The Complexities and Universality of Language

Monday's session on language was a very interesting one for me.  I used to associate language with grammatical correctness and the beauty and flow of words.  It was extremely fascinating to understand the universality as well as the complexity of language, and to realize that our ability to read and write, and the scripts we used has no relation at all with language.

Besides, I used to undermine my own native language as insignificant and never even bothered to learn its intricacies, but to be reminded that it is no less than the other languages I used to consider as major languages, it was humbling. 

Just in case you missed some points from the session, here I'm sharing you some of the points I noted from the session.

Universality of language

• Reading and writing got nothing to do with understanding.  E.g. If you were given any words, strange and foreign words, you still would be able to write it and someone else will be able to read it! 
• Besides, script has no relation at all with language.  Any language can be written in any script.
• Language is a system of knowledge. We cannot conceptualize anything without language! Language is at the base of everything!!!
• Sign language is a full-blown language with which even the most complex concept can be explained. However body Languages are only paralinguistic feature.
• There is no difference between a language and a dialect, language is often considered superior because it has an army and a navy, i.e. it depends on the perception of the people and the number of followers and proponent.
• Across languages in the world, the negative (NOT) is always close, if not right next to, the verb.
• Across languages in the world, the questioning words (What? Where? When? Why?) is either at the beginning or at the end of the sentence because we want to emphasize on that questioning word. (In English, to get information response from a question i.e. WH, all we have to do is begin the sentence using them.
• Most language in the world has three basic content (Subject, Object, Verb) formation; English has SVO formation, Hindi has SOV formation.

How children learn?

• Every child is ‘programmed’ to learn. We have innate ability to learn language. Language is acquired with all its complexities at the age of 4. Children have the capacity to figure out the relationship between sound and script.
• Environment plays a great role, but as compared to innate ability, genetic faculty is most important.

Complexity of Language.

• There are certain complex things which are not taught, but the student learnt anyway.  One good example is making a singular word into plural by adding S. In English grammar there are no specific rules to be followed when converting a word into plural, but if we analyzed, it is based on the sound.
• The simple rule of adding an S, ES or IES to a word to make it into a plural depends on the sound of the word.  i.e. (a) If the words end with a P, T, K – we add S, (b) if the words end with Ch, Jh, Sha, S, - We add IZ, (c) If the words end with other forms of sound –we simply add Z.
• Every word in any language is made up of vowels and consonant, the difference between consonants and vowels is that, vowels can be pronounced for long period whereas consonant cannot be.
• Every word in any language is structured on the basis of CVCV (C=Consonant, V=Vowels).  That means, human language is structured on the basis of alteration of consonants and vowels and not on sequencing.  For instance, if alteration like CVCV is true, then sequencing like CCCV or VVVC cannot be true.
• If sequencing as given above is true, it can only happen only on rare cases like (C1C2C3V)
• C1 = S,  C2 = P, T, K,  C3 = R, Others   Eg. Straight, Strange, Screw