LESSON 2 Nature and Characteristics of Language

PART I
The Foundation on the Study of Language
Lesson 2
Nature and Characteristics of Language
At the end of the lesson, you shall have:
• explained personal views on language vis-à-vis existing views and
definitions;
• traced the nature and characteristics of language; and,
• decoded the functions of language and use them to create a composition

L anguage is an essential attribute to humans. It is a gift to humanity. It sets us apart

from other creations. Everything we do involves language, from thinking to talking,
writing, solving problems, expressing ourselves, communicating, establishing, and
maintaining relations. Language is a significant ingredient. We manage to transfer
knowledge from one another and keep records of inventions and discoveries through
language. It is ubiquitous. A society without language is unthinkable. Thus,
understanding the nature and characteristics of language will enable us to use it more
effectively.

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

In its basic constitution, the nature of language is described as 1) learned, 2) related to

the culture of society, 3) species-specific, uniformed, and unique to humans, 4) system,
5) vocaL, 6) skill subject, 7) means for communication, 8) arbitrary.

Language as something learnt

In as much as human beings are programmed to acquire language easily, they learn a
language.

Maybe you do not have an idea of how you learned a language. However, when your
parents started communicating with you as an infant, using sounds and simple
utterances, you started learning and responding to the language they were using to
interact. This is how you learned your native language. When you started attending
school and your teacher was speaking a particular language as a medium of instruction,
you also managed to acquire the language, little by little. When you watch a TV show
where the language used by the characters seems unfamiliar at first, you continue
watching repeatedly and gradually get acquainted with the language they use. You learn
the language.

Language could be programmed and coded in our genes as human beings, but
mastering the language programming system is far beyond being able to produce it.
Every time we read is an opportunity to learn the language codes. We learn the language
when we watch our favorite show and read social media posts.

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 LESSON 2 Nature and Characteristics of Language

Language is something that is learned through exposure and practice. Although the
language is genetically programmed in our brain to distinguish the different sounds,
things, activities, and notions, language acquisition is produced through active learning
and repetitive interactions (Perry, 2020). Language learning, therefore, is behavioral,
imitative, and learned through effort.

As soon as we get acquainted with a particular language and become interested in its
system and structures, we can master its use. This means that human beings can learn
as many languages as they can when interested.

Language as related to the culture of society

Look at the people around you, do they communally think and behave as you do?

You might be wondering why you love having friends who share a common language
and interest with you. Different people from different social orientations speak
differently. When you share the same language, your minds meet, and you understand
each other using common code. Even hand gestures, facial expressions, and body
language would be meaningful and understandable when you have a similar orientation
with specific groups of people.

At birth, we are socialized into our various linguistic identities. Because of that social
configuration, we speak the same language as the people we belong to. Since people
of a particular community or group have one language, they usually understand each
other, share the same sentiments, and form a culture, a society of similar interests.

This is how language works. Language influences culture: people's values, practices,
and interests. Similarly, culture influences language. This is the reason why the longer
you watch Kdrama and get very familiar with their verbal and non-verbal cues, you tend
to get Koreanized, or when you watch Hollywood films, you become westernized, too.
This is the influence of language in shaping culture and society.

There is always a cyclical association among language, society, and culture that is
produced due to the interaction. Language is culturally defined. They are inseparable in
a way that culture affects language, and language affects the mental state of society.
When people communicate their values, beliefs, and customs, they use language as a
tool. The interaction patterns that they create constitute culture. Through language, the
common values and identity of a certain crowd are cultivated and formed since the same
language that people use in speaking has a significant role in shaping their collective
identity. Thus, language creates a vital foundation in the development of a society.

Language as species-specific, uniformed, and unique to humans

"Language is human." - Edward Sapir

Here is a man who has different pets at home. He has a couple of dogs, a few chickens,
and cats. He assigned all the pets a name. As time progressed, he realized that only
dogs respond to their names. The cats will react to the sound of /n/ while the chickens
respond only to the sound of /k/. Because of this observation, he changed the cats'
names with /n/ and the chickens with /k/. Every day he attempted to communicate with
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 LESSON 2 Nature and Characteristics of Language

all of his pets. Later, he found out that only his dogs responded positively to his words.
He realized that some animals only exist to survive and only respond to a stimulus,
which is food, and not to the language that humans use to communicate.

