Topic- 001: Introduction

Linguistics is defined as the scientific study of language. Language is used to

express inner thoughts and emotions, make sense of complex and abstract thoughts,
learn to communicate with others, fulfill our wants and needs, and to establish
rules and maintain our culture. Language can be defined as verbal, physical,
biologically innate, and a basic form of communication. The question �What is
language?� is equal to �What is life?� It is difficult to define the word
�language� especially when it has many alternate words in other languages. In
French, two words are found for the word �language�: �langage� and �langue� whereas
in Italian the alternate words are �linguaggio� and �lingua�. Anyone who possesses
�a language� such as English, Arabic, Urdu, etc.., possesses �language�. One cannot
possess (or use) natural language without possessing (or using) some particular
natural language.
The term �natural language� is applied to a variety of other systems of
communication, notation or calculation, about which there is a room for dispute,
e.g., computer or mathematical language are different from human language, so, they
cannot count as natural languages. These notational systems are artificial, rather
than natural, irrespective of whether they are rightly called languages or not.
Thousands of recognizably distinct natural languages are spoken throughout the
world. The main question here is to find out whether all natural languages have
something in common not shared by other systems of communication i.e., animal
communication and artificial languages created by human beings.

Topic- 002: Language: A Purely Human and Non-instinctive Communication

Communication According to Sapir (1921, p.8), �language is a purely human and non-
instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of
voluntarily produced symbols.� This definition suffers from several defects.
However, broadly, when the terms �idea�, �emotion�, and �desire� are interpreted,
it seems clear that there is much that is communicated by language which is not
covered by any of them, and �idea� in particular is inherently vague and imprecise.
�Emotion� and �desire� are understandable but �idea� needs to be precisely defined.
There are many systems of voluntarily produced symbols, for example body language
in which symbols are voluntarily produced. �Purely human� denotes that only human
beings possess language and their communication system is very different from that
of animals. Animals also have communication systems, for example, bees� dance in
which bees communicate each other about the place of nectar. Birds also use certain
calls to attract each other�s attention or to convey where food can be found, etc.
The next aspect of this definition is �non-instinctive� which means non-inherited.
It means that language is not inherited by the parents to the child. If parents
take their child to another country, he will learn the language of that country
rather the language of parents. Another aspect of this definition is �voluntarily
produced�. Sapir excludes cries and groans from this definition because they also
involuntarily produced.

This definition discussed in this lesson encompasses language as:

� A means of human communication

� A system of voluntarily produced symbols

� A non-instinctive method of communication

Topic- 003: Language: A Symbol System

A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group

co-operates. Language is a system of symbols and rules that enable us to
communicate. The symbols used in a language can include speech sounds as well as
writing symbols while the rules include grammar (e.g., pronouns, tense, etc.),
parsing, and pragmatics. There is an arbitrary relationship between a linguistic
symbol and its referent. Language provides context for symbolic understanding.

Every language has its own way of encoding and expressing human experience, and an
entire way of thinking is lost each time a language becomes extinct. It is
important to differentiate between language and communication. Communication is a
process whereby there is an exchange of information between the sender and the
receiver. This information can be transmitted through scent, song, gesture, tone,
writing, painting, or language. Language is a symbolic form of communication.

Topic- 004: Behavioristic View of Language

Language is �the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each
other by means of habitually used oral�auditory arbitrary symbols�. Hall (1968,
p.158), in his �An Essay on Language�, introduced the terms institution, and
habitually used oral�auditory arbitrary symbols. The most noteworthy in Hall�s
definition, however, is his use of the term �habitually used� and there are
historical reasons for this. Linguistics and the psychology of language were
strongly influenced for about thirty years or so, especially in America, by the
stimulus�response theories of the behaviourists. Within the theoretical framework
of behaviourism, the term �habit� acquired a rather special sense which laid the
foundation of the term �habitually used.�

The term �habit� was used with reference to the bits of behaviour that could be
identified as predictable responses to particular stimuli. Hall presumably means by
language �symbols�, the vocal signals that are actually transmitted from the sender
to receiver in the process of communication and interaction. Now it is clear that
there is no sense of the term �habit�, technical or non-technical, in which the
utterances of a language are either themselves habits or constructed by means of
habits. If �symbol� is being used to refer, not to language-utterances, but to the
words or phrases, it would still be wrong to imply that a speaker uses such and
such a word, as a matter of habit, on such and such an occasion.

Topic- 005: Structural View of Language

According to Chomsky�s �Syntactic Structure� (1957), �a language is a set of

(finite or infinite) sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a
finite set of elements.� All natural languages, both spoken and written, are
languages in the sense of his definition. Each language has a finite number of
sounds and can create indefinitely many distinct sentences. It is the linguist�s
job to differentiate between sentence and non-sentence sequences. Chomsky believes
that structural properties are complex, abstract, and highly specific which must be
known to a child prior to his experience of any natural language. In this regard,
Chomsky is a rationalist rather than empiricist. So, according to Chomsky, language
is structure� dependent. The definition encompasses purely structural properties of
language and suggests that these properties can be investigated mathematically.

Topic- 006: Miscellaneous Definitions of Language

Language is the expression of ideas by means of which sounds are combined into
words, and words are combined into sentences (Sweet, 1895).
Language is a form of communication by means of which a system of symbols is
principally transmitted by vocal sounds (Hobbins, 1990).
Language is a human vocal noise (or graphic representation of this noise in
writing) used systematically and conventionally by a community for the purpose of
communication. (Crystal, 1989)
Languages are infinitely extendable and modifiable according to changing needs and
conditions of the speaker (Robins, 1979).
A language consists of symbols that convey meaning, plus rules for combining those
symbols, that can be used to generate an infinite variety of messages (Weiten,
2007).
Language is not an abstract construction of the learned, or of dictionary makers,
but is something arising out of the work, needs, ties, joys, affections, and tastes
of long generations of humanity, and has its bases broad and low, close to the
ground (Whitman).

The above-mentioned definitions encompass the following language properties:

� Arbitrariness

� Flexibility and modifiability

� Freedom from stimulus control

� Structure-dependence

Animal Communication and Language

Earth�s earliest organisms evolved primitive mechanisms of exchange capable of

informing of species, gender and intent. The medium used was chemo communication.
It was a complex method of communication. Continuous need over millions of years to
contact another of the same evolving species in order to procreate necessitated
ever more complex methods of communication.

Out of this evolutionary process, �language� in its broadest sense, was born. Each
type of language used in nature differs. The deeper one probes, the more one
discovers each species� communicative ability distinguished by ever more elaborate
definitions of the concept �language�. In its simplest definition, language
signifies �medium of information exchange�. This definition allows the concept of
language to encompass facial expressions, gestures, postures, whistles, hand signs,
writing, mathematical language, programming (or computer) language, and so forth.

The definition further recognizes many bioacoustic exchanges of information (the

sound emissions of life forms) that occur in frequencies beyond human hearing, for
example, an average 15- year-old human can hear only about ten octaves at the
loudness and closeness of normal conversation � that is, between 30-18,000 hertz
(cycles per second). Birds, frogs, toads, and dogs all vocalize within this range.

Bioacoustics

Bioacoustics has turned its attention to fish as well, since, particularly during
laying, many fish emit a representative �complex sound�, the first part of which
consists of a train of partially overlapping pulses, and the second part of which
is composed of rapidly repeated pulses that overlap, producing a constant waveform
similar to a �tone�.

Infrasound

However, most other creatures appear to communicate both below and above the range
humans consider normal. Infrasound comprises emissions below 30 Hertz, such as many
sounds made by finback whales, blue whales, elephants, crocodilians, ocean waves,
volcanoes, earthquakes, and severe weather.

