THE FOUNDATION ON THE STUDY OF
LANGUAGE
CHAPTER 1
LANGUAGE AND DEFINITION
Lesson 1
Language is used mainly to INTERACT and EXPRESS
ourselves in limitless structures and indefinite means.
While most people use language as a vehicle for
interaction and to understand language further, we need to
explore how language is viewed and defined.
LANGUAGE DEFINED
•
•
•
•
Linguistics Communication
Speech Communication
Cognitive Ability
Culture-based.
VERBAL COMMUNICATION
• Language is about the production and reception of sounds. Humans are capable
of transferring information, even in the shortest amount of time.
• In any interaction and whenever language is used, humans use the articulatory
mechanisms of the vocal tract to produce strings of oral sound.
o These sounds are transported through the air in wavelength. The sound is received,
translated, and interpreted by the brain.
• Language indeed is a remarkable means to communication. It is innate to
humans.
MENTAL PROCESS
• Language is a form of human intelligence. Language as a cognitive ability is
professed as an instrument of thinking, where language mirrors the mind.
• Human brains functions similarly but works differently.
• Although humans are equipped with the same configuration of the speech organs, not all
people are as eloquent, or as good at playing with their words and using a particular language.
• All people have certain native tongues but not all people communicate the same.
• All people learn a language at some point, but not all people use language the same way.
MENTAL PROCESS
• Language as a cognitive process is often illustrated as the workings of the brain,
especially when we are alone.
• When we are buried in our deep contemplations, we seem to have an incessant stream of
internal speech and most likely we respond to our thoughts. The more we think further, the more
we unconsciously think aloud.
• Language is a central part of human consciousness. The brain is such a gift that
is capable of decoding abstract symbols and translating them into concrete
symbols of sounds and structures of words.
LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION
• Language is a linguistic communication.
• People are very particular with the spelling of the words, the vocabulary
command, and structural control of a particular language. People see language
fluency in people who are very good at playing with their words and arranging
the words into sentences under the prescribed grammar of a particular
language.
LINGUISTIC COMMUNICATION
• Language is perceived as sets of signs and a system of symbols
grounded on pure arbitrary concords.
• Although the organization of language varies from speakers to speakers of
different languages, there is a generics set-up that sounds form into words, as
words make up phrases, clauses, and series of indefinite and meaningful
sentences.
• The configuration of language is complex yet methodical.
CULTURE-SHAPED
• Language is a means of communicating the culture of a particular
community.
• There are expressions that could be acceptable to a specific community of
people but not to others whose practices are formed from different orientations.
• In studying a particular culture, one needs to look into their beliefs, practices, and
values.
CULTURE-SHAPED
• For instance, in terms of honorifics, in the Philippines, we address
teachers generally as “Ma’am” or “Sir” then followed by their last
name.
• We also emphasizes that civil status and genders.
LANGUAGE VIEWED
•
•
•
•
Structuralists
Transformationalists
Functionalists
Interactionists
STRUCTURALISTS
• Believed that language is a structured system of components, an
idea with specific framework.
• Language possesses a structure that governs the aspects of every
element of a whole.
• The structures of language concretely make up the total concept
behind the surface meaning.
STRUCTURALISTS
• Drills and activities are provided by the Structuralists teachers in order for the
students to analyze the patterns of sounds, the configurations of word formations,
the arrangement of the words in the sentences.
• The teachers focus on the students’ mastery of the codes and system of
language.
• They view language as a means of communication, primarily vocal, arbitrary,
and a system of systems.
TRANSFORMATIONALISTS
• Language is a generative and creative process. It pervades creativity since it is
more abstract and has more reflective elements.
• Transformationalists
see
language
creativity
as
competence
and
transformation. They believe that humans are naturally inventive in which it
allows them to creatively produce new combinations of words.
• Language is knowledge and competence.
TRANSFORMATIONALISTS
• A transformationalists teacher allows students to use the language in a creative
way by using their innate multiple intelligences to be creative and at the same
time utilize language.
• The students may have different activities such as role-playing, creating a game
using language, pop-art, etc.
• Transformationalists view language as mental, innate, universal, and creative,
thus all humans are capable of mastering it.
FUNCTIONALISTS
• The functionalists view language as an instrument for communication and a
vehicle for expression.
• They argue that structures can be best analyzed when referred to the functions
they carry-out in a communicative context.
• They believe that language is acquired, produced, used, and structured for
interactions.
FUNCTIONALISTS
• A functionalist language teacher provides authentic tasks that will allow the
students to use the language and attain the function of the interaction.
• The students are allowed to express their emotions, persuade people, ask and
give information.
• Michael Halliday, a functionalist, confirmed that the language potentially
creates not only meaning but also society, which is fully achieved when it is
used in functional communication.
INTERACTIONISTS
• Interactionists view language as a product of a human desire to communicate
with another and acquire the language which one desires to learn.
• They believe that human genetics provides an individual the capability to
produce language and their social interactions make them master the
language.
• The interactionist teacher allows the students to communicate and interact with
each other to practice the use of the target language.
INTERACTIONISTS
• Lev Vygotsky believed that language is developed through social interaction.
• When a child interacts with adults, the child potentially learns the language. Vygotsky confirmed,
“language plays a critical role in the child’s cognitive development.” This means that the more the child
uses the language, the better his brain functions.
• Jerome Bruner supported Vygotsky, he believed that language is a symbolic
illustration of a person’s intellectual development. He noted that learning the
language is an active process and done through interactions.
NATURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF
LANGUAGE
Lesson 2
Language is an essential attribute to humans and is a
gift to mankind. It sets us apart from other creation.
Language is a significant ingredient. We manage to
transfer knowledge from one another and keep records of
inventions and discoveries through language.
THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE
LANGUAGE AS SOMETHING LEARNT
• Human beings are programmed to acquire language easily, they
learn a language.
• Language is something that is learned through exposure and
practice.
• Although the language is genetically programmed in our brain to make
distinctions of the different sounds, things, activities, and notions, language
acquisition is produced through active learning and repetitive interactions.
LANGUAGE AS SOMETHING LEARNT
• Language learning is behavioral, imitative, and learned through
effort.
• Once we get acquainted with a particular language and become
interested in its system and structures, then we can master its use. This
means that human beings are capable of learning as many
languages as they can when interested.
LANGUAGE AS RELATED TO THE CULTURE OF SOCIETY
• Different people from different social orientations speak differently.
• At birth, we are socialized into various linguistic identities. Because of
that social configuration, we speak the same language as the people
we belong to.
• People of same language usually share the same sentiments and they
form a similar culture and society.
LANGUAGE AS RELATED TO THE CULTURE OF SOCIETY
• Language influences culture: the values,
the practices, and the
interest of people.
• Culture also influences language.
• Culture and Language are inseparable in a way that culture affects
language and language affects the mental state of society.
LANGUAGE AS SPECIES-SPECIFIC, UNIFORMED, AND
UNIQUE TO HUMANS
• The ability to use and respond to language is genetically inherited
by humans.
• It is species-uniforms since only human beings are capable of acquiring
language, set in the right environment.
• Language is an important tool for human communication and it is
hard to think of a society without language.
LANGUAGE AS SPECIES-SPECIFIC, UNIFORMED, AND
UNIQUE TO HUMANS
• Chomsky (1975) said that the human is different from the animals.
• Humans learn and produce language creatively. Language functions in the left
hemisphere of that brain, seated in the cerebral cortex, different from the rest
of the animals.
• Language is an attribute of humans. Humans converse with others
using oral and auditory symbols, which are important characteristics
and forms if human behavior.
LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM
• Language is a system that needs analysis.
• It is a system of sounds and symbols. There are phonological and grammatical
systems in all languages.
• Linguistic units constitute language. These units are interdependent on
one another.
• A language is a unit of combined speech sounds that form into words, phrases,
to sentences and eventually become ideas and thoughts.
LANGUAGE AS A SYSTEM
Systemic Categories of
Language
sound system,
structures, and meaning
system of symbols and
non-verbal signals
LANGUAGE AS VOCAL
• Language is oral. Speech is primary, writing is secondary.
• Speech is the fundamental expression of language. A language without speech
communication is unimaginable.
• The vocal sounds produced by the articulatory device of the human
body primarily makes up language.
• Language has been passed on verbally and eventually in written form. Writing
preserves language.
LANGUAGE AS A SKILL SUBJECT
Receptive Skills
Listening Skills
Viewing Skills
Expressive Skills
Writing Skills
Speaking Skills
Reading Skills
Macro Skills
LANGUAGE AS A SKILL SUBJECT
• Language mastery is acquired by learning the skills through
constant practice and exposure.
• Language is part of the curriculum and the ultimate goal of which is usage in
both verbal and non-verbal communication.
LANGUAGE AS A MEANS FOR COMMUNICATION
• Language is the greatest form of intelligent interaction for
the gifted individuals of the universe: HUMANS.
• Language is a tool to express feelings and ideas.
• Language is a human activity that facilitates that transport
of emotions and thoughts from one to another person.
LANGUAGE AS ARBITRARY
• Language is arbitrary in the sense that language meanings existed as
they are.
• There are no plausible explanation or inherent relation as to how meanings are
assigned to each letter, symbol, or word. There are no scientific principle that
underlie the naming of symbols.
• Language is a structure of conventional symbols. If language was not
randomly created, there could only be one language in the entire world;
fixed and unchanging.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGUAGE
CONVENTIONAL AND NON-INSTINCTIVE
• Language is brought about by evolution and strengthened with convention. It is a
silent pact that each generation transmits to the next.
• Language flourishes and perishes, it expands and transforms. It adapts with the
change of time.
• Language is non-instinctive since none is born with the spontaneity to speak any
language. It is learned through interaction and socialization.
• Language is not biologically automated but culturally determined.
PRODUCTIVITY AND CREATIVITY
• No one sets a finite line as to particular words that have to be associated with
other words.
• This means that every reader or listener is allowed to link the words as to the limits of his
imagination, without specific rules.
