On Some Characteristics of Language

Dr. MADHUSUDAN MALLIK
Viswabharati, Santiniketan

Introduction

The term language is used by an ordinary human being as a particular form of speech in all its various styles and applications. By extension the term also includes the language of flowers, of love, of birds, of bees, etc. There is also the use of such phrases as the written language, the colloquial language, the standard language, the language of Shakespeare, the language of Milton, etc.

Language is a means through which the outer world as also the inner world reveals itself. All human communications would stand still without language. It is noteworthy that the points of view from which a language is considered also differ. A philosopher does not use the same language which an economist does. The language of psychology is different from that of sociology. The lawyer uses a language which is contrasted with a scientist and so on.

What is language we more or less understand but what it really is we have no idea. We are surrounded by languages all the time, we feel its influence all along. It is as common as the air we breathe or the bodily movements we make. It is a fact that the normal human being uses language as an useful tool in his day-to-day pursuits.

Language in the last analysis is a philosophic quest. This is true through whatever way we approach reality. Reflections on language is one of the oldest and most important preoccupations of mankind. From the time of the Vedic seers down to Sri Aurobindo of modern times, meditations on speech continue in some form or other.

During this century language has been an important field for study. The anthropologist, the literary artist, the philosopher, the technician, not to speak of the linguist proper, all take an increasing interest in language. It is unfortunate that all these developments proceed in isolation and without any regard for what is being done elsewhere.

Definition of Language

Language is difficult to define, as it is concerned with plurality of contexts which deter an uniform theory of language. It is also associated with dialects which at times hinder proper differentiation from languages. Factors like these and many others stand against a true definition of language. However, a few definitions of language are offered to show the manifold aspects.

1.      “Language is articulated, limited sound organized for the purpose of expression.”
–CROCE
2.      Language is the act of theoretical intelligence in its true sense, for it is its outward expression.”
–HEGEL
3.      “Language is human activity which has the aim of communicating ieas and emotions.”
–JESPERSEN

4.      “Speech is the great medium through which human cooperation is brought about.”
–DE LAGNNA

5.      “Language is a system of signs expressive of ideas.”
–DE SAUSSURE
6.      “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols.”
–SAPIR

We now propose to discuss some of the features which a language is supposed to possess.

Language is a means of communications

The term communication is used in a number of different departments of human knowledge. In psychology it means an exchange of ideas and experiences between individuals by means of conventionally accepted symbols and their meanings. The economic system of communication consists of goods and ideas, the media being coins, bonds, letters of credit, etc. Technical means of communications are telephone, telegraph, radio, printing etc. This concept of communication also takes note of a sociological problem, i. e., language is a social institution. This demands an entire process of communication–linguistic and non-linguistic, i.e., language of evils, mathematics, various forms of symbolism, etc. It is also a fact that sub-human animals do communicate–the terrier cries, the monkeys howl, asses bray, lions roar, etc., and these refer to certain ideas to members of other species.

Human communications involve six factors–

(a)    Communication or sender of message
(b)   Communicatee or recipient of the message
(c)    Transmitting or receiving devices, i. e., vocal chords and devices 
(d)   The message itself
(e)    The process of formulating the message, i.e., encoding
(f)     The opposite process called decoding.

Various means of human communications–

(a)    Facial expressions
(b)   Bodily postures
(c)    Gestures of the hands, face, lips, fingers, etc.

Gesture merely supplements but never replaces language proper. It acts as a substitute for language in a rudimentary and limited way. It can at most signify an affirmative or a negative reply. The shrugging of the shoulders, moving of the eyes, waving of the hands, etc., can do a limited job. To complicated thought processes it is of no use. Gesture language includes more than 700,000 distinct and expressive signs of hands, foot, fingers and face. The highly developed gestural systems are those of the deaf-mutes, i. e., up-reading and finger-talk.

(d)   African drum language
(e)    Various interpretative folk-dances
(f)     Stylised hand imagery of the Hawaian Hula
(g)    Dances of Bali, Cambodia, etc.
(h)    Japanese flirt language of the fan
(i)      Heliographs
(j)     Gestures used in sports–football, hockey, etc.
(k)   Sign language of the American Indians.

It is common to a vast number of Indian tribes whose spoken languages were mutually unintelligible. It is important for a media of culture contact and culture transmission. To the white man on the continent it at first proved to be very useful.

Animal communications

Man is the only animal that uses speech system to communicate his ideas. The higher apes had the organs of speech and can react to some external stimuli but cannot vary. Speech is a world where animal has no existence and man has no egress. Certain animals have the ability to respond with appropriate behaviour to certain sounds–

(a)    Dogs–if trained, can carry out orders and can distinguish clearly the modulation in the voice of the master.
(b)   Bees–extensively investigated by Von Frisch and others that yield fairly complete process of ideas.
(c)    Chimpangees – as studied by Kellog, understand a list of words and phrases.
(d)   Apes–have a wide variety of sounds and cries to express emotional attitudes. It is difficult to determine whether these sounds could be connected with particular objects or situations. The opinion of Kohler on this topic is negative.

Non-linguistic means of communications

(i)                  Special Code–Semaphore, Morse Code, Cipher Code.
(ii)                Written sign
(a)    Arrows–pointing out directions
(b)   Algebra-plus, minus, equal, etc.
(iii)               Colour and Picture sign
(a)    Red stop light
(b)   Steep hills
(iv)              Sound signs
(a)    Bell–ringing for schools
(b)   Gong–for dinner

Language consists of sounds

Language has sounds and the sounds a language possesses are not non-sensical like henonny, nonny, etc. The sounds have meanings which are the result of conventions. The sounds are articulatory, i. e., produced with the help of human vocal organs and acoustic, i. e., the sound waves impinge upon the tymphanic drum of the car. These aspects of sounds study come under Articulatory and Accoustic phonetics.

The communications of birds and mammals are also series of sounds. It would be absurd to think of language without sounds. Are all the sounds in all the languages the same? The sounds are the same but the meanings attributed to them are different. No satisfactory relationship can be established between a sound and the object outside. The relationship that is shown is arbitrary and  unpredictable. Thus the sound sequence which is written as “cow” in English. “kuh” in German, “bous” in Greek, “bos” in Latin and “gauh” in Sanskrit are arbitrary symbols which the speakers of those languages agreed to accept them under those sounds. The sound or sounds constitute vowels and consonants and form the subject matter of phonetics. The sounds by themselves do not constitute language, not even the motor processes and the tactual sensations that go to the production of articulated words. The sine qua non of a language is meaning with which sounds are charged.

Language has a system

Language has a system or a pattern to which the utterances of its speakers must conform. Without a pattern, a language can never be a language. It would for ever remain chaotic and bewildering. The task of a linguist is to discuss its pattern and to explain and illustrate this. It is the system which holds the language and the language system. Out of a welter of utterances the linguist tries to discover a system, neat and self-consistent and arranges them in a body of sounds (phonology) of forms (morphology) and arrangement of the forms into distinct categories (syntax). Such systems are then compared to other systems of divergent language-types. Linguistic system thus is verbal, i. e., articulated signs having grammatical, syntactical and semantic values.

Language is symbolic

A symbol tries to express physical realities. These physical realities are arbitrarily determined by man in a society. No logical and natural connection can be established between the term “dog” and the physical reality outside. To say that language is a symbol is to say that it has a meaning. A symbol is a surrogate and has nothing to give a definite meaning. The meaning it possesses is by agreement or convention. The symbol thus becomes arbitrary in nature.

A symbol is to be distinguished from a sign which has a direct bearing on the object (cf. smoke coming from an oven). Signs are of various kinds–natural (dark clouds are signs for rain), artificial (human communication–cf. the physically handicapped use a system of signs, the blind a language of tactile, the deaf-mutes a language of gesture, etc.). It is to be noted that the sign-languages are taken from the phonetic languages. It thus comes to this that the verbal sign stands far superior to other signs for its practical value, usefulness and utility. It raises the phonetic language to the estimation of a natural language. From the very childhood we are taught to think in terms of phonetic language. The other signs act as means of communications under a set of circumstances but not as an instrument of thought. The phonetic language is the language par excellence. It lies at the base of all communicative systems in modern societies.

Language is arbitrary

Primitive people sometimes believe that there is a natural relationship between a word and a thing. On this basis they build up most of their religious and cultural behaviour. They sometimes assume that to know the name of a deity or an object or a person is to hold control over it. The Greeks used to address the malevolent creature whose real name was Evinyes “furies” as “Eumenicles” “good tempered ones”. Vestiges of superstitious practices still lurk in our mind in the use of certain words like “death”, etc. Arbitrariness in language seems to be less only in the domain and use of imitative words. A child calls a sheep “lea-lea” or a train “cho-choo.” The use of such onomatopoetic words are extremely limited and in many cases their imitative values are called into question.

Language is learned

All languages are learned. No one is born with a ready-made language. He is to learn the language from other members of the society in the midst of which he is being brought up.

Language is conventional

Conventionalism rests upon the tacit agreement that we all agree to call a particular person or a thing so and so. This agreement will continue so long we choose to take it as such.

Language is social

Man is a social animal. He craves the company of the other members of the society. The language he uses is current only among the members of the society. So long as the society will last, the language of man will continue. With the disintegration of society, language also disappears. It is a fact that much of animal communication is instinctive, whereas language is social. Cats will mew, horses will neigh, asses will bray even if they are separated from other members of the group. Instances may be cited where man has been brought up by wolves or others,

(i)                  Hessian Wolf-boy of 1349
(ii)                Lithuanian Bear-boy of 1661
(iii)               Wild Peter of Hanover (1724)
(iv)              Wild Boy of Aveyrou (1797)
(v)                Kamala and Amala (1850)

Individuals so brought up never developed language apart from a society.

Language is a complicated multiple structure

All languages whether modern or tribal have complex multiple adaptible structures. This becomes apparent from the fact that language is a means of communication and to communicate our ideas we require a number of vocal signals which are combined in various ways to form groups of sounds to produce hundreds of thousands of words which in turn are grouped according to rules of grammar (which each language develops independently) into a multiple variety of sentences. All languages possess this complex multi-layered structures which enable their members to fulfil their social needs. Any one who undertakes the trouble to study any American, Indian or African languages will appreciate the niceties in grammar and complexities in structures.

Language is complete in itself

It does not mean that all languages will have words for everything. The ancient Hindus, Greeks and Romans perhaps had no word for “rocket.” Did they experience any difficulty for lack of it? Certainly not. Had they seen it, they would have invented a name for it. It is a notable feature in the vocabulary of a language that they are always subject to increment if circumstances warrant it.

Language is culturally transmitted

It is a form of behaviour which is not physical, which is learned and which istransmitted from generation to generation. Nobody inherits the capacity to learn a particular language. Everyone learns a language from others and the others again from some others and so on. This learning process begins at infancy and continues in varying intensity throughout the entire span of life. An important consequence of this activity is that people do not acquire the same proficiency in learning a language, which may be due to various factors like inherent ability, constant attention, etc.

Another consequence of language activity is that language is always in a state of flux. The change is constant, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes superficial, sometimes radical, sometimes perceptible, sometimes imperceptible. The change continues from generation to generation and from age to age. The cumulative process of this change is the development of various languages–Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Arabic, English, French, German, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Spanish, etc. We do not know when this change began but nevertheless the change is there.