Ultrasound

Ultrasound occurs above 18,000 Hertz, frequencies commonly used by insects (Earth�s
most prevalent inhabitants), bats, dolphins and shrews. However, there is far more
to language than vocal communication alone. In its most universal meaning, language
is the nexus of the animate world, its limits drawn only by humankind�s crayon.

History of language is considered history of human language. Though a history of

language at the beginning of the twenty-first century is still implicitly a history
of human language, it carries the suggestion that it might evolve to encompass many
previously unknown forms of language.

The vocal communication of many amphibians, especially frogs, has in the past few
years been intensively researched; though, one still looks in vain for any
reference to a frog language. Vocal communication in its most primitive form, for
example, is strikingly demonstrated by the humming midshipman fish of the Western
coastline of the USA. The noise � a loud, resonant drone very much like that
produced by an Australian didgeridoo � originates from a pair of muscles attached
to the swim bladder that contract and vibrate against the stomach wall, and will
continue moving for up to an hour. Once a female arrives, the humming promptly
ceases. Several orders of insects also possess sound-producing organs evidently
used for communication.

Communication through Pheromones

Many of these use ultrasound, whose very existence was unknown to science until the
latter half of the twentieth century. During courtship, both male and female moths,
for example, communicate through pheromones (secretions exuded through specialized
glands); the entire sequence of moth courtship behaviour involves ultrasound
production as well. This very recent discovery has necessitated a reconsideration
of moth courtship behaviour, with greater emphasis now laid on the interaction
between the several modes of communicative expression.

Language of Ants

However, when one hears of animal communication or language one commonly thinks of
the languages of ants, honey-bees, birds, horses, elephants, cetaceans and great
apes. Each ant can transmit at least 50 different messages using body language and
pheromones. Ants� mandibular glands secrete alarm odours; the hind gut terminates
in a rectal gland that exudes scent for trail-marking; exudings from the sternal
gland are used to call nearby workers, and so forth. These highly specific chemical
messages, combined with body language, seemingly offer an economical package
containing the necessary information an individual ant must exchange with its
fellow ants for the colony�s survival.

In the first half of the twentieth century, the Austrian Zoologist, Karl von
Frisch, revealed that honey-bees use dance to communicate, thereby stunning the
world by demonstrating that even insignificant insects were capable of exchanging
complex information about things remote in space and time. By means of a �waggle
dance�, the honey-bee forager informs followers of the type (through proffered
samples), quality (quantity of 180 degree turns of dance) and location (tracing a
figure-eight design for distance and direction) of food she has found beyond the
nest.

Keen birdwatchers have long thrilled to the March wren�s vast repertoire of songs.
And since antiquity it has been appreciated that some birds in the wild learn their
songs in different contexts, a fact that suggests birds attach different meanings
to their vocalizations. Recent field research has apparently confirmed this. Birds
display great individual differences in vocal abilities and inclinations, even
among the most loquacious species. Some birds say nothing; others, it seems, never
stop chattering. Larger parrots are perhaps the animal kingdom�s most phenomenal
linguists, especially African Greys and Amazons (yellow napes, double yellow heads,
red-loreds and blue fronts). Scarlet and blue-and-red macaws can vocalize well,
too; but they are commonly hoarse and loud. Cockatoos, fine talkers, possess
mellifluous voices; however, like the macaws, they are difficult to teach.

Is There Truly a Non-human Language?

Is there truly a non-human language? Or are we merely bestowing language on non-

humans, perhaps reading language into what is really non-language? As the Austrian-
born philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote: �If a lion could talk, we would not
understand him.� Great ape communication in the wild differs significantly from
human-ape communication in the laboratory: the former comprises a rich combination
of body language and vocalizations, whereas the latter is an artificial human
environment prompting apes to respond using human symbols or words. However, a
wealth of controlled tests has demonstrated, perhaps beyond any critical doubt,
that, though the medium is unnatural and trained, the result of these human�animal
experiments is spontaneous and creative communication � that is, the vocal or
signed exchange of significant information. Using pre-existent neural pathways,
animals are indeed speaking to us, and with us, in a meaningful way.

Talking Apes

Neural Pathway of Our Great Ape Antecedents

Our great ape antecedents evidently possessed precisely those neural pathways
necessary for various modes of communicative expression to convey information
adequately. However, the great apes� lips and tongue lacked coordinated control;
they were also incapable of controlled exhalation. Even if these great apes had
physically been able to speak, their �speech� would probably have been nothing
similar to how we understand this word today.

Modern Human Brain

The modern human brain is two to three times greater in volume than that of any
living great ape; it imparts an enhanced ability to use and further elaborate
spoken language and to reason with it. A history of human language is also a
history of the human brain and its cognitive abilities; the two go hand in hand.

The modern human brain is two to three times greater in volume than that of any
living great ape; it imparts an enhanced ability to use and further elaborate
spoken language and to reason with it. A history of human language is also a
history of the human brain and its cognitive abilities; the two go hand in hand.

History of Human Language � Human Brain

Seven to five million years ago in Africa, probably as a result of differing diets,
hominids split from other primitive ape species. Two major genera of hominids have
differentiated the genus Australopithecus and the genus Homo. According to some
experts, because of a high-calorie diet, brain capacity increased in comparison to
body weight. However, an Australopithecus africanus of three million years ago, for
example, would have demonstrated a linguistic ability in no way different from a
modern gorilla�s, chimpanzee�s or bonobo�s. They could communicate through gestures
and vocalization. As they had mastered bipedalism, Australopithecines were walking
great apes, but most experts agree that they were not talking great apes. Then come
Homo habilis (2.4 million years ago); they could also make gestures and had
vocalization. Homo erectus (2.5 million years ago) could make short utterance and
conditional prepositions (1 million years ago). From erectus came two main
divergences: Homo neaderthalensis, (300,000 to 30,000 years ago) and Homo sapiens
(300,000 years ago). Most experts agree that Neanderthals used a rudimentary
language close to our own; nothing else can explain their complex tool manufacture
and high level of society. They had complex thought as they could make complex
sentences. Theirs was speech based societies, however, they were unable to
pronounce [i], [a], [u]. Homo sapiens were the only hominid species that survived
evolution. They emerged as the predecessor of the modern humans. They had complex
thoughts due to complex sentences. They had speech based societies. They had learnt
to harvest and their main crops were wheat, oats and barley.

Written Languages

�A scribe whose hand matches the mouth, he is indeed a scribe�, wrote an anonymous
Sumerian on clay some 4,000 years ago and in so doing captured the very essence of
writing. Writing did not gradually �evolve� from mute pictures. It began
immediately as the graphic expression of actual human speech and has remained so.

Even the earliest Egyptian hieroglyph (a system of writing that uses pictures
instead of words, especially as used in ancient Egypt) from around 3400 BC that
immortalized a jackal, would have immediately evoked in its reader�s mind the
Egyptian word for �jackal�. No single person �invented� writing. Writing first
emerged, in a broad swath from Egypt to the Indus Valley, apparently as a result of
improving an ancient system of tallies and labels. A tradesman or official improved
a tally or label by pictorially depicting the commodity that was being counted,
measured or weighed in order to lessen ambiguity.

Three General Classes of Script

The most basic model of written language acknowledges three general classes of
scripts, with many transitional variants and combinations (mixed scripts):

A Logographic Script

A logographic script permits a glyph (an elemental symbol within an agreed set of
symbols, intended to represent a readable character for the purposes of writing) to
represent a single morpheme (the smallest meaningful linguistic unit, such as the
three morphemes in English mean + ing +ful) or an entire word (�jackal� as in the
early Egyptian hieroglyphic script).

A Syllabic Script

A syllabic script comprises glyphs that have only syllabo-phonetic value (for
example, ko-no-so for �Knossos� as in the scripts of the Bronze Age).

An Alphabetic Script

An alphabetic script allows glyphs called �letters� to stand for individual vowels
and consonants (a, b, c as in the English alphabet).

Syllabic Systems

Over time, most historical scripts reflect a shift in emphasis of class, whereby
the earlier semantic or sense content is gradually superseded by the phonetic or
sound content: in this way, logographic systems have tended to become syllabic
systems.

Uniqueness of Alphabetic System

In contrast, the alphabetic system has remained unique: once it was developed �
beginning in the Levant and completed in Greece � alphabetic writing was
subsequently adopted by hundreds of languages. Today, the alphabetic writing system
is the only one used to write previously scriptless languages.

Emergence of the Idea of Writing

It is possible that the idea of writing emerged only once in human history, to be
imitated thereafter by many societies. Until quite recently, it was believed by
most scholars that this emergence occurred solely in Southern Mesopotamia (today�s
South-Eastern Iraq).

Writing as a Magical Process

In some cultures written language acquired veneration, as with the Hebrews of

Canaan, ancient Germans and Easter Islanders. In such cases the graphic art of
writing and not necessarily its transmitted message, was felt to be something apart
from everyday existence, a transcendental communication to be practised only by
special scribes or priests. Throughout history, the very act of writing has often
been deemed a magical process.

Three Writing Systems

The three classes of writing � logographic, syllabic and alphabetic (and their
transitional and mixed usages) � are each maximized by a particular language,
society and era. Writing systems experience fine-tuning as languages themselves
change over time or a neighbouring language�s writing system is borrowed and
radically altered to fit a different language.

Not Quality Grades

The three classes are not quality grades, nor are they stages in a model of writing
evolution; they are simply different forms of writing which are sometimes used to
accommodate new and different needs as they arise. The most common goal is the best
graphic reproduction of the writer�s spoken language.

Changes in Writing Systems

Over centuries and millennia, constant small changes to a writing system will
result in enormous differences in a script�s written appearance and use. Even after
more than 2,000 years, today�s Latin alphabet, which has descended from the
earliest Egyptian hieroglyphs, is still experiencing, in many different languages
simultaneously, the addition of new system-external signs � or, because of new
technologies, the semantic expansion of old signs � that each educated reader must
learn, such as %, �, �, � and, most recently, the Internet signage @ and //.

Afro-Asiatic Writing

The peoples of Afro-Asia are perhaps the only ones in history to have elaborated
writing without external inspiration. Everywhere else in the world, writing served
the prerogatives of priests and propagandists, implying a cultural loan to obtain
prestige and power.

Asiatic Writing
Perhaps inspired by Western scripts, Chinese writing began in the second millennium
BC with simple standardized depictions of objects on bones, bamboo sticks, wooden
tablets and very rarely silk, whose names were to be spoken aloud. As a rule, one
wrote from top to bottom in columns running from right to left. In time, depictions
became more stylized. This allowed faster, more efficient writing. Also, the
picture-related writing could be used over a larger area by more speakers, of the
same language and of different languages, too.

Mesoamerican Writing

Only a small handful of Native American peoples ever used writing and this was
solely in Mesoamerica. Its origin is unknown. Some scholars have claimed an
indigenous origin, with the writing as perhaps a �natural reflex� of the region�s
attainment to a high level of civilization.

First Families

Complexity of Human Language

The true history of languages is far more complex than anyone has hitherto
imagined. One should be looking through the small end, not the large end, of the
funnel to find the world�s first families of languages. Yet even then, first is
merely a metaphor.

Language Families

Language families are groups of languages that are genetically related, that is,
sharing a common ancestor. They display systematic correspondences in form and
meaning not attributable to chance or borrowing.

There are three reasons for linguistic similarity: genealogical sharing, areal
diffusion and chance typological commonality. It is genealogical sharing alone that
justifies family trees. The number and quality of related features will vary
according to the amount of time that has passed since divergence from the common
ancestor.

The discipline of historical linguistics has provided certain techniques for

�reconstructing� languages (rather than simply inferring the history of languages).
The application of these techniques has allowed the distinction of borrowed
elements from inherited elements, the evidence of the age of linguistic features,
and the identification of shared features from an ancient common source. This
process eventually allows a �classification� of a language or entire language
family based on similarities and dissimilarities in words and grammatical elements.
There are two kinds of linguistic classification: typological and genetic (or
genealogical). A typological classification associates languages on the basis of
distinctive features that can be categorized into defined types of linguistic
phenomena.

Isolating

Isolating languages are those that tend to have, per word, only one morpheme � a
language�s smallest meaningful unit, like �the� or �book�. Some languages might be
isolating, like Mandarin Chinese, which is a root language.

Fusional

However, a language might be fusional instead, where many morphemes can be found in
one word but the boundaries between them are unclear. This is so in Latin, which
uses various word endings: corpus, which is �body� in Latin, can also appear as
corporis, corpori, and corpore depending on the word�s use in a sentence. This is
called �inflection� and fusional languages are also known as inflectional
languages.

Agglutinative

A third type of language is agglutinative, in which a word may possibly contain

many individual morphemes that can be either free (that is, stand on their own,
like English �drive�) or bound (they can never stand alone, like the �-r� in
�driver�). Turkish is an agglutinative language in which, as in all agglutinative
languages, word bases and word additions are kept distinct from one another so that
all boundaries between morphemes are easily identifiable. Unfortunately,
typological classifications such as these cannot provide direct historical
information. With typological classification it is the relational, not the
substantial similarity between languages that is significant.

Genetic Classification

A genetic classification attempts to connect languages by virtue of their origins

and relationships. Related languages are compared with regard to the
interrelationships of subgroups and languages within a family, like French and
Italian within the Romance language family or Germanic and Romance within the
higher level Indo-European family of languages. In this way, genetic
classification, particularly when based on grammatical forms and paradigms and not
vocabulary, is able to provide direct historical information. For this reason, it
is the most productive approach to understanding the more recent history of human
language.

No Daughter Language

Some languages, because of unique geographical or technological circumstances,

never generate daughter languages, but their speakers increase in population so
that a language family comprises a single language, yielding a �family language.�
Geography has allowed Egyptian language to become an example of this and its
daughters are merely diachronic (temporal).

Main Language Families

� Afro-Asiatic

� Austronesian

� Indo-European

� Niger-Congo

� Sino-Tibetan

� Trans-New Guinea

Human societies have donned new languages like new cloaks. The linguistic
metamorphosis always went unnoticed �until there was writing.

Towards a Science of Language

�Linguistic science is a step in the self-realization of man�, wrote the eminent

American linguist Leonard Bloomfield at the beginning of the twentieth century. The
step traverses millennia. Long before written language, ancients divined human
speech as a special gift of a god, a belief still held by many unrelated cultures.
Seriously organized study of language began in India and Greece in the first
millennium BC and has continued, in an unbroken and mutually enriching tradition,
up to the present day. Latin translations of Greek grammatical terms � noun,
pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective, article, transitive, intransitive, inflection,
declension, tense, case, gender, subject, object and many more � are still used to
describe language in most Western cultures.

Ancient Indian Linguistics

In ancient India, Sanskrit scholars excelled in phonetic (sound) and phonological

(system of significant sounds) theory and in aspects of grammatical analysis. At
the time, their work was much more scientific � that is, it exhibited the methods
and principles of systematized knowledge � than anything of the kind in Europe. But
little is known of the origin and early development of ancient Indian linguistics.

