Language origins -Małgorzata Szulc-Kurpaska

Definition of language

Language is many things - a system of communication, a medium for thought, a vehicle for literary expression, a social institution, a matter for political controversy, a catalyst for nation building.

(O'Grady, M. Dobrovolsky and F. Katamba, 1997:1)

Human invention

• The `la-la' theory

• The `bow-wow' theory

• The `pooh-pooh' theory

• The `ding-dong' theory

• The `yo-he-ho' theory (the yo-heave-ho' theory)

Contributions to language

• Johann Peter Suessmilch

• A Prussian clergyman

- children can learn the language of the Hottentots and adults cannot

(the critical age hypothesis)

- grammars of languages are regular (universality of linguistic properties

• Jean Jacques Rousseau

• Empiricist, a founder of the Romantic movement

- the first words were names of individual things

- the first sentences were one-word sentences

- general and abstract words were invented later as they were `different parts of speech'

• Johann Herder

• A German philosopher, rationalist

• - language and thought are inseparable

• - man is born with the capacit for both

• - language ability is innate

Functions of language

• Communicative (interpersonal, social)

-transactional (knowledge, skills, information)

-interactional (emotions, feelings, attitudes)

• - Representative (descriptive, ideational)

Functions of language

• The emotional function

• The social function

-Phatic communion (Bronisław Malinowski)

• The phonetic function

• The performative function

• The historical function

• The mental function

• The identifying function

Properties of language

• The vocal auditory channel

• Arbitrariness

• Semanticity

• Cultural transmission

• Spontaneous use

• Turn taking

• Duality (double articulation)

The types of languages

• Isolating, analytic or root languages

- All words are invariable: there are no endings

- Grammatical endings through word order (Chinese, Vietnamese)

• Inflecting, synthetic or fusional languages

- grammatical relationships by changing the internal structure of words (inflectional endings) (Latin, Greek, Arabic)

• Agglutinative or agglutinating languages

Words are built up out of a long sequence of units, each expressing a grammatical meaning in a one-to-one way. (Turkish, Finnish, Japanese)

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