Human Language: Communication, Structure, and Acquisition

Human Language: Communication and Structure

Language is the ability to communicate with others through oral or written signs. It is a right of human beings used to deliver messages. It is a human phenomenon that serves to exchange ideas, emotions, and feelings.

Communication means establishing something in common with someone and sharing information of various kinds, including ideas and attitudes. All animals communicate with one another through various types of messages.

Speech Realization

Speech is the concrete realization of the tongue, at a specific time and situation for each member of that linguistic community.

Types of Signs

• Icons: A sign determined by its dynamic object by virtue of its inner nature.
• Indices: A sign determined by its dynamic object by virtue of the real relationship it has with that object.
• Symbols: Have no direct relation to their dynamic object.

Levels of Language

• Semantic: Deals with the meaning or content of speech.
• Phonological: Deals with the sounds of language.
• Morphosyntactic: Deals with the structure and form of the sentence.
• Pragmatic: Deals with the use of language and communicative intent.

Functions of Language

The primary functions of language include:

• Instrumental: To demand or request.
• Regulatory: To send or require actions.
• Interactional: To relate to others.
• Personal (Staff): To assert oneself or express tastes.
• Heuristic: To ask questions.
• Imaginative: To create or play.
• Informative: To explain or convey desired information.

Language Acquisition Mechanisms

Key factors involved in language acquisition:

1. Sufficient maturity of the nervous system / Optimal intelligence level.
2. Physiological maturity.
3. Perceptual maturity.
4. Adequate stimulation.
5. Processes of imitation.
6. Processes of interaction.

Points of Articulation

Points of articulation include: bilabial, labiodental, dental, alveolar, palatal, and velar.

Communication Processes and Non-Verbal Cues

Encoding: The process where the issuer translates intended ideas into signs that can be received by the receiver.

Decoding: The process where the receiver converts the code used by the issuer to interpret the symbols. This associates the symbols with the ideas the sender intended to communicate.

Non-Verbal Communication Studies

• Kinesics: Study of gestures and body language (face, gaze, hands) used to complement verbal language.
• Proxemics: Study of the personal space required to maintain good relations in various situations.

Feedback Definition

Feedback: The process of sharing observations, concerns, and suggestions, with the intention of gathering information, individually or collectively, to try to improve the functioning of an organization or any group of human beings.

Brain Structure Related to Language

Brain: Divided into 2 hemispheres, which have 3 fissures dividing them into 4 lobes:

• Sylvian fissure
• Fissure of Rolando
• External perpendicular fissure
• Lobes: frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal