EGERTON UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF LITERATURE LITT 211: LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION AND USE Course outline The aim of this

course is to introduce students to basic ideas of language as a vital tool for appreciating literature. Introductory exploration of the nature, functions and varieties of language will be covered in addition to the study of relationships at phonological grammatical, lexical and semantic levels of langua ge description. Students are expected to bring their linguistic experience of mo ther tongue, Kiswahili and any other known language in addition to the English e xperience. Course is divided into three major parts. PART 1: LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION 1. Linguistics -a general introduction various branches of linguistics and areas they cover. 2. Language definition 3. Language use and Linguistics 4. Learning of Language 5. Characteristics of human language as compared to other forms of animal c ommunication based on repetition of sounds. 6. Language as symbolic systems. Relationship between sound and referent. 7. Study of language structure at level of:a) Phonology (sound system) b) Morphology (grammatical) c) Syntax d) Lexis e) Semantics

PART II: LANGUAGE USE 8. Development of writing systems Relationship between speech and writing 9. Language variety a) Dialects Regional - Social - Standards b). Language contact Bilingualism, (multiculturalism) c). Registrars and Styles Continuous Assessment Test 1 Relationship between the study of language and literature:a) Language of literature b) Selection of words and organization of message c) Poetic license d) Power of words- manipulation by author 10. Translation 11. Language and the African writer 12. Development of writing systems, relationships between writing and speech . - CAT 2 12. Revision, Examinations REFERENCES 1. J.F. Wawlwork: Language and Linguistics (compulsory text) 2. Raymond Chapman: Linguistics and Literature 3. Anderson and Stageberg: Introductory Readings on Language

4. Winifred Noