Defining Language
Dameka Towner
PSY/360
10/14/13
Steve Weiss
Languages are spoken all over the world by different cultures people. Some individuals may speak Spanish, English, Laos, Chinese, or other languages depending on their nationality or culture and what language they were raised to speak. Language starts as early as infancy. Babies tend to cry if they are hungry, wet, or something is hurting them, yet the cry has its own distinction. For example, a cry when a baby is wet may be softer than a cry from a baby being hungry. This form a communication from the baby is considered as “baby language,” but it is la questionable if this really a form of Language? According Willingham, (2007), Communication must be communicative, arbitrary, structured, generative and dynamic to be deemed language. Although a baby cry is a form of communication, and it is arbitrary, it is not structured it only composes a single sound, and it is not generative. Because the baby’s cry lacks those two components it is not considered a reasonable form of communication. Furthermore, human cognitive functions and language assimilation is the mental dictionary that contains all stored representation of words. This is called the lexicon. When people speak about the lexicon they are literally talking about someone’s vocabulary. According to Oxford dictionary lexicon is the vocabulary of a person language, or branch of knowledge. Lexicon is more along the lines of what speech sounds, or written symbols mean in a language. If the individual does not know that lexicon he or she cannot possibly know the language.
Key Features of Language Because of the linguistics of language, it is more difficult to define. Before an individual can understand language, he or she must evaluate the key features of language. The key futures hold the precise parts of language. First is the communicative component which is the speech between two individuals. Second is the arbitrary component, which is the relationship between language and the meanings. Third is the structured component, which is the term that is used to describe the way the individual phrase a sentence. Forth is the generative component, which is the unlimited basic words, used for expression. Lastly, the dynamic component is the term used to describe the changing English language. No matter what the language is each of these components has their own significance in language. According to Willingham, (2007). These definitions matter because each part of the key takes into account the understanding of how we speak and relay messages of thoughts and ideas.
Four Levels of Language Structure and Processing
The smallest units or sounds used by an individual to form words are called phonemes. Phonemes are the first level of language and structure processing. Phonemes make up individual sounds that are equal to alphabets and letters. For example, phonemes such as an a can be used in different words like back and baby. Although each word is said differently, the a does double duty in this case. Individuals can perceive phonemes very rapidly in accelerated speech; nearly 50 phonemes per second (Willingham, 2007). The second level of language structure and processing is words. Words are phonemes that fit together to produce 600,000 words in the English language. (Willingham, 2007). Certain rules are in place concerning the combination of phonemes and concerning exactly where phonemes may appear in a word. The third level of language structure processing is sentence. Sentences are the grammatical agreement of words that help construct thoughts when an individual is trying to speak or write. Sentences also help the individual to identify which phoneme is missing or necessary to use. The forth level of language structure processing is text. A text or texts are groups of connected sentences that form a paragraph or paragraphs, which explain a certain subjects.