Greek Linguistics

In contrast, there is a continuity of development from ancient Greek beginnings to

the present day. Greek linguistics passed to Rome. Rome�s late Latin grammarians,
who studied Latin�s classes of words, their inflections and their functions and
relations in the sentence, inspired medieval scholars, whose work was reinterpreted
by Renaissance grammarians. These then provided the initial foundation for the
modern science of language that finally emerged in the nineteenth century.

Consistent Flow in European Linguistics

There is a consistent flow in European linguistics since the earliest Greek

speculations on the subject; each generation has enjoyed knowledge of and has
profited from, the work of insightful antecedents. For this reason, the history of
European linguistics can embody a history of linguistics in general.

World�s Earliest Known Linguistic Studies

The world�s earliest known linguistic studies were produced in India between around
800 and 150 BC in an attempt to preserve the oral literature of India�s much
earlier Vedic period. As in the West, Indian scholars have maintained linguistic
continuity up to the present day. Indian phonetics and various grammatical topics,
including profound treatises on phonology and semantics, up to the eighteenth
century surpassed anything the West had achieved. Indian linguists predicated their
studies on the observed phenomenon of language change over time. Unlike ancient
Greek linguistics, Indian tradition appeared already fully matured, the exquisite
culmination of a protracted, but unrecorded, theoretical development.

The First Great Work of Indian Linguistics

The first great work of Indian linguistics was Pa?ini�s A??adhyayi or �Eight Books�
of Sanskrit grammar, the earliest scientific work on any subject in any Indo-
European language, written or orally transmitted sometime between 600 and 300 BC.
Measured against literary investigation and philosophical speculation, India�s
early linguists arrived at the cogent insight that language�s relation to form and
meaning owes more to arbitrary convention (passing along society�s custom) than
natural mimesis (copying nature�s sounds). Their semantic study already viewed word
meanings as observational creations, as well as inheritances. India�s first
linguists took the remarkably modern view that entire sentences could comprise
autonomous linguistic units. (Western linguists, long concentrating on the �word�
as language�s elementary particle, first achieved this insight in the twentieth
century.)
The age-old question of language�s form versus substance � that is, actual
utterance as opposed to the inherent system of features, categories and rules � had
already been anticipated by India�s earliest Sanskrit scholars, who developed the
theory of the dhvani-sphot relationship. Utterance was the dhvani; permanent
linguistic substance, unuttered, was the sphot. The dhvani thus drew from the sphot
�as one draws water from a well�.

Phonetic Description

In phonetics, already by 150 BC, India�s linguists had ordered phonetic description
into phonological structures, with precise processes of articulation (the act or
manner of giving utterance), consonant and vowel segments and segmentational
synthesis. From this, it is evident that ancient Indian scholars intuited fully the
principles of phonemics Western scholars were able to describe it adequately only
in the twentieth century.

Best Known for their Grammatical Analysis

India�s linguists are perhaps best known for their grammatical analysis of
Sanskrit, especially Pa?ini�s A??adhyayi , though the work fails to fully
comprehend what one today understands under �grammar�. Word formation rules,
applied in a strict set in �aphoristic threads� or sutras, take precedence; in
contrast, Sanskrit�s phonetic and grammatical description is almost wholly assumed.
Pa?ini�s grammar not only founded Indian linguistics but also, some 2,300 years
later, contributed to the creation of those European comparative and historical
language studies which co-authored the modern science of linguistics.

The Romans

During the third and second centuries BC, Greece gradually yielded to Rome�s
supremacy. Ironically, with Rome�s complete takeover of the Hellenistic world by
the first century AD, the Greek language did not bow to Latin, but Latin
capitulated to Greek. Greek literature comprised educated Rome�s model and Greek
language was the language of culture itself, just as Latin was to become for the
European Middle Ages a millennium later.

As in other intellectual and artistic domains, Roman linguistics was the extension
of Greek linguistics. There was no clear separation of thought between Greek and
Latin language theories, but a continuation of the same dynamic parameters, a
process fostered in part by the relative similarity of the two Indo-European
languages.

Varro (116�27 BC)

The prolific polymath Varro (116�27 BC) is the first critical Latin author to treat
linguistics whose writings have survived. He discusses lengthily the anomaly-
analogy controversy in linguistics, but also provides original insights, not mere
imitation of Greek mentors, into the nature and earlier stages of the Latin
language. Varro�s work, divided into etymology, morphology, and syntax. He
distinguished between derived and inflectional formation of words, finding the
latter a natural variation but the former an unnatural and more restricted one.

His morphological classification of Latin words was also highly original. Unlike
the Greeks, Varro did not simply recognize case and tense as Latin�s and Greek�s
main categories and establish the four classes � according to the way they inflect
� of nouns (case inflection), verbs (tense inflection), participles (case and
tense), and adverbs (neither case nor tense): he characterised the specific
functions of each. Nouns named things. Verbs made statements. Participles joined
elements (they shared the former two�s syntax) and adverbs supported all these.

The Arab World

The Arab world developed its own unique approach to language and so, avoided Latin
grammarians� wholesale adoption of Greek prototypes. The non-Arab Persian Sibawayh
of Basra, writing in the eighth century AD, consolidated all Arabic language
instruction in his grammatical treatise Al Kitab (The Book). Striking out from a
firm foundation of preceding linguistic studies, Sibawayh defined classical Arabic
as it is known today.

China

Though the first Chinese language dictionary was compiled as early as 1100�900 BC,
yet Chinese preoccupation with language analysis centred on the most faithful
reproduction of the spoken word through syllabo-phonetic glyphs. The influence of
Sanskrit linguists is evident in the precise ordering of the rhyme tables� initial
syllables according to articulation and other characteristics. Linguistic
investigation during the Latin Middle Ages is characterized principally by its
orientation: Church-based, it remained pedagogical. Because spoken and written
Latin had survived Rome�s collapse as the language of education in all Western
countries regardless of local tongue, language study meant the study of Classical
Latin grammar, particularly in the early middle Ages.

�Seven Liberal Arts�

Of the �Seven Liberal Arts� that comprised the education, no fewer than three �
grammar, dialectic (logic) and rhetoric � directly involved the study of the Latin
language. All Seven Liberal Arts were of course subordinate to theology.

Up to the Nineteenth Century

Classical writers collected data and described Greek and Latin. After the Middle
Ages, European scholars studied non-European languages and read the works of non-
European linguists and no longer allowed Greek and Latin to dominate linguistic
study. Language itself became the object of investigation.

The Nineteenth Century

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, a true science of linguistics began to

emerge. The nineteenth century is the era of comparative and historical linguistics
� that is, seeking languages� similarities and differences and their historical
relationships to one another and developing the scientific vocabulary and tools to
achieve this.

Future Indicatives

What will Earth�s Languages be like in Future?

One cannot reliably predict a linguistic future, since so many non-linguistic

factors are constantly reshaping a society�s language: economic turns, civil
insurrections, mass migrations, sudden rise of prestige nations, new technologies,
social fads, and many other phenomena.

Possible Linguistic Scenarios

However, reference to past linguistic changes and recognition of present linguistic

trends can provide possible linguistic scenarios, at least for the near future. One
might also wish to consider the activities of � mainly English-speaking �
governmental and corporate strategists who are earnestly expanding their bailiwicks
at present, increasing the likelihood of their (English) language prevailing over
those languages of non-strategists in the coming decades.

Unprecedented Transformation

Merely drawing analogies to past linguistic changes and dynamics no longer holds
unqualified validity. All traditional relations of political, cultural and economic
power between Western nations and the rest of the world are in the process of
unprecedented transformation. This now appears to be a permanent global feature,
which will perhaps create a new world order whose nature and quality are still
largely unknown. Not simply change and loss (replacement), as in the past, is
currently describing linguistic history, but also expansion of the domain of
language to a degree hitherto unprecedented in human society. This is currently
reinventing what one means with the word �language� itself.

