Language, as we all know, is the primary means of communication for human. Language is used to communicate messages between one to another, with some ways to represent meanings.
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| Chair |
Language
is based on arbitrary; it learns the associations between words and the things they
represent. For example, we know that the word 'chair' represents an object that commonly has four cantilevers, one board on top, usually comes with a backrest, and is used for people to sit (as we can see on the right). Beside spoken and written languages, human also has the ability to communicate with non-verbal communications, such as sign language and body language.
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| Sign Language |
Sign language is usually used by humans who aren't able to communicate with spoken languages. The language they use is based on ASL (American Sign Language) it is the signs produced by hand, with each form representing one word. The picture of forms of sign language is shown on the left.
While body language is where a person may reveal clues as to some unspoken intention or feeling through their physical behavior. Forms of body language are posture, head motion, facial expression, gesture, and eye contact.
Language is also part of acculturation as it is transmitted through learning. Let's go long way back to the primates era; where all there was for them to communicate is in form of a limited number of sounds that are produced in response to specific stimuli. It is named as the 'call system', the system primates back then used to communicate with each other. One of the primates who uses this method is the apes (such as Congo chimpanzees). This system is used because primates' vocal tract is not suitable for speech. They didn't have the linguistic capacity of communicating about the past and future (in addition to present), as we humans do. The call system has three main differences with human language, aside from the sound produced. They are:
- Call system is stimuli dependent, meaning that it can only send messages to signs of specific stimuli (such as food and danger) -- different from human who has the capacity to speak of things and events that are not present (displacement)
- Call system consists of limited number of sound that cannot be combined to produce new calls -- unlike human who can possess the capacity to generate new expressions by combining with other expressions (productivity).
- Call system has little to no variation between between communities of the same species for each call -- while in human each linguistic community has their own language.
From call system, language than emerges from only few specific meanings to various wider and deeper meanings as the language we all now know.
Language also has structures. It has four main structures, those are:
- Phonology - study of sound used in speech
- Morphology - studies the forms in which sounds are grouped in speech
- Lexicon - dictionary containing all of the smallest units of speech that have a meaning (morpheme)
- Syntax - rules that order words and phrases into sentences
It is mentioned above about distinction of languages across linguistic communities, that we can also say as 'linguistic diversity'. In Indonesia, we have more than seven hundred spoken languages, all different languages are spoken in different dialects and lexicon (words) -- this is one of the examples of linguistic diversity. To respond to this language difference, human is able to do style shifting; to change
the way they talk depending upon the social requirements of a given setting. Just like travelers who could speak many languages depending on what country he is in. This is also the main reason why the English language is set to be an international language, to ease people to communicate abroad. But this action is opposed with linguistic relativity theory that states
no
language is superior to any other as a means of communication.
In Southern English, there had been an invention of American-English dialect called Black English Vernacular. BEV has its own complex system of linguistic rules, it is not an unstructured selection of words and phrases. The speakers of BEV do not pronounce intervocalic r's, and also delete use copula to eliminate the verb. Some examples of BEV dialects are changing the words "where are you at?" and "who are you?" to "where you at?" and "who you?".
Another culturally central lexical elaboration that corresponds to a meaning is called focal vocabulary. This is the word that represents a meaning but is only used by several to one small specific linguistic community. It is argued that the change is more likely to move from culture to language, rather than reverse. For example, the use of word 'sin bin' and 'twig' in hockey teams which represents the meaning 'penalty box' and 'hockey stick'.
The last theory discussed in here is about gender speech contrast. In most countries across the world, there are regular differences between men's and women's speech that cut across subcultural boundaries. Men in their speech is proven to be more masculine, aggressive, tough, daring, and dominant. In other side, women's speech tends to be more feminine, soft, emotional, sweet, and submissive. It is also said that in a conversation, men tends to ignore what women says, cut down women's talk, and is dominant in the interaction. In America and England, these facts is attributed to women's lack of socioeconomic power. This is rooted back when politics and economics emerge, women tends to be untrusted to do the job as a ruler while men, in other side, is the one who holds the control.
Source:
Source:
- Bina Nusantara Presentation "Human Diversities 1" slides 4 - 32.
