George Henry Lewes in The Study of Psychology
says, “Just as birds have wings, man has language. The wings give the bird its
peculiar attitude for aerial locomotion. Language enables man’s intelligence
and passions of acquire their peculiar characters of intellect and sentiment.”
Whatever else people do when they come
together—whether they play, flight, make automobiles, or makes love—they talk.
We live in world of languages; we talk to our parents, friends, family- ,
friends, relatives, our teachers and our neighbours. We talk to '
rickshaw-pullers, strangers, bus drivers, co-passengers in trains. To talk face
to face and over telephone and everyone responds with more talk. Television,
radio and internet chat in computer further swell this torrent of Words. We
talk to our pets and sometimes to ourselves. We are the only animal to do
so—that talks or uses words appropriately.
Language is a basic human activity. But
‘What is language?’ According to Henry Sweet, ‘Language is the expression of
ideas by means of speech sounds combined into words.’ A language is a “symbol
system... based on pure or arbitrary convention....infinitely extendable and
modifiable according to the changing needs and conditions of the speakers.”
(R.H. Robins). Noam Chomsky in his Language and Mind claims language as “unique
to man” which constitutes the “human essence.”
Some features of language:
(i) Language is symbolic.
(ii) Language is vocal.
(iii) Language is both individual and
social thing.
(iv) Language is arbitrary.
(v) Language is open-ended, modifiable
and extendable up to limitless length.
(vi) Language is a medium of
information transmission.
(vii) The difference of meaning can be
accounted for by the difference in the arrangements of the same linguistic
system of the same language:
Linguistics—Linguistics is the
scientific study of language. Approach—wise it differs from Philology.
Linguistics is a synchronic study (a descriptive study of language at a
particular time) of language. The job of a linguist is to construct theory
analyzing linguistic data and to predict the potential data as well as the
basic patterns of language behaviour of men and women. Linguistics has
similarity with Cultural Anthropology. Both these streams depend on practical
and theoretical foundations. Linguistics has also relation with Psychology.
Language is speech behaviour. Psychology is the study human behaviour.
Linguistics is also has relation with Biology (especially Neurology).
Archaeology and other disciplines of study. Literature is the artifact of
language. Literature is made possible by language. Therefore, language is the
crown-pin of the whole fabric of literature in the world.
There are several branches of
Linguistics:
(a) Comparative Linguistics——It is
based on historical linguistics. It concerns itself with the relationships of
different grades. It compares languages from several foundations and
parameters.
(b) Historical Linguistics—It concerns
itself with the developments in languages in the course of time. Languages have
tendency to diverge. Historical Linguistics deals with this basic aspect of
languages. Apart from these broad—based heads, we have Saussurean Linguistic,
Chomskean Linguistics. Psycholinguistics, Structural Linguistics,
Neurolinguistics and so on. Modern Linguistics begins with the Linguist
Ferdinand de Saussure. A Course in General Linguistics is his famous book.
The tenets of Modern Linguistics: (a)
All languages in the world are potentially equal. (b) There is nothing called
‘corrupt’ or ‘pure’ Language. (c) Speech comes first to man. Spoken language is
primary. A child learns to speak first, and then he learns to write. (d)
Linguistics is a descriptive science. (6) Linguistic changes are natural for
all languages.
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