Language
WRITTEN BY: David Crystal, Robert Henry Robins
The complete article is available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/language
Language, a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by means of
which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express
themselves. The functions of language include communication, the expression of identity, play,
imaginative expression, and emotional release.
Many definitions of language have been proposed. Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and
language scholar, stated: “Language is the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds
combined into words. Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that
of ideas into thoughts.” The American linguists Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager formulated
the following definition: “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which
a social group cooperates.” Any succinct definition of language makes a number of
presuppositions and begs a number of questions. The first, for example, puts excessive weight
on “thought,” and the second uses “arbitrary” in a specialized, though legitimate, way.
Every physiologically and mentally typical person acquires in childhood the ability to make use,
as both sender and receiver, of a system of communication that comprises a circumscribed set
of symbols (e.g., sounds, gestures, or written or typed characters). In spoken language, this
symbol set consists of noises resulting from movements of certain organs within the throat
and mouth. In signed languages, these symbols may be hand or body movements, gestures, or
facial expressions. By means of these symbols, people are able to impart information, to
express feelings and emotions, to influence the activities of others, and to comport themselves
with varying degrees of friendliness or hostility toward persons who make use of substantially
the same set of symbols.
Different systems of communication constitute different languages; the degree of difference
needed to establish a different language cannot be stated exactly. No two people speak exactly
alike; hence, one is able to recognize the voices of friends over the telephone and to keep
distinct a number of unseen speakers in a radio broadcast. Yet, clearly, no one would say that
they speak different languages. Generally, systems of communication are recognized as
different languages if they cannot be understood without specific learning by both parties,
though the precise limits of mutual intelligibility are hard to draw and belong on a scale rather
than on either side of a definite dividing line. Substantially different systems of communication
that may impede but do not prevent mutual comprehension are called dialects of a language.
In order to describe in detail, the actual different language patterns of individuals, the term
idiolect, meaning the habits of expression of a single person, has been coined.
Typically, people acquire a single language initially—their first language, or native tongue, the
language used by those with whom, or by whom, they are brought up from infancy.
Subsequent “second” languages are learned to different degrees of competence under various
conditions. Complete mastery of two languages is designated as bilingualism; in many cases—
such as upbringing by parents using different languages at home or being raised within a
multilingual community—children grow up as bilinguals. In traditionally monolingual cultures,
the learning, to any extent, of a second or other language is an activity superimposed on the
prior mastery of one’s first language and is a different process intellectually.
Language, as described above, is species-specific to human beings. Other members of the
animal kingdom have the ability to communicate, through vocal noises or by other means, but
the most important single feature characterizing human language (that is, every individual
language), against every known mode of animal communication, is its infinite productivity and
creativity. Human beings are unrestricted in what they can communicate; no area of
experience is accepted as necessarily incommunicable, though it may be necessary to adapt
one’s language in order to cope with new discoveries or new modes of thought. Animal
communication systems are by contrast very tightly circumscribed in what may be
communicated. Indeed, displaced reference, the ability to communicate about things outside
immediate temporal and spatial contiguity, which is fundamental to speech, is found
elsewhere only in the so-called language of bees. Bees are able, by carrying out various
conventionalized movements (referred to as bee dances) in or near the hive, to indicate to
others the locations and strengths of food sources. But food sources are the only known
theme of this communication system. Surprisingly, however, this system, nearest to human
language in function, belongs to a species remote from humanity in the animal kingdom. On
the other hand, the animal performance superficially most like human speech, the mimicry of
parrots and of some other birds that have been kept in the company of humans, is wholly
derivative and serves no independent communicative function. Humankind’s nearest relatives
among the primates, though possessing a vocal physiology similar to that of humans, have not
developed anything like a spoken language. Attempts to teach sign language to chimpanzees
and other apes through imitation have achieved limited success, though the interpretation of
the significance of ape signing ability remains controversial.
In most accounts, the primary purpose of language is to facilitate communication, in the sense
of transmission of information from one person to another. However, sociolinguistic and
psycholinguistic studies have drawn attention to a range of other functions for language.
Among these is the use of language to express a national or local identity (a common source of
conflict in situations of multiethnicity around the world, such as in Belgium, India, and
Quebec). Also important are the “ludic” (playful) function of language—encountered in such
phenomena as puns, riddles, and crossword puzzles—and the range of functions seen in
imaginative or symbolic contexts, such as poetry, drama, and religious expression.
Language interacts with every aspect of human life in society, and it can be understood only if
it is considered in relation to society. This article attempts to survey language in this light and
to consider its various functions and the purposes it can and has been made to serve. Because
each language is both a working system of communication in the period and in the community
wherein it is used and also the product of its history and the source of its future development,
any account of language must consider it from both these points of view.
The science of language is known as linguistics. It includes what are generally distinguished as
descriptive linguistics and historical linguistics. Linguistics is now a highly technical subject; it
embraces, both descriptively and historically, such major divisions as phonetics, grammar
(including syntax and morphology), semantics, and pragmatics, dealing in detail with these
various aspects of language.