Linguistic Atlas Becoming All but Meaningless

New technologies such as programming (computer) languages are elaborating

innovative extensions of human speech, allowing a new medium of language to
artificially communicate with itself. Language throughout history has meant
geographical territory � land. Now, the linguistic atlas has become all but
meaningless. Language primarily means technology and wealth, a new borderless world
with the only directions up and down, separating the haves from the have-nots.
Proficiency in the planet�s single �corporate language� � perhaps ultimately
English � will soon define each person�s place on Earth . . . and beyond.

Programming Languages

Computers expedite the manipulation of the descriptions of values, properties, and

methods in order to provide solutions to particular problems. The result of a
programming process is a program for text processing, operating systems, databases,
and other computer activities. A programming language can also be used for
linguistic research, compiler research, teaching, and other things.

It is a language, which is a �medium of information exchange�, but it is wholly

different from all previous forms of language known to humankind, except perhaps
written language with its many types and forms of scripts reproducing natural
language.

Internet, E-mail and Newsgroups

One of the Internet�s most widely used resources is language teaching and learning.
This usage promotes and preserves in hitherto unprecedented fashion not only living
languages but extinct tongues as well, the most popular being Classical Latin. The
Internet cannot replace face-to-face linguistic interaction. However, researchers
believe e-mail communication resembles oral communication that makes use of a
casual linguistic style which includes colloquialisms and elliptical speech � that
is, great economy of expression.

Language Disappearing

Soon all of Earth�s languages but a small vestigial number will disappear, leaving
one language for all humankind (with its sign language counterpart). With this loss
the new global society will simultaneously attain to a degree of communication
hitherto unimaginable, with related benefits for all aspects of human activity. For
language � in all its myriad forms: chemo communication, �dance�, infrasound,
ultrasound, gesture, oral speech, writing, computer language � is the very nexus of
Nature and of Nature�s communicating creations.
The Divine Source

Throughout the whole human history, one or the other religious sources have claimed
to different origin of language. The Biblical tradition states: �God created Adam
and whatsoever Adam called every living creature that was the name thereof.�(The
book of Genesis); similarly in Hindu tradition, it is stated �language came from
Sarasvati, wife of Brahma, creator of the universe.� Most religions, appears to
have a divine source who provides humans with language. At different times,
different religious people have made a few experiments with rather conflicting
results. The basic hypothesis: if human infants were allowed to grow up without
hearing any language around them, then they would spontaneously begin using the
original God-given language. Egyptian pharaoh�s experiment revealed that the two
children sent to wilderness uttered the Phrygian word bekos, so, the Egyptian
pharaoh believed that the divine language was Phrygian. King James, the Fourth of
Scotland�s experiment (1500) showed that the isolated children started speaking
Hebrew. So, Hebrew was thought to be the divine language.

However, very young children living without access to human language in their early
years grow up with no language at all. If human language did emanate from a divine
source, we have no way of reconstructing that original language especially given
the events in a place called Babel, �because the Lord did there confound the
language of all the Earth�, as described in the book of Genesis in the Bible (11:
9).

The Natural Sound Source

The natural sound source concept maintains that primitive words could have been
imitations of the natural sounds which early men and women heard around them. CAW-
CAW sound and COO-COO sound were the natural sounds adopted to refer to that kind
of objects by the people.

Another theory called �Bow-wow theory� claims that languages have some words with
pronunciations that seem to echo naturally occurring sounds. The sounds of cuckoo,
or other sounds such as splash, bang, boom, rattle, buzz, hiss, screech, bow-wow,
etc. form the basis of this theory. This is an instance of onomatopoeia. However,
this theory does not answer some very obvious questions.

What about the soundless things as well as abstract concepts? We do not believe
that language is only a set of words used as �names� for things. What about the
original sounds of language from natural cries of emotion such as pain, anger and
joy? Ouch! Ah! Ooh! Wow! or Yuck. Human sounds are made on egressive pulmonic
mechanism, while taking the breath out. In ingressive mechanism, expressive noises
made in emotional reactions contain sounds that are otherwise not used in speech.

The Social Interaction Source

�Yo-he-ho� theory claims that sounds of a person involved in physical effort could
be the source of our language, especially when that physical effort involved
several people and the interaction had to be coordinated. A group of early humans
might develop a set of hums, grunts, groans, and curses that were used when they
were lifting and carrying large bits of trees or lifeless hairy mammoths.

According to the theory, the development of human language took place in a social
context. Early people lived in groups, for better protection from attacks. Groups
maintained some form of communication, even if it were just grunts and curses.
Human sounds must have had some principled use within the life and social
interaction of early human groups. No answer to the question regarding the origins
of the sounds produced is given. Apes and other primates live in social groups and
use grunts and social calls, but they do not seem to have developed the capacity
for speech.

The Physical Adaptation Source

According to the physical adaptation source, human physical features are distinct
from other creatures. Instead of looking at the types of sounds as the source of
human speech, we can look at the types of physical features humans possess,
especially those that are distinct from other creatures, which may have been able
to support speech production. , At some early stage, our ancestors made a very
significant transition to an upright posture, with bipedal locomotion, and a
revised role for the front limbs. Some effects of this type of change can be seen
in physical differences between the skull of a gorilla and that of a Neanderthal
man from around 60,000 years ago. The reconstructed vocal tract of a Neanderthal
suggests that some consonant-like sound distinctions would have been possible. We
have to wait until about 35,000 years ago for features in reconstructions of
fossilized skeletal structures that begin to resemble those of modern humans.

In the study of evolutionary development, there are certain physical features, best
thought of as partial adaptations, which appear to be relevant for speech. They are
streamlined versions of features found in other primates. By themselves, such
features would not necessarily lead to speech production, but they are good clues
that a creature possessing such features probably has the capacity for speech.

In the study of evolutionary development, certain physical features, best thought

of as partial adaptations relevant for speech. Such features are good clues that a
creature possessing such features probably has the capacity for speech. Human
teeth, lips, mouth, larynx and pharynx are all supportive for producing sounds that
humans make. The overall effect of these small differences capable of a wider range
of shapes and a more rapid and powerful delivery of sounds produced through these
different shapes. However, there is a disadvantage for humans of having a risk of
choking to death.

The Tool-Making Source

One function of producing speech sounds in the physical adaptation view must have
been placed over on existing anatomical features (teeth, lips previously used for
other purposes (chewing, sucking). It is believed that manual gestures may have
been a precursor of language. Two million years ago humans developed right-
handedness and became capable of making stone tools. Wooden tools followed. Tool-
making, or the outcome of manipulating objects, and changing them using both hands,
is evidence of a brain at work.

The human brain is not only large as compared with human body size, it is also
lateralized, that is, it has specialized functions in each of the two hemispheres.
There is an evolutionary connection between the language-using and tool-using
abilities of humans and both were involved in the development of the speaking
brain.

All languages require the organizing and combining of sounds or signs in specific
arrangements. Humans seem to have developed a part of their brain that specializes
in making these arrangements. If they think in terms of the most basic process
involved in primitive tool-making, it is not enough to be able to grasp one rock
(make one sound); the humans must also be able to bring another rock (other sounds)
into proper contact with the first in order to develop a tool. In terms of language
structure, the humans may have first developed a naming ability by producing a
specific and consistent noise (e.g., bEEr) for a specific object. The crucial
additional step was to bring another specific noise (e.g., gOOd) into combination
with the first to build a complex message (bEEr gOOd). Several thousand years of
development later, humans have honed this message-building capacity to a point
where, on Saturdays, watching a football game, they can drink a sustaining beverage
and proclaim �This tree is good�. As far as we know, other primates are not doing
this.

