Characteristics of Language

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 Characteristics of Language

Introduction

Language is essentially a human phenomenon. It is one form of communication but it is the most frequently used and mostly highly developed form of Human communication. Language distinguishes Human and Animal. Human language has certain characteristics.

Characteristics of Language

 Means of communication

 Arbitrary

 Systems of system

 Primary vocal

 Social Behaviour

 Symbol System

 Productivity

 Interchange ability

Means of communication:

Language is an important tool for communication. One can communicate one felling idea and belief to the other by means of a language other means of communication like gestures, nods, smiles, mathematics symbol, maps, etc.

Arbitrary:

Language is arbitrary there is no inherent relationship between the words of a language and the meaning or idea conveyed by them.

Example: There is no reason for why four leg animals are called Dog in English and Nai in Tamil. The meaning of these words is based on random choice. They are purely arbitrary.

System of System:

In the language, sounds are arranged in certain fixed order to form meaningful words. Words are arranged in a particular system to make a meaningful sentence.

Example: God it will not be meaningful if it is odg or gdo.

Primarily vocal:

Language is primarily vocal sounds that are produced by the physical organ of the human beings which help them to speak. In the beginning man produced only vocal sounds so spoken language come first. Written language is it later development.

Example: A child learns to speak first later learn to write so speech is primary and writing is secondary.

Social Behavior:

Language has to be learnt and this learning is possible only in society. A child learn to speak the language of the community in where it grow.

Example: An Indian Child placed in America family easily picks up English language. So language is a form of social behaviors.

Symbol System:

A symbol is a concrete signs that stand for some things abstract.

Example: Cross symbol of Christianity.

Words are symbol that stand for object. Speaker or writer’ communicate message through symbol, receiver of a message share a common code. So language is a symbol system and different language use different symbol.

Productivity:

Language is creative and productive. The user of a language produces not only sentences that heard or learnt but can produce an infinite number of sentences by using knowledge of grammar and syntax of the language. So the language has the property of productivity.

Interchangeability:

The human language allows a speaker to become a listener without affecting the communication. This property of language is known as interchangeability.

Conclusion:

Language has civilized human being and it has developed science, art and technology and indispensable part of human society.

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