certain
animals, they indeed use a symbol of language which indicates a concept or a whole
meaning which are apropriate with others horse. When humans learn about how to
use the word of horse for indicating all kinds of horse, it means that they have known
all kinds of horses with their certain characteristic. The learning process which are
experienced by Adam as a father of all humans, also experienced by all humans.
Since their childhood, humans have identified that some objects are similar to certain
characteristics, and different to others. It is impossible for humans to comprehend all
things and respond them as an independent entity. On the contrary, humans need to
simplify their process of understanding towards various objects through grouping
certain objects which have same characteristics, and creating a certain concept for
them. After creating a concept which describes certain objects or things, humans
need to create names which illustrate the concepts appropriately.
Humans’ ablity in learning language plays to create quickly the concepts and their
use in the process of thinking and learning new information and fact. By using certain
concepts in the process of thingking and using sentences for such concepts, humans
can learn all objects and a thing in their mind through the method of
symbolism. When humans are speaking, the tongue is inconstant motions, and its
position in relation to other elements of the vocal tract is essential to the production of
appropriate sounds. This verse states that God taught humans to be able to
communicate by means of spoken language .
It means that God bestows the potential for humans to be able to think and express
meanings through sounds and written form. Scientifically, the verse signs that God
creates humans with the potential biologically to acquire a language. According to
Chomsky, humans have capacity to acquire language since they are born with minds
that contain innate knowledge concerning a number of different areas. This verse
indicates that the language that is used by humans in the world is a creation of God.
The humans’ activity in the process of oral communication continues to writing
skill. Through writing humans can transfer knowledge from generation to
generation. Humans could hardly have survived, if their ability to produce speech is
derived from the beginning of their days. God equips humans with the mental
capacity, with an ear ready to receive what he hears, and a mouth and tongue to
express their intentions.Explain the following properties of human language.
a. Arbitrariness
The connection is quite arbitrary. We can’t just look at the Arabic word بل کand, from
its shape, for example, determine that it has a natural and obvious meaning any more than
we can with its English translation form dog. The linguistic form has no natural or ( iconic )
relationship with that hairy four-legged barking object out in the world. This aspect of the
relationship between linguistic signs and objects in the world is described as arbitrariness.
This impression we have of the non-arbitrariness of animal signaling may be closely
connected to the fact that, for any animal, the set of signals used in communication is
finite. That is, each variety of animal communication consists of a fixed and limited set of
vocal or gestural forms.
b. displacement,
Animal communication seems to be designed exclusively for this moment, here and
now. When your dog says GRRR, it means GRRR, right now, because dogs don’t seem to
be capable of communicating GRRR, last night, over in the park. GRRR, last night, over in
the park, and then going on to say In fact, I’ll be going back tomorrow for some more. This
property of human language is called displacement.It allows language users to talk about
things and events not present in the immediate environment. Indeed, displacement allows us
to talk about things and places whose existence we cannot even be sure of. Animal
communication is generally considered to lack this property. We could look at bee
communication as a small exception because it seems to have some version of
displacement.
Yes, but it is displacement of a very limited type. It just doesn’t have the range of possibilities
found in human language.
c. cultural transmission.
While we may inherit physical features such as brown eyes and dark hair from our
parents, we do not inherit their language. We acquire a language in a culture with other
speakers and not from parental genes. This process whereby a language is passed on from
one generation to the next is described as cultural transmission. It is clear that humans are
born with some kind of predisposition to acquire language in a general sense.
However, we are not born with the ability to produce utterances in a specific language such
as English. We acquire our first language as children in a culture. Human infants, growing up
in isolation, produce no «instinctive» language. Cultural transmission of a specific language
is crucial in the human acquisition process.