The Genetic Source

We know that the human baby in its first few years undergoes some of the physical
changes. At birth, the baby�s brain is only a quarter of its eventual weight and
the larynx is much higher in the throat, allowing babies, like chimpanzees, to
breathe and drink at the same time. However, in a quite short period of time, the
larynx descends, the brain develops, the child assumes an upright posture and
starts walking and talking. 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. Is it possible that this language capacity is genetically hard-wired in
the newborn human? 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. This would not have been a gradual change, but
something that happened rather quickly. We are not sure when this proposed genetic
change might have taken place or how it might relate to the physical adaptations
described earlier. However, as we consider this hypothesis, we find our
speculations about the origins of language moving away from fossil evidence or the
physical source of basic human sounds toward analogies with how computers work
(e.g., being pre-programmed or hard-wired) and concepts taken from the study of
genetics. The investigation of the origins of language then turns into a search for
the special �language gene� that only humans possess. If we are indeed the only
creatures with this special capacity for language, then will it be completely
impossible for any other creature to produce or understand language?

WEEK - 02

Characteristics of Human Language

All of us have heard a lot of stories about creatures that can talk. Creatures
capable of communicating, certainly with other members of their own species are
quite understandable. However, is it possible that a creature could learn to
communicate with humans using language? Or does human language have properties that
make it so unique that it is quite unlike any other communication system and hence
unlearnable by any other creature?

We should first distinguish between specifically communicative signals and those

which may be unintentionally informative signals. Someone listening to you may
become informed about you through a number of signals that you have not
intentionally sent. He may note that you have a cold (you sneezed), that you are
not at ease (you shifted around in your seat), that you are disorganized (non-
matching socks) and that you are from somewhere else (you have a strange accent).
However, when you use language to tell this person, �I am one of the applicants for
the vacant position of senior brain surgeon at the hospital�, you are normally
considered to be intentionally communicating something. Similarly, the blackbird is
not normally taken to be communicating anything by having black feathers, sitting
on a branch and looking down at the ground, but is considered to be sending a
communicative signal with the loud squawking produced when a cat appears on the
scene. So, when we talk about distinctions between human language and animal
communication, we are considering both in terms of their potential as a means of
intentional communication.

Properties of Human Language

Communication as the primary function of human language is not a distinguishing

feature. All creatures communicate in some way. The property of reflexivity (or
�reflexiveness�) has five other properties: displacement, arbitrariness,
productivity, cultural transmission, and duality.

Displacement

Animal message is produced according to immediate time and place. Animal

communication seems to be designed exclusively for this moment, here and now not
far removed in time and place. Humans can refer to past and future time. This
property of human language is called displacement. It allows language users to talk
about things and events not present in the immediate environment. Bee communication
is a small exception because it seems to have some version of displacement. But it
is displacement of a very limited type and lacks the range of possibilities found
in human language.

Arbitrariness

No �natural� connection between a linguistic form and its meaning exists. The
connection is quite arbitrary. This aspect of the relationship between linguistic
signs and objects in the world is described as arbitrariness. However, there are
some words in language with sounds that seem to �echo� the sounds of objects or
activities and hence seem to have a less arbitrary connection. For the majority of
animal signals, a clear connection appears between the conveyed message and the
signal used to convey it. This impression 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. Many
of these forms are only used in specific situations (e.g., establishing territory)
and at particular times (e.g., during the mating season).

Productivity

Humans are continually creating new expressions and novel utterances by using their
linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations. This property is
described as productivity (or �creativity� or �open-endedness�) and essentially
means that the potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite.
The communication systems of other creatures are not like that. Cicadas have four
signals to choose from and vervet monkeys shave thirty-six vocal calls. Nor does it
seem possible for creatures to produce new signals to communicate novel experiences
or events. The honeybee, normally able to communicate the location of a nectar
source to other bees, will fail to do so if the location is really �new.� In one
experiment, a hive of bees was placed at the foot of a radio tower and a food
source was placed at the top. Ten bees were taken to the top, given a taste of the
delicious food, and sent off to tell the rest of the hive about their find. The
message was conveyed via a bee dance and the whole gang buzzed off to get the free
food. They flew around in all directions, but could not locate the food. (It is
probably one way to make bees really mad.) The problem seems to be that bee
communication has a fixed set of signals for communicating location and they all
relate to horizontal distance. The bee cannot manipulate its communication system
to create a �new� message indicating vertical distance. According to Karl Von
Frisch, �the bees have no word for up in their language, and they cannot invent
one.� This limiting feature of animal communication is described in terms of fixed
reference.
Cultural Transmission

We inherit physical features from our parents not their language. We learn language
in a culture from other speakers and not from parental genes. However, animals do
inherit communication calls for their parents. Humans are born with some kind of
predisposition to acquire language in a general sense. Humans acquire their first
language as children in a culture. This process whereby a language is passed on
from one generation to the next is described as cultural transmission. The general
pattern in animal communication is that creatures are born with a set of specific
signals that are produced instinctively. Human infants, growing up in isolation,
produce no �instinctive� language. Cultural transmission of a specific language is
crucial in the human acquisition process. Without any exposure to language, human
children produce no language, and many experiments have proved this reality.

Duality

The property of duality or �double articulation� is unique to humans. At physical

level, we can produce individual sounds, like n, b, i as individual sounds; none of
these discrete forms has any intrinsic meaning. However, when we arrange them in a
certain order we get a level at which we have meaning too like �nib�. So, we can
say that at one level, we have distinct sounds, and, at another level, we have
distinct meanings. Duality of levels is one of the most economical features of
human language. However, animals have a single fixed form for each communicative
signal among them. Although the dog may be able to produce woof (�I�m happy to see
you�), it does not seem to do so on the basis of a distinct level of production
combining the separate elements of w + oo + f. If the dog was operating with the
double level (i.e., duality), then we might expect to hear different combinations
with different meanings, such as oowf (�I�m hungry�) and foow (�I�m really bored�).

Functions of Language (Verbal Communication)

Some of our words convey meaning, some convey emotions, and some actually produce
actions. What utterances make up our daily verbal communication? What do words
convey? Communication can be categorized into three basic types:

� Verbal

� Written

� Nonverbal

What is verbal communication?

Verbal Communication is the sharing of information between individuals by using

speech and writing. Language also provides endless opportunities for fun because of
its limitless, sometimes nonsensical, and always changing nature. Verbal
communication is the use of sounds and words to express, especially in contrast to
using gestures or mannerisms (non-verbal communication).

Language also provides endless opportunities for fun because of its limitless,
sometimes nonsensical, and always changing nature. In this section, five functions
of language have been discussed, which show us that language is expressive,
language is powerful, language is fun, language is dynamic, and language is
relational.

Topic-26: Introduction of Genre

Genres are ways in which people �get things done� through their use of spoken and
written discourse. We use language in particular ways according to the content and
purpose of the genre, the relationship between us and the audience we are writing
for or speaking to. Looking at the use of language in particular genre, we also
need to focus on social and cultural context. In the era of technology, internet
introduced new forms of communication such as WhatsApp groups, chat rooms, blogs
and online discussion forums which can have different genres (Paltridge, 2002).