• Language is productive. It is creative. It keeps on sprouting that with one word
emerges another.
• Language evolves as a means of adapting to the demands of the people who
use it.
DUALITY
• Human language comprises of two sub-systems; the sound system and
meaning system.
• Predetermined sound combinations create units of meaning. Different
combination of sounds produce syntactic categories, units, and constituents that
create more sophisticated and meaning utterances.
• Language quality is what gives language expressive power since
meaningless sounds are combined according to rules.
DISPLACEMENT
• Human language is context-free. Human beings are capable of
recounting events that occurred before or the vision of what happens
next.
• The property of displacement explains why humans are capable of
recalling stories that happened or even creating stories that may not
be realistically possible.
HUMANNESS
• Language is innate to human beings. No species other than humans
are gifted with language.
• Language has complex structures of sounds and meanings.
UNIVERSALITY
• Language has a unique style of functions in terms of sounds,
vocabulary, and structures, language is equal in all parts of the
universe.
• A linguistic universal is a systematic occurrence of the linguistic
patterns across national languages.
UNIVERSALITY
• Linguistics identified two universals:
• Absolute – all elements are applicable to every known language.
• Implicational – only particular features apply to different
languages.
LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS
Lesson 3
Language is always used to meet certain functions.
The purpose of each interaction using language is called as
language functions.
GENERAL FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE
Interpersonal Function
• It fulfills the human needs to exchanges experiences since
human beings are social.
• Language is used to interact, establish, and maintain a
relationship, influence behavior, express a point of view.
Informative Function
• The language functions is informative if it does not
confirm or reject propositions.
• It is informative when language is used to inform or to
give further emphasis to the known information.
• Informative language is often seen in analytical reports,
arguments, and directions.
Performative Function
• The statement if performative is it denotes action using the
verbs to be performed by the first person. These expression
not only convey meaning but they communicate intent.
• The performative function of language holds power that can
guarantee the deed or performance of an act.
Expressive Function
• Verbal communication is always to meet the needs to
express oneself.
• The expressive language function reports attitudes and
emotions.
• The expressive language of speaker is oftentimes a way
of understanding the speaker’s personality and emotions.
JAKOBSON’S FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE
• ROMAN JAKOBSON
• He was influenced by Karl Buhler’s
organon model. Adding poetic,
phatic, and metalingual functions of
language.
• He explained the functions of
language in relation to verbal
communication.
ROMAN JAKOBSON’S MODEL OF COMMUNICATION (1960)
HALLIDAY’S FUNCTIONS OF LANGUAGE
• MICHAEL HALLIDAY
• He is the proponent of systemic
functional linguistics.
• He categorized two functions of
language – the Meta-function and
Micro-function.
Textual
Interpersonal
Ideational
Halliday’s Meta-functions of Language
• It
involves
the
natural
world
and
human
consciousness.
• This is concerned with creating and maintaining a
notion of experience, which is both experiential and
Ideational
Function
logical.
• Experiential Function denotes the speaker’s choice of
linguistic elements that will help him make meaning.
• Logical Function denotes logical-semantic associations,
where the relationship between one clausal unit and
another is established.
• This function is about the world of people working
together. It seeks to create and uphold social
relationships.
• Halliday argues that through the changing micro-
Interpersonal
Function
encounters of the day-to-day interactions, people
set a complex pattern of dialogue to a more
permanent relationship.
• The grammatical system that relates to the
interpersonal function includes mood, modality, and
polarity.
• The
textual
grammatical
Textual
Function
function
systems
comprises
needed
all
to
the
create
relevance to context, through which “language
creates a semiotic world of its own.”
• A text is created that coheres the context of the
situation within itself.
• The
textual
grammatical
Textual
Function
function
systems
comprises
needed
all
to
the
create
relevance to context, through which “language
creates a semiotic world of its own.”
• A text is created that coheres the context of the
situation within itself.
• Halliday’s Micro-Functions of Language pertains to the seven functions
that represents a stage on the child’s development and usage language.
• Children use the first four stages mentioned in the effort to satisfy their
own physical, social and emotional needs.
• The remaining three functions assist children in understanding their
surrounding environments.
•
Later on Halliday collapsed the seven functions into three categories.
1. INSTRUMENTAL FUNCTION
(I want.)
This language is used to
gain something nor to
satisfy material needs.
2. REGULATORY FUNCTION
(Do as I tell you?)
Regulatory
language
controls the behavior or
feelings of other people.
5. HEURISTIC FUNCTION
4. PERSONAL FUNCTION
3. INTERACTIONAL FUNCTION
(Tell me why?)
(Here I come)
Halliday’s
Micro-functions
of Language
Heuristic language allows
for the testing and learning
of knowledge.
This language use aims to
express individuality or
self-awareness.
6. IMAGINATIVE FUNCTION
7. REPRESENTATIONAL FUNCTION
(Let’s pretend)
This language creates new
worlds and accommodates
for story telling.
(I have something to tell you.)
Language in this category is
used to share ideas or
description.
(Me and You)
This used to get along with
others, but may also be
used to create distinctions
between things.
-- END OF CHAPTER 1--