Language Fundamentals: Concepts, Characteristics, Forms, Origins, and Cognition

Concept of Language

Language is a communication tool for a common civilization. For Saussure, language is "that men possess the ability to communicate with their peers" or "a system of signs, voluntarily used to express our most internal mental phenomena." According to Sapir, language is "a purely human, non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols." Language is not only human; animals also have language.

Characteristics of Human Language: Hockett

• Cultural Transmission: Language is learned, not innate.
• Vocal-Auditory Channel: Language is primarily transmitted via sound.
• Specialization: The sounds produced are specifically for communication.
• Discrete: Language is composed of distinct units (phonemes, words).
• Dualistic Structures: Language has two levels: meaningless sounds (phonemes) and meaningful units (morphemes/words).
• Reflexive: Language can be used to reflect on language itself.
• Falsehood: Language can be used to lie or deceive.
• Interchangeability: Sender and receiver can exchange roles.
• Feedback: The speaker can perceive their own message.
• Productivity: Ability to create and understand countless new messages.
• Semanticity: Specific signals are linked to specific meanings.
• Directional Transmission and Irradiated Reception: Signal travels from speaker to listener, audible in all directions.
• Fading Fast: Language signals are transient.
• Arbitrariness: The link between a word and its meaning is arbitrary.
• Displacement: Ability to refer to things not present in time or space.

Characteristics of Human Language: Sapir

• Socio-cultural Acquisition: Language is acquired within a social and cultural context.
• Oral-Verbal Vocal-Auditory Channel: Primary mode is spoken language.
• Bodies Not Exclusive: Language use involves organs also used for other functions (breathing, eating).
• Linkage: Connection between sound and meaning.
• Linearity: Sounds or letters follow sequentially.
• Thoughtful: Language is linked to thought processes.
• Intentional: Language use is deliberate.
• Interchangeability: Sender and receiver can exchange roles.
• Feedback: The speaker can perceive their own message.
• Productivity: Ability to create and understand new messages.
• Semantics: Language carries meaning.
• Transmission Spacetime (Context): Language is used within a specific time and space context.
• Conventional: Language relies on shared conventions within a community.

Types of Language

Language of Action

Includes sign language, physiotherapy (e.g., a baby's reaction to seeing its mother), or proxemics (use of space).

Alternative Code-Based Language

Can be light (e.g., traffic light), sound (e.g., bell), or writing.

Musical Language

Communication through musical sounds and structures.

Paralinguistic Language

Non-verbal elements of communication, such as tone, pitch, or rhythm.

Written Language

Can be figurative/pictorial (pictures), ideographic (symbols representing ideas, e.g., love = ❤️), or phonetic (syllabic or alphabetic).

Oral Language

Evolves faster than written language.

Characteristics of Oral Language

• Less attention to strict pronunciation or sentence construction.
• Spontaneity and speed.
• Pauses and repetitions.
• Paraphrase.
• Lower density of information.
• Speaker influenced by the listener's variety.
• Intonation and rhythm are significant.
• Uses nonverbal strategies (gestures, eye contact, etc.).
• Often considered richer in context.

Characteristics of Written Language

• Allows careful choice of structures for stylistic and emotional effects, with strong internal cohesion and thematic blocks.
• More homogeneous language variety.
• Often holds more prestige.

Origin of Language

There are numerous contributions concerning the origin of language:

• Humboldt: Language is innate.
• Darwin: Language originated from oral mimicry.
• Sturtevant: Language is a tool used to lie.
• Onomatopoeic Theory: Language originated from imitating sounds or cries.
• Jacques Monod: Language created man.
• Sapir: Language arose during human evolution (linked to structuralist anthropology).

Language and Thinking

There are many theories about whether language or thought comes first:

• Sapir: Cannot think without words.
• Chauchard: No intelligence without speech; cites the case of feral children.
• Balmes: The word is a reminder and bearer of memories.
• Palmes: The word is essential to thought, a complement needed to form new ideas.
• Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis: Linguistic determinism; language precedes thought.
• Piaget: Cognitive determinism; cognitive abilities develop before language.
• Vygotsky: Language and thinking are connected; language is externalized thought, and thought is inner speech.