Defining Genre

Martin�s ( 1984 : 25) defines genre as �a staged, goal-oriented, purposeful

activity in which speakers engage as members of our culture�. We participate in
genres with other people; goal-oriented because we use genres to get things done;
staged because it usually takes us a few steps to reach our goals. Swales (2004 :
61) prefers the notion of �metaphor� for talking about genres, rather than
�definition�. He considers that definitions are often not �true in all possible
worlds and all possible times� and can �prevent us from seeing newly explored or
newly emerging genres for what they really are�. Miller�s ( 1984 ) notion of �genre
as social action� has been especially important in the area known as rhetorical
genre studies (Artemeva 2008 , Schryer 2011). In this view, a genre is defined, not
in terms of �the substance or the form of discourse but on the action it is used to
accomplish� (Miller 1984: 151). This action is recognized by other people and the
genre is accepted, over time, as a way of doing something. Genre, thus, is a kind
of �social agreement� (Miller and Bazerman 2011 ) about ways of doing things with
language in particular social and cultural settings. Miller also discusses the
notion of typification. Typification is, there are typical forms a genre might take
as well as typical content and typical action that the genre performs, all of which
we recognize and draw on as we engage with the use of genres (Paltridge, 2002).

Language is Powerful

The contemporary American philosopher David Abram wrote, �Only if words are felt,
bodily presences, like echoes or waterfalls, can we understand the power of spoken
language to influence, alter, and transform the perceptual world.� This statement
encapsulates many of the powerful features of language.

Language Expresses Our Identities

Words or phrases that express �who we are� contribute to the impressions that
others make of us. We all use verbal communication strategically to create a
desired impression. The power of language to express our identities varies
depending on the origin of the label (self-chosen or other imposed) and the
context. People are usually comfortable with the language they use to describe
their own identities but may have issues with the labels others place on them.
There are many examples of people who have taken a label that was imposed on them,
one that usually has negative connotations, and intentionally used it in ways that
counter previous meanings. Other examples of people reclaiming identity labels is
the �black is beautiful� movement of the 1960s that repositioned black as a
positive identity marker for African Americans. Even though some people embrace
reclaimed words, they still carry their negative connotations and are not openly
accepted by everyone.

Language Affects Our Credibility

People make assumptions about your credibility based on how you speak and what you
say. Even though we have learned that meaning is in people rather than words, the
rules that govern verbal communication, like rules of grammar, are arbitrary; these
norms still mean something. You do not have to be a perfect grammarian to be
perceived as credible. However, you still have to support your ideas and explain
the conclusions you make to be seen as competent. You have to use language clearly
and be accountable for what you say in order to be seen as trustworthy.

Politicians know that the way they speak affects their credibility, but they also
know that using words that are too scientific or academic can lead people to
perceive them as eggheads, which would hurt their credibility. Politicians and many
others in leadership positions need to be able to use language to put people at
ease, relate to others, and still appear confident and competent.

Language as a Means of Control

The word �control� has negative connotations, but the way it is used can be
positive, neutral, or negative. Verbal communication can be used to reward and
punish. We can offer verbal communication in the form of positive reinforcement to
praise someone. We can withhold verbal communication or use it in a critical,
aggressive, or hurtful way as a form of negative reinforcement. Directives are
utterances that try to get another person to do something. They can range from a
rather polite request to a more forceful command or insistence.

Context informs when and how we express directives and how people respond to them.
Promises are often paired with directives in order to persuade people to comply,
and those promises, whether implied or stated, should be kept in order to be an
ethical communicator. Keep this in mind to avoid arousing false expectations on the
part of the other person. Rather than verbal communication being directed at one
person as a means of control, the way we talk creates overall climates of
communication that may control many. Verbal communication characterized by empathy,
understanding, respect, and honesty creates open climates that lead to more
collaboration and more information exchange. Verbal communication that is
controlling, deceitful, and vague creates a closed climate where people are less
willing to communicate and less trusting.

Language is Performative

Some language is actually more like an action than a piece of information. Saying,
�I promise,�, �I guarantee� or �I pledge� does more than conveying meaning; it also
communicates intent. Such utterances are called commissives, as they mean that a
speaker is committed to a certain course of action. Of course, promises can be
broken, and there can be consequences, but other verbal communication is granted
official power that can guarantee action. The two simple words �I do� can mean that
a person has agreed to an oath before taking a witness stand. It can also mean that
two people are now bound in a relationship recognized by the government and/or a
religious community. These two words, if said in the right context and in front of
the right person, such as a judge or a reverend, bring with them obligations that
cannot be undone without additional steps and potential negative repercussions. In
that sense, language is much more than �mere words�.

Performative language can also be a means of control, especially in legal contexts.

In some cases, the language that makes laws is intentionally vague. In courts all
over the nation, the written language intersects with spoken language as lawyers
advocate for particular interpretations of the written law. The utterances of
judges and juries set precedents for reasonable interpretations that will then help
decide future cases.

Language is Fun

Writers, poets, and comedians have built careers on their ability to have fun with
language and in turn share that fun with others. The productivity and limitlessness
of language lead some people to spend an inordinate amount of time discovering
things about words. Using humour also draws attention to us, and the reactions that
we get from others, feeds into our self-concept. We also use humour to disclose
information about ourselves that we might not feel comfortable revealing in a more
straightforward way. Humour can also be used to express sexual interest or to cope
with bad news or bad situations.

Language: A Dynamic and Relational Entity

Language is essentially limitless. We may create a one-of-a-kind sentence combining

words in new ways and never know it. Aside from the endless structural
possibilities, words change meaning, and new words are created daily.

Neologisms are newly coined or used words. Newly coined words are those that were
just brought into linguistic existence. Newly used words make their way into
languages in several ways, including borrowing and changing structure. Taking is
actually a more fitting descriptor than borrowing, since we take words but do not
really give them back. In any case, borrowing is the primary means through which
languages expand.

Structural changes also lead to new words. Compound words are neologisms that are
created by joining two already known words. Keyboard, newspaper, and gift card are
all compound words that were formed when new things were created or conceived. We
also create new words by adding something, subtracting something, or blending the
words together. For example, we can add affixes, meaning a prefix or suffix, to a
word. Affixing usually alters the original meaning but does not completely change
it. Ex-husband and kitchenette are relatively recent examples of such changes. New
words are also formed when clipping a word like examination, which creates a new
word exam that retains the same meaning.

Slang is a great example of the dynamic nature of language. Slang refers to new or
adapted words that are specific to a group, context, and/or time period, regarded
as less formal, and representative of people�s creative play with language.
Research has shown that only about 10 percent of the slang terms that emerge over a
fifteen-year period are able to survive. Many more take their place though, as new
slang words are created using inversion, reduction, or old-fashioned creativity.

Inversion is a form of word play that produces slang words like sick, wicked, and
bad that refer to the opposite of their typical meaning. The process of �Reduction�
creates slang words such as pic, sec, and later from picture, second, and see you
later. New slang words often represent what is edgy, current, or simply relevant to
the daily lives of a group of people.

Language is Relational

We use verbal communication to initiate, maintain, and terminate our interpersonal

relationships. The first few exchanges with a potential romantic partner or friend
help us size the other person up and figure out if we want to pursue a relationship
or not. We then use verbal communication to remind others how we feel about them
and to check in with them, engaging in relationship maintenance through language
use. When negative feelings arrive and persist or for many other reasons we often
use verbal communication to end a relationship.

Language Can Bring Us Together

Interpersonally, verbal communication is the key to bring people together and

maintaining relationships. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, our use of
words like I, you, we, our, and us affects our relationships. We language includes
the words we, our, and us, and can be used to promote a feeling of inclusiveness.
�I language� can be useful when expressing thoughts, needs, and feelings because it
leads us to �own� our expressions and avoid the tendency to mistakenly attribute
the cause of our thoughts, needs, and feelings to others. Communicating emotions
using �I language� may also facilitate emotion sharing by not making our
conversational partner feel at fault or defensive.

