The Nature of Language and
Linguistics
Language is God’s special gift to mankind. Without language human civilization, as we
now know it, would have remained an impossibility. Language is ubiquitous. It is
present everywhere––in our thoughts and dreams, prayers and meditations, relations
and communication. Besides being a means of communication, and storehouse of
knowledge, it is an instrument of thinking as well as a source of delight (e.g. singing).
It transfers knowledge from one person to another and from one generation to another.
Language is also the maker or unmaker of human relationships. It is the use of language
that ‘Italics a life bitter or sweet. Without language man would have remained only a
dumb animal. It is our ability to communicate through words that makes us different
from animals. Because of its omnipresence, language is often taken for granted.
Definition of Language
Since linguistics is the study of language, it is imperative for linguist to know what
language is. Language is a very complex human phenomenon; all attempts to define it
have proved inadequate. In a nut-shell, language is an ‘organized noise’ used in actual
social situations. That is why it has also been defined as ‘contextualized systematic
sound‘.In order to understand a term like life, one has to talk of the properties or
characteristics of living beings (e.g. motion, reproduction, respiration, growth, power of
self-healing, excretion, nutrition, mortality, etc. etc.). Similarly, the term language can
be understood better in terms of its properties or characteristics. Some linguists,
however, have been trying to define language in their own ways even though all these
definitions have been far from satisfactory. Here are some of these definitions:
1. Language is a symbol system based on pure or arbitrary conventions infinitely
extendable and modifiable according to the changing needs and conditions of the
speakers. (Robins)
EXPLANATION:
According to this definition, language is a symbol system. Every languages selects some
symbols for its selected sounds. The English sound /k/ for example has the symbol k for
it. These symbols form the alphabet of the language and join in different
combinations to form meaningful words.
The system talked of here is purely arbitrary in the sense that there is no one to one
correspondence between the structure of a word and the thing it stands for. The
combination p.e.n., for example stands, in English, for an instrument used for writing.
Why could it not be e.p.n. or n.e.p.? Well, it could also be e.p.n. or n.e.p. and there is
nothing sacrosanct about the combination p.e.n. except that it has now become a
convention—a convention that cannot be easily changed.
As stated here, language conventions are not easily changed, yet it is not impossible to
do so. Language is infinitely modifiable and extendable. Words go on changing
meanings and new words continue to be added to language with the changing needs of
the community using it.
2. Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas,
emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.
(Sapir)
EXPLANATION:
There are two terms in this definition that call for discussion: human and non-
instinctive. Language, as Sapir rightly said, is human. Only humans possess language
and all normal humans uniformly possess it. Animals do have a communication system
but it is not a developed system. That is why language is said to be species-
specific and species-uniform.
Also, language does not pass from a parent to a child. In this sense it is non-instinctive.
A child has to learn language and he/she learns the language of the society he/she is
placed in.
3. Language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each
other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols. (Hall)
EXPLANATION:
This definition rightly gives more prominence to the fact that language is primarily
speech produced by oral-auditory symbols. A speaker produces some string of oral
sounds that get conveyed through the air to the speaker who, through his hearing
organs, receives the sound waves and conveys these to the brain that interprets these
symbols to arrive at a meaning.
4. A language is a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and
constructed out of a finite set of elements. (Noam Chomsky)
EXPLANATION:
Chomsky meant to convey that each sentence has a structure. Human brain is
competent enough to construct different sentences from out of the limited set of
sounds/symbols belonging to a particular language. Human brain is so productive that a
child can at any time produce a sentence that has never been said or heard earlier.
5. A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.
(Wardaugh)
6. A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group
cooperates. (Bloch and Trager)
EXPLANATION:
Both the definitions of 5 and 6 above prominently point out that language is a system.
Sounds join to form words according to a system. The letters k, n, I, t, join to form a
meaningful ‘word knit, whereas combinations like n-k-I-t, t.k.n.i. or i.n.k.t. do not form
any meaningful or sensible combinations. Although initially the formation of words, as
said earlier, is only arbitrary, convention makes them parts of a system. Words to join to
form sentences according to some system. A sentence like: Cricket is a game of
glorious uncertainties is acceptable but one cannot accept a string of words like: a
game is of cricket uncertainties glorious. It is in this sense that language is said to be
a system of systems.
7. Language is undoubtedly a kind of means of communication among human
beings. It consists primarily of vocal sounds. It is articulatory, systematic, symbolic
and arbitrary. (Derbyshire)
EXPLANATON:
Derbyshire, while accepting that language is the property of human beings and that it is
primarily speech, brings out the point that it is an important means of communication
amongst humans. Before the start of civilization, man might have used the language of
signs but it must have had a very limited scope. Language is a fully developed means of
communication with the civilized man who can convey and receive millions of messages
across the universe. An entire civilization depends on language only. Think of a world
without language—man would only continue to be a denizen of the forest and the caves.
Language has changed the entire gamut of human relations and made it possible for
human beings to grow into a human community on this planet.
8. Language is a system of conventional spoken or written symbols by means of
which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture,
communicate. (Encyclopedia Britannica)
9. Languages are the principal systems of communication used by particular groups
of human beings within the particular society (linguistic community) of which they
are members. (Lyons)
EXPLANATION:
Anthropologists regard language as a form of cultural behavior, sociologists as an
interaction between members of social, city, students of literature as an artistic medium,
philosophers as a means of interpreting human experience, language teachers as a set of
skills. Truly, language is such a complex phenomenon that to define it in terms of a
single level as knowledge, behavior, skill, habit, an event or an object, solve the problem
of its definition. None of the above definitions are perfect. Each of them just hints at
certain characteristics of language. Hence instead of defining language, it would be
worthwhile to stand its Major characteristics.
Some Misconception about Language
Having discussed the major characteristics of language, it would be proper to hint at
some major misconceptions which ate cherished by otherwise well-informed people.
These misconceptions arise because of improper and inadequate reflection on the
nature and structure of language. For some people, language is so familiar an object that
it is not worthy of reflection and investigation. For others, reflection about language
would only mean the vaguely understood statements made in a grammar class which
they attended sometime in their schools or colleges. For the linguist, however, both
these views are unacceptable. He regards the study of language as essential and exciting.
He wants to study language to find out what it is like, what its parts or units or elements
or components are like, and bow they are combined together. He is interested in
discovering its structure. He speculates about language then he analyzes and describes
it.
