Nicole St.

Jean

How Language Works

In order for one to understand how language works they must first determine what language is in general. Some claim that language is merely the manipulation and use of symbols to accentuate signified content. Such would indicate that humans are not the sole possessors of language skills. Others, define language as a conventional system of communication that encompasses both spoken and written form inclusive of form, meaning, and context. Both spoken and written language are often dissected and evaluated by text, sound, word, sentence etc. Together, these component parts equate to the form that language takes. The form of both spoken and written language are governed by a system of rules otherwise known as grammar. Grammar is the branch of linguistics that encompasses phonology, morphology, and syntax. Phonology refers to system of rules that concerns the systems of sounds (phonetics). Morphology refers to the system of rules that concerns the formation of words. Syntax refers to the system of rules that concerns the order of the words in a sentence. The meaning of both spoken and written language encompasses the subfields of semantics and pragmatics. Semantics is the branch of linguistics that concerns the meaning of language on the basis of text, sound, word, sentence etc. and/or the final form and concept. Pragmatics is the branch of linguistics that concerns the meaning of language on the basis of context. Moreover, the context of language, is both extensive and comprehensive with the general inclusion of evolutionary linguistics, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, nuerolinguistics, language acquisition, and discourse analysis. The latter definition of language is primarily characteristic of humans and is indicative of

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humans as the sole possessors of language skills per the current definition of language which brings us to the properties of human language.

The properties of human language are reflexivity, displacement, arbitrariness, productivity, and cultural transmission (Yule 11-15). Reflexivity refers to a special property of human language that allows language to be used to think and talk about language itself (Yule 11-15). Displacement refers to a property of language that allows users to talk about things and events present in the immediate environment(Yule 11-15). Arbitrariness refers to a property of language describing the fact that there is no natural connection between a linguistic form and its meaning(Yule 11-15). Productivity refers to a property of language that allows users to create new expressions (Yule 11-15). Cultural transmission refers to the process whereby knowledge of a language is passed from one generation to the next (Yule 11-15).The question of whether language is innate or learned, nature vs. nurture is the most controversial of the lot of debates regarding the nature of language. The scope of this paper is not sufficient enough to contest sides. Hence, for summation sake and not for a matter of fact, but for a matter of opinion; I attest that language is both innate and learned. Nature and nurture both play a crucial role. Another question concerning the nature of language asks whether or not language is biological or social. Again, the scope of this paper is not sufficient to contest sides. However, in my opinion, language is both biological and social. Linguistics is the scientific study of language that broadly encompasses form, meaning, and context. Linguists treat language and language use as a phenomena to be studied much as a geologist treats the Earth. Linguists want to figure out how language works, the premise of this paper (Gassar).

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What I know about my language and how to use it is called my idiolect and it involves my knowledge about my vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and usage(Gassar). The linguist emphasis is much the same in that he/she focuses on vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, and usage, yet within a shared speech community of shared linguistic conventions or if you will, a shared dialect. A dialect refers to the speech patterns, that is, conventions of vocabulary, pronunciation , grammar, and usage of a speech community. The pronunciation associated with the dialect is called the accent(Gassar). What then distinguishes a dialect from a language? Whats the criteria? There is a common linguistic criteria of three: mutual intelligibility, social, and political(Gassar). The mutual intelligibility concerns the degree to which the speakers of one or more of the speech communities understands/interprets each-other. The social and political criteria concerns the social or political connection to the group in question whether mutual intelligibility is present or not. Hence, it can be concluded that every language has multiple dialects and every speaker is also a speaker of at least one dialect of their native language(Gassar). It can also be concluded that every speaker regardless of their language contains an accent.(Gassar) Extending the boundaries of speech communities further gives us fewer and fewer shared conventions to the extent of sharing nothing more than a simple word similar in pronunciation(Gassar). This; however, does not constitute a language nor a dialect, rather its conventions equate to a language family. This brings us to the notion that all languages share common threads of origin as well having ascended from the same language family. The theories of where language first originated are plentiful; some plausible others though interesting, a bit fanciful. They include the mama, ta-ta, bow-wow, pooh-pooh, ding-dong, yo-

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he-ho, sing-song, hey you, and eureka theory(Boeree). Many languages are said to have ascended from the Indo-European language family. In fact, there are no clear nor marked differences distinguishing one language from the next other than the variation of complexity. This brings us to the theory of Universal Grammar which posits that there are principles of grammar that all languages share. The similarities between languages are remarkable! Nonstandard dialects that do not share the same conventions and prestige are often discouraged in formal situations which causes the decrease in dialects (Gassar). When were dealing with a political unit, such as a nation, in which related dialects of a language are spoken by people, one dialect is often treated as a standard dialect. The standard dialect is often the only dialect that is written, and it is the one that is taught in the schools and (with some exceptions) used in the media(Gassar). In the U.S. we use an informal standard dialect. Teachers in schools throughout the U.S. teach traditional grammar, but teach to their own pronunciation and/or accent. If there is a standard accent, it is the one people associate with the television announcers, the accent characteristic of much of the Midwest and the West. This accent is called General American (Gassar).

Traditional grammar is the system of rules and concepts that govern language that are commonly taught in school. Traditional grammar generally encompasses the following basic parts of speech: nouns, articles, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions,pronouns, and conjunctions and the rules that govern them. Traditional grammar is also inclusive of agreement categories such as number, person, tense, voice, and gender and the rules that govern them. There are two types of traditional grammar: prescriptive and descriptive. Prescriptive grammar refers to

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the prescribed system of rules that aught to govern language. Descriptive grammar refers to the described system of rules to govern language that the individual uses, in fact. Prescriptive grammar is employed consciously while descriptive grammar is employed unconsciously which brings us to the theory of language of thought and its accomplice, mental grammar.

The language of thought hypothesis purports that mental representations have a linguistic structure, or in other words, that thought takes place within a mental language known as the language of thought, and/or mentalese (Katz). Mentalese refers to the language of thought that is merely clothed in words in order to converse with the listener(s)(Pinker 56). Mentalese and/or language of thought also operates on an unconscious system of rules and/or principles and parameters, a mental grammar if you will. Sapir, Whorf, and Wittgenstein concur that thoughts are fashioned from natural language and its composition and are not independent of. Pinker and Fodor on the other-hand theorize that mentalese is both an innate and abstruse language of thought and that it is not dependent on nor limited by ones natural language and its composition. In fact, in The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker dubbed linguistic determinism as a conventional absurdity(Pinker 57). Both natural language and language of thought and/or mentalese are completely separate and independent of one another. In fact, people dont think in their natural language, but rather in language of thought and/or mentalese (Pinker 81).

Pinker recounted that the more he examined Whorfs arguments, the less sense they made (60). Needless to say, there is no scientific evidence to substantiate the Sapir-Whorf and/ or Whorfian hypothesis.

Nicole St. Jean

The idea that language shapes thinking seemed plausible when scientists were in the dark about how thinking works or even how to study it.There is; however, two sets of tools that now make it easier to think clearly about the whole problem. One is a body of experimental studies that break the word barrier and assess many kinds of nonverbal thoughts. The other is a theory of how thinking might work in a satisfyingly precise way (Pinker 58-59).

An even more unconventional type of grammar, generative grammar, originated with Chomsky (1965) as the distinction between two different representations of a sentence, a deep structure (d-structure), and a surface structure (s-structure). Deep structure (d-structure) refers to the underlying structure of sentences as represented by phrase structure rules (Yule 286). Whereas, surface structure (s-structure) refers to the structure of individual sentences after the application of movement rules to deep structure (Yule 295). Generative grammar was then amended to include syntactic constraints and phrase structures, the X-bar Theory. The X-bar Theory refers to the particular kind of phrase structure rules thought to be used in human languages, according to which all the phrases in all languages conform to a single plan, the properties of the whole phrase are determined by the properties of a single element, the head inside the phrase (Pinker 483). Generative grammar was later amended to include restrictions on the X-bar Theory as well as compliments, modifiers, traces, and cases. Generative grammar was then amended to include subjects as well as direct and indirect objects as chief components playing a primary role. Though not an amendment of the theory of generative grammar, the minimalist program, has been developing inside generative grammar since the nineties.

Nicole St. Jean

Generative grammar refers to a distinct approach to the study of syntax. It is a set of rules that determines the form and meaning of words and sentences in a particular language as it is spoken in some community. A mental grammar is the hypothetical generative grammar stored unconsciously in a persons brain. Neither should be confused with the prescriptive or stylistic grammar taught in school and explained in style manuals (Pinker 476-77). Some would argue that generative grammar is learned and/or acquired. Chomsky and Pinker; however, would argue that generative language arises from an innate universal grammar (common grammar properties of all natural human languages).