Language Can Separate Us

Whether its criticism, teasing, or language differences, verbal communication can

also lead to feelings of separation. Language differences alone do not present
impossible barriers. We can learn other languages with time and effort, there are
other people who can translate and serve as bridges across languages, and we can
also communicate quite a lot nonverbally in the absence of linguistic
compatibility. People who speak the same language can intentionally use language to
separate. The words us and them can be a powerful start to separation.

Topic- 031: Aspects of Nonverbal Communication

Humans relied on nonverbal communication for thousands of years before the
capability to communicate with words was developed. Nonverbal communication is a
process of generating meaning using behavior other than words. Nonverbal
communication is not opposite to verbal communication but there are important
differences between them. In terms of content, nonverbal communication tends to do
the work of communicating emotions more than verbal. In terms of composition,
although there are rules of grammar that structure our verbal communication, no
such official guides govern our use of nonverbal signals. No dictionaries and
thesauruses are available for nonverbal communication. All five of our senses
convey nonverbal communication. Verbal and nonverbal communications include both
vocal and non-vocal elements as mentioned in the table below.

Verbal communication

Nonverbal Communication

Vocal

Spoken words

Paralanguage (pitch, volume, speaking rate, etc.)

Non-vocal

Writing, sign language

Body language (gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, etc.)

Paralanguage is a vocal element of nonverbal communication, which is the vocalized

but not verbal part of spoken message, such as speaking rate, volume, and pitch.
Non-vocal elements of verbal communication include the use of unspoken symbols to
convey meaning.

Topic- 032: Principles of Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication has a distinct history and serves separate evolutionary
functions from verbal communication. Nonverbal communication is primarily
biologically based while verbal communication is primarily culturally based. The
fact that some nonverbal communication messages have the same meaning across
cultures endorses the same, while no verbal communication systems share that same
universal recognizability. Nonverbal communication also evolved earlier than verbal
communication and served an early and important survival function that helped
humans later develop verbal communication. While some of our nonverbal
communication abilities, like our sense of smell, lost strength as our verbal
capacities increased, other abilities like paralanguage and movement have grown
alongside verbal complexity. The fact that nonverbal communication is processed by
an older part of our brain makes it more instinctual and involuntary than verbal
communication. Nonverbal communication is interpersonal, conveys emotional messages
and is more involuntary than verbal. It is more ambiguous and more credible.

Topic- 033: Conveyance of Interpersonal and Emotional Messages

It is believed that more meaning is generated from nonverbal communication than
from verbal. Some studies have claimed that 60-90 percent of our meaning is derived
from nonverbal signals, but more recent and reliable findings claim that it is
closer to 65 percent. We may rely more on nonverbal signals in situations where
verbal and nonverbal messages conflict and in situations where emotional or
relational communication is taking place. When someone asks a question and we are
not sure about the �angle� they are taking, we may hone in on nonverbal cues to
fill in the meaning. A question like �What are you doing tonight?� could mean any
number of things, but we could rely on posture, tone of voice, and eye contact to
see if the person is just curious, suspicious, or hinting that they would like
company for the evening. We also put more weight on nonverbal communication when
determining a person�s credibility. For example, if a classmate delivers a speech
in class and her verbal content seems well-researched and unbiased, but her
nonverbal communication is poor (her voice is monotone, she avoids eye contact, she
fidgets), she will likely not be viewed as credible.
On the contrary, in some situations, verbal communication might carry more meaning
than nonverbal. In interactions where information exchange is the focus, at a
briefing at work, for example, verbal communication probably accounts for much more
of the meaning generated. Despite this exception, a key principle of nonverbal
communication is that it often takes on more meaning in interpersonal and/or
emotional exchanges.

Topic- 034: More Involuntary than Verbal

There are some instances in which we verbally communicate involuntarily. These
types of exclamations are often verbal responses to a surprising stimulus. For
example, we say �owww!� when we stub our toe or scream �stop!� when we see someone
heading toward danger. Involuntary nonverbal signals are much more common, and
although most nonverbal communication is not completely involuntary, it is more
below our consciousness than verbal communication, and therefore, more difficult to
control.
The involuntary nature of much nonverbal communication makes it more difficult to
control or �fake�. For example, although you can consciously smile a little and
shake hands with someone when you first see them, it is difficult to fake that you
are �happy� to meet someone. Nonverbal communication leaks out in ways that expose
our underlying thoughts or feelings. Spokespersons, lawyers, or other public
representatives who are the �face� of a politician, celebrity, corporation, or
organization must learn to control their facial expressions and other nonverbal
communication, so that they can effectively convey the message of their employer or
client without having their personal thoughts and feelings leak through.
Therapists, police officers, doctors, teachers, and actors are also in professions
that often require them to have more awareness of and control over their nonverbal
communication.
Have you ever tried to conceal your surprise, suppress your anger, or act joyful
even when you were not? Most people whose careers do not involve conscious
manipulation of nonverbal signals find it difficult to control or suppress them.
While we can consciously decide to stop sending verbal messages, our nonverbal
communication always has the potential of generating meaning for another person.
The teenager who decides to shut out his dad and not communicate with him still
sends a message with his �blank� stare (still a facial expression) and lack of
movement (still a gesture). In this sense, nonverbal communication is
�irrepressible�.

Topic- 035: More Ambiguous

The symbolic and abstract nature of language can lead to misunderstandings, but
nonverbal communication is even more ambiguous. As with verbal communication, most
of our nonverbal signals can be linked to multiple meanings, but unlike words, many
nonverbal signals do not have any one specific meaning. If you have ever had
someone wink at you and did not know why, you have probably experienced this
uncertainty. Did they wink to express their affection for you, their pleasure with
something you just did, or because you share some inside knowledge or joke?
Just as we look at context clues in a sentence or paragraph to derive meaning from
a particular word, we can look for context clues in various sources of information
like the physical environment, other nonverbal signals, or verbal communication to
make sense of a particular nonverbal cue. Unlike verbal communication, however,
nonverbal communication does not have explicit rules of grammar that bring
structure, order, and agreed-on patterns of usage. Instead, we implicitly learn
norms of nonverbal communication, which leads to greater alteration. In general, we
exhibit more idiosyncrasies in our usage of nonverbal communication than we do with
verbal communication, which also increases the ambiguity of nonverbal
communication.

Topic- 036: More Credible

Although we can rely on verbal communication to fill in the blanks sometimes left
by nonverbal expressions, we often put more trust into what people do over what
they say. This is especially true in times of stress or danger when our behaviours
become more instinctual, and we rely on older systems of thinking and acting that
evolved before our ability to speak and write.
This innateness creates intuitive feelings about the genuineness of nonverbal
communication, and this genuineness relates back to our earlier discussion about
sometimes involuntary and often subconscious nature of nonverbal communication. An
example of the innateness of nonverbal signals can be found in children who have
been blind since birth but still exhibit the same facial expressions as other
children. In short, the involuntary or subconscious nature of nonverbal
communication makes it difficult to fake; therefore, it seems more honest and
credible.

Topic- 037: Types of Nonverbal Communication

Just as verbal language is broken up into various categories, there are also
different types of nonverbal communication. While learn about each type of
nonverbal signal, you should keep in mind that nonverbal gestures often work in
concert with each other, combining to repeat, modify, or contradict the verbal
message being sent. We use different channels simultaneously; we can also increase
our nonverbal communication competence by becoming more aware of how it operates in
specific channels. Although no one can truly offer you a rulebook on how to send
every type of nonverbal signal effectively, yet several nonverbal materials are
written from more anecdotal and less academic perspectives.