All animals communicate. Humans genetically inherit the ability to use and respond to
language. It is species-uniformed since only human beings can acquire language in the
right environment. However, language is an essential tool for human communication.
Hence, it is tough to think of a society without language. Although animals communicate
in various ways for some terrestrial purposes, such as the dancing of the bee, the singing
of the birds, especially during mating season, and the communication of the crabs and
spiders using signals (Nukherjee, 2015), the different ways of dogs barking none of
them yet utter a single word, unlike humans do. This is ascribed to how human brains
are preset.

According to Chomsky (1975), the human brain is different from that of animals.
Humans learn and produce language creatively. Language functions in the brain's left
hemisphere, seated on the cerebral cortex, differ from the rest of the animals. This is
what makes humans capable of producing language. Language is human species-
specific since only human beings are gifted with language.

Language is an attribute of humans. Humans converse with others using oral and
auditory symbols, which are essential characteristics and forms of human behavior.

Language as a system
Learning a language is similar to learning mathematics. It needs analysis. This is about
the fact that language is a system of systems. It is a system of sounds and symbols.
There are phonological and grammatical systems in all languages. A careful analysis of
these systems would lead you to proficiently use a particular language. Linguistic units
constitute language. These units are interdependent on one another. A language is a
unit of combined speech sounds that form into words, phrases, to sentences and
eventually become ideas and thoughts. There are two distinct systemic categories of
language: the sound system, structures, and meaning; and the system of symbols and
non-verbal signals. Noam Chomsky (1975) believed that language is a controlled noise.
The sounds form their system as numerous sounds function systematically. Similarly,
language is a set of organized and boundless sentences constructed out of a definite
set of elements. With a language system of syntactic structures, words are formed, and
meaning is created.

It is also evident that language works through symbols. Language is a system of

concretely represented spoken and written symbols in abstract figures. The words used
in the language are symbolic representations of ideas characterized through letters and
figures, which are carefully arranged to form a meaning. The combination of w.i.s.h, for
example, stands for an abstract idea of a desire. When the letters are rearranged, which
may result in s.h.i.w or h.i.s.w, these will not make sense. The idea that the word "wish"
represents has become a convention, something that is difficult to change.

Language is also a system of non-verbal signs purely based on arbitrary conventions.

Speakers or writers desire to communicate convey their message through non-verbal
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 LESSON 2 Nature and Characteristics of Language

signs such as gestures, facial expressions, body movements, and written

communication. The message receiver shares the common codes, interprets, and arrives
at the intended meaning.

Language as vocal
Although today, people usually communicate by texting or chatting, there is no
substitute for verbal communication, especially when communicating with familiar
people.

Language is oral. Speech is primary, and writing is secondary. Speech is the fundamental
expression of language. A language without speech is unimaginable. Language is spoken
first before written. This will be traced back to how language evolved from the sounds
produced in primitive days when men used to hoot or grunt to communicate. The vocal
sounds produced by the articulatory device of the human body primarily make up
language. Language has been passed on verbally and eventually in written form through
generations. Writing preserves language. When you were a child, you learned to speak
it first before you learned to write it. Most probably during our lifetime, we speak more
than we write. The sum of the considerable amount of speech produced is much more
significant than that of the written works.

Language as a skill subject

Learning a language is acquiring skills. The macro skills - listening and viewing, speaking,
reading, and writing - are categorized into receptive and expressive language skills.

Receptive skill is the ability to understand information represented in words and

sentences either through visual or auditory. In contrast, expressive language skill is the
facility to put sensible ideas into visual and acoustic symbols, such as writing and
speaking, with accurate grammatical representation. Receptive and expressive skills are
intertwined; receptive language skills are essential in developing expressive skills. The
skills are honed through extensive reading, studying the rules, listening for precision in
articulating sounds, and accuracy of intended meaning, practice, and repetition.

Language mastery is acquired by learning the skills through constant practice and
exposure. In a formal setting, language is part of the curriculum, and the ultimate goal
of usage in verbal and non-verbal communication. To maximize language skills
acquisition, a language teacher has to devise curricular tasks that will allow the students
to be exposed to the language and use it themselves.

The language skill acquired is a stepping stone to gaining linguistic and communicative
competence and performance.

Language as a means of communication

Communication is branded as a process of conveying and exchanging messages from
person to person using a medium, mostly done for society to function cohesively. It is a
basic human necessity. Language, similarly, is the greatest form of intelligent interaction
for the gifted individuals of the universe: humans. Communication and language have
been mutually linked since the beginning of time. Interaction has become progressively
possible now that people live in an organized global community.
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 LESSON 2 Nature and Characteristics of Language

As previously defined, language is a linguistic and speech communication purposively

designed to communicate intended messages, either spoken or written. It is a tool to
express feelings and ideas. It is a social phenomenon programmed with sets of
conventional communicative marks, allowing humans to communicate precisely.

Because language is specifically a human activity that facilitates the transport of

emotions and thoughts from one person to another, people can share and receive
information, interact, persuade, or affect others. As a whole, language serves as an
intermediary between the individual and the community.

Language as arbitrary
We are born with no name, but once christened, a name is assigned to us, which makes
up our identity. The same principle is applied when it comes to language. Language is
arbitrary in the sense that language meanings exist as they are. There is no plausible
explanation or inherent relation regarding how meanings are assigned to each letter,
symbol, or word. There is no scientific principle that underlies the naming of symbols.
It is a matter of convention. No purpose guides the availability of the words.

Socrates once discussed that a word assigned to an object was not based on pure
convention. It resulted from integral correctness, which related the features of the
object to the sounds used to label it. However, this idea was dismissed later by Lucretius
with the argument that anyone could be given any names and continuously use them.
Wilhelm von Humboldt, a prominent writer in the modern era, vied that there is an
acceptable basis in forming words that "language naturally selects for particular objects
speech sounds which partly and independently in comparison with others produce an
impression on the ear similar to that which the object makes the mind'. On the other
hand, Saussure, the father of modern linguistics, contended that the word's structural
configuration has no relation to its meaning. Saussure added that "language is a
convention, the nature, and sign that are agreed upon do not matter because they are
arbitrary, it follows no law but rather based on pure tradition."

Language, therefore, is a structure of conventional symbols. Each symbol embodies a

stretch of sounds with which a sense could be associated. If language was not randomly
created, there could only be one language in the entire world; fixed and unchanging.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGUAGE

Language is characterized according to its distinguishing qualities. These include

conventionality and non-instinctive, productivity and creativity, duality, displacement,
humanness, and universality.

Conventional and Non-instinctive

Try to observe the people in your neighborhood and note how they greet each other.
Like any other conventional practices naturally acquired, language is non- instinctive
and conventional. Language is brought about by evolution and strengthened with
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 LESSON 2 Nature and Characteristics of Language

convention. It is a silent pact that each generation transmits to the next. Like all human
institutions, language flourishes and perishes. It expands and transforms. It adapts to
the change in time. Every language is a convention in the community, a product of a
cooperative mind. People communicate spontaneously, and patterns of communication
are not planned.

Language is non-instinctive since none is born with the spontaneity to speak any
language. Language is not biologically automated but culturally determined. It is learned
through interaction and socialization. A word does not make sense unless the users
collectively understand it. The language systems, symbols, structures, and meanings
are always products of the peoples' thoughts produced in harmony.

Productivity and Creativity

"A rose by another name would smell as sweet." -William Shakespeare

Notice how Shakespeare associates the object "rose" with its distinguishing
characteristic "sweet" scent as if these two words are interchangeable, yet the
description of the smell of the object is a specific attribute of a rose. The images he
created are not only limited to the two words "rose and sweet" but to multifarious
metaphors, which generate other words.

