What Is Language?

Language is a process every human being learns from birth. It is a system of by which we as humans communicate. We use this form of communication to express emotion, convey thoughts, and generally �think’ abstractly. We do so through a system of signs, using speech, in a conventional manner as human beings.

Language is most importantly a system. We use this system as a blueprint to form words. These words, or terms, all have a specific meaning and relevance. They are spoken in a particular manner and carry a particular meaning. Words spoken alone generally have no significance. Since there are two levels in this language system, we use the prefix �dual’ and discuss the duality of patterning. With the “duality of patterning” (Algeo, Pyles) words spoken alone can have individual meanings, and can mean something completely different when combined.

Phonology is one of many aspects of language. This is the study of the patterned interaction of speech sounds. A somewhat palpable observation on human language is that different languages have diverse sets of possible sounds that can be used to create words.

The second main characteristic of this language system are signs. A sign is something that stands for something else. For example a word such as �ball’ is defined as a round object used in a particular sport. The smallest linguistic sign is called a morpheme. In this case the morpheme is �ball’; however when combined with the word �park’ we create a double morpheme; �ballpark’. Both words can stand alone as meaningful units. We can also refer to these as �free’ morphemes.

Bound morphemes are those that be combined with inflectional suffixes and affixes to form several variations of a single word. A word such as �manage’ can be bound with –ment, -er or -rial.

Since language can be articulated in many different ways, we can categorize all of these signals, signs, gestures, and codes, under vocal sounds. These sounds are produced in the vocal folds and combined with our breathing, produce a certain sound. The fluency in our voices can be defined as the rhythm of our speech. Concerning ourselves with writing and speech, we generally like to think speech takes principle since we have been writing for 5000 plus years, and we have been speaking for even longer.

Staying on the topic of writing, we can clearly say writing is conventional. I am