This popular perspective views syntax as a tree with a plug-and-socket arrangement that abides by a super-structure of rules otherwise known as generative and mental grammar that are autonomous(Pinker 100). These rules broadly encompass phrase structure rules, lexical rules, and movement rules. Phrase structure rules are rules stating that the structure of a phrase of a specific type consists of one or more constituents in a particular order(Yule 292). Lexical rules are rules stating which words can be used for constituents generated by phrase structure rules (Yule 289). Movement rules are rules that are used to move constituents in structures derived from phrase structure rules (Yule 290). For scope and brevity sake we will avoid spelling-out the specific lot of phrase structure, lexical, and movement rules. These rules of universal, traditional, generative and mental grammar enable distinctions in structural ambiguity, dependencies, recursion etc., all crucial properties that make language work and yet explain its inner workings. Grammar is the glue that holds it all together!

Nicole St. Jean

The basic nature of language and the rules that govern it are clear, but how is it that language works in use and in context? Pragmatics is the study of language in use and in context. Pragmatics encapsulates context, deictic expressions , reference, speech acts, and politeness. There are two types of context: linguistic and/or co-text and physical.

Linguistic/co-text context refers to the set of words used in the same phrase of sentence. Physical context refers to the situation, time, or place in which words are used. Both the linguistic/co-text context and the physical context have a strong effect on what we think the word means. There are some very common words in our language that cant be interpreted or remain vague without the context. Diexis refers to these such words that point via language. We use diexis to point to things, people, places,and times (person, spatial, and temporal diexis). Reference is an act by which a speaker/writer uses language to enable a listener /reader to identify someone or something. An inference is additional information used by a listener/reader to create a connection between what is said and what must be meant. An anaphora is the use of pronoun (it) and noun phrases with (the) to refer back to something already mentioned. In addition, presuppositions is what a speaker (or writer) assumes is true or known by a listener (or reader) (Yule 127-136).

We base our linguistic messages on these assumptions, assumptions that can either be true or mistaken and potentially cause a communication break-down/misunderstanding. Speech acts generally request, command, question, or inform. There are two types of speech acts: direct and indirect.

Nicole St. Jean

A direct speech act refers to an action directly matches the function performed by a speaker with an utterance. An indirect speech act refers to an action in which the form used does not directly match the function performed by the speaker with an utterance. Politeness can be defined as showing awareness and consideration of another persons face. If you say something that represents a threat to another persons self-image, that is called a face-threatening act. Whenever, you say something that lessens the possible threat to anothers face, it can be described as face-saving act. There are two types of face: negative and positive. Negative face is the need to be independent and free from imposition. Positive face is the need to be connected, to belong to a member of the group(Yule 127-136).

These components of successful communication assist us in our understanding of what a speaker is saying and intending to mean. Successful communication likewise includes The Cooperative Principles and/or the Gricean Maxims are as follows (Yule 147):

1. 2. 3. 4.

The Quantity Maxim: Make your contribution as informative as is required, but not more, or less than required. The Quality Maxim:Do not say that which you believe to be false or for which you lack adequate evidence. The Relation Maxim: Be relevant. The Manner Maxim: Be clear, brief, and orderly.

These four maxims we expect our conversational partner to obey and vice versa; a set of rules for speech, if you will (Yule147).

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In conclusion, language is to be perceived as both a product and a process that serves as an instrument for communication and thought. It consists of a small set of basic properties that broadly include the nature of language, the grammars that govern, and the pragmatics that for the scope of this paper most aptly explain how language works.

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References:
Yule, George. The Study of Language. 4th ed. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge UP, 2010. Print. Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. New York: W. Morrow and, 1994. Print. Gasser, Michael. How Language Works. 3rd ed. Indiana University. 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.indiana.edu/~hlw/>. What is Linguistics? What is Generative Grammar? Princeton University. 2011. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.princeton.edu/~browning/gg.html > Katz, M. (2009). The Language of Thought Hypothesis. In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Retrieved October 15, 2011 from < http://www.iep.utm.edu/lot-hypo/ > Boeree, George. "The Origins of Language." Webspace. 2003. Web. 06 Dec. 2011. <http:// webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/langorigins.html>.