However, no one sets a finite line as to the particular words that have to be associated
with rose and sweet. This means that every reader or listener can link the words to the
limits of his imagination without specific rules set.

Language is productive. It is creative. It keeps on sprouting that with one word emerges
another.

"For last year's words belong to last year's language. And the next year's words await
another voice." -T.S. Eliot

As the needs of the people change, language evolves as a means of adapting to the
demands of the people who use it. Old English has a distinct feature compared to
modern English, in the same way, that the language of the Millennials is different from
the language of the alpha generation. The structural features of human language can
be fixed to create new expressions, which are understood by both speakers and
listeners. Man uses concurrent linguistics to produce complete novel ideas and
expressions. This makes language productive and creative.

Duality
Study the sentences below;
The hunters shot the lion.
Lion the hunters shot the.

The sentence "The hunters shot the lion" conforms to the general philosophical theory
of signs and symbols concerning its semantic and pragmatic sense. It makes sense since
the sounds are arranged according to their fixed combinations, and the words are
arranged according to the prescribed grammatical structure.
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 LESSON 2 Nature and Characteristics of Language

The second sentence lion hunters shot the' does not conform to the established
language syntactical rules, thus, it doesn't make sense.

Human language comprises two sub-systems: the sound system and the meaning
system. Predetermined sound combinations create units of meaning. Different
combinations of sounds produce syntactic categories, units, and constituents that create
more sophisticated and meaningful utterances.

The duality of patterning is the double articulation and semiotic. Language duality gives
language expressive power since meaningless sounds are combined according to rules
to form meaningful words (Luden, 2016). Significantly in speech production, the
individual sounds of p.en do not have intrinsic meaning, but when combined as in "pen"
it now has a distinct meaning. The combination of sounds is based on fixed rules: no
word starts with zl, Ir, bz, or ng in the English language. This makes language dual.

Displacement
"No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were
poor but honest." -Bertrand Russell

Unlike animal communication, which is context-bound, human language is context-free.

Human beings can narrate events and situations without actually living them at the
moment. For human language, a stimulus is not directly induced. Objects may not
necessarily be tangibly present at the place and time of speaking. This is called
displacement.

Only humans are capable of recounting events that occurred before or the vision of what
happens next. Example: I visited my cousins place last week, or I am enrolling in
linguistics next semester. When a dog produces a sound, it generally is his reaction to
his present condition. A dog cannot tell its masters that it saw a thief previously, nor a
cat can tell its master that it went to the neighbors' house, events that happened in the
past.

The property of displacement explains why humans can recall stories that happened or
even create stories that may not be realistically possible, such as fiction.

Humanness
"To say that language is not innate is to say there is no difference between my
grandmother, a rock, and a rabbit. In other words, if you take a rock, a rabbit, and my
grandmother and put them where people are communicating in English, they will all
learn English". - (Chomsky, 2000)

Language is innate to human beings. No species other than humans are gifted with
language. Humans are endowed with physical attributes for them to acquire language.
Language has complex structures of sounds and meanings which animals could not
comprehend. A cow's moo today is similar to the moos centuries ago. Human language
is changeable and extendable.

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 LESSON 2 Nature and Characteristics of Language

Although animals can communicate with each other, it is limited to signs and sounds. A
bee could determine the distance and sources of honey by instinct, or a dog can bark
when it is excited or angry. Yet these messages are limited. Humans could clearly
distinguish concrete identifiable symbols through the use of language. However, animal
communication is often non-discrete.

Indeed, human language is way more intricate than animal communication.

"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." -Ludwig Wittgenstein

Universality
Although each language has a unique style of function in terms of sounds, vocabulary,
and structures, language is equal in all parts of the universe.

A linguistic universal is a systematic occurrence of linguistic patterns across national

languages. Linguists identified two universals: the absolute, where all elements apply to
every known language; and the implicational, where only particular features apply to
different languages. All languages have nouns, although the structural arrangement may
vary in the same way that all languages have vowels and consonants.

Reference:

Gonzales, J. & Enoc, J. (2021). Introduction to Linguistics. LORIMAR Publishing

Inc.

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