Linguistics: Understanding Language Structure and Origin
What is Linguistics?
Linguistics is the scientific study of language in all of its complexity.
The part of linguistics that is concerned with the structure of language is divided into a number of subfields:
- Phonetics – This is the study of speech sounds themselves. Phoneticians study both the production of speech sounds by the human speech organs (articulatory phonetics) and the properties of the sounds themselves (acoustic phonetics).
- Phonology – This is the study of the organization of language sounds.
- Morphology – This is the study of the make-up of words.
- Syntax – This is the study of how phrases and sentences larger than the word are constructed.
- Semantics – This is the study of meaning.
Aside from language structure, other perspectives on language are represented in specialized or interdisciplinary branches:
- Historical Linguistics – This is the study of how languages change over time.
- Sociolinguistics – This is the study of how language is used in society.
- Psycholinguistics – This is the study of how language is processed in the mind.
- Neurolinguistics – This is the study of the actual encoding of language in the brain.
- Computational Linguistics – Learning and understanding a language involves computing the properties of language that are described in phonology, syntax, and semantics from what is heard.
When linguists study language as a structured, formal system, they investigate many distinct subsystems: the physical characteristics of speech sounds (phonetics); how sounds function together as part of a linguistic system (phonology); how words are formed and new words created (morphology); how words and phrases are combined to form a potentially infinite number of sentences (syntax); and meaning (semantics).
What is Language?
Language is the system of signs or sounds used to communicate.
Why Can Language Only Be Observed Indirectly?
Because we can only study its manifestations: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Why Does This Make It Dubious?
Because that means we can only make hypotheses of the nature of language, and even if they can establish a high degree of probability and corroborate a theory, all of them can potentially be falsified.
What Are the Properties of Language?
- A Sound System – All natural languages are systems of sounds.
- A System of Symbols – Units of meaning paired with units of sound.
- Arbitrariness – The relation between “sound unit” and “meaning” is arbitrary.
- Displacement – Can refer to locations and times other than the present.
- Duality of Structure (Double Articulation) – Meaningless sounds combine to form meaningful units. For example, /b/, /i:/, /t/ -> beat.
- Productivity – Infinite expressive potential with finite means.
What is Patterning?
Items in language have their own characteristic slots in utterances and form patterns. For example, in English: Derrick sees the little boy (subject – verb – object). In Irish: Feicann Derrick an buachaill beag (verb – subject – object).
Six Different Sources for Language Origin
1. The Divine Source
Very young children growing up without contact with human language in their early years grow up with no language at all. If language had a divine source, they would have it automatically.
2. The Natural Sound Source
An onomatopoeic viewpoint. The basic idea is that language is based on natural sounds, and primitive words could have been imitations of the natural sounds. There are such words, but not all. We have cuckoo, rattle, and hiss. We also have ooh and wow. But those interjections are produced by sudden inhaling, which is the opposite of normal speech, and are therefore not seen as candidates to source sounds of a language.
3. The Social Interaction Source
It is thought that one source could be the grunts and sounds made when people are doing heavy lifts, and such may have developed into early words. Apes and other primates live in large groups as well, and they have not developed a language.
4. The Physical Adaptation Source
Human physics have changed so that it actually is possible for us to make a large set of sounds. Teeth are upright, not slanting outwards, which are useful in making sounds like f and v. Lips have an intricate set of muscles not found in other primates. That flexibility makes it possible to make sounds like p and b. The human mouth is relatively small and can be opened and closed quickly to cut off airways and create sounds. The larynx has dropped, likely due to an upright position, and that created a longer pharynx, which is the cavity above the vocal folds that acts as a resonator for increased range and clarity of the sounds produced. All together, that makes human physics more adapted to create a language.
5. The Tool-Making Source
The human brain is large in relation to human body size. It is also lateralized and has specialized functions in each of the two hemispheres. Those functions that control the movement of complex vocalization and tool-using are close to each other in the left hemisphere of the brain. Tool-making involved the ability to take two, let’s say rocks, and put them together to create something. The same ability may have been used to put sounds together to create a new tool – language.
6. The Genetic Source
It is thought that a crucial mutation that took place over a short period caused a genetic change that made it possible for humans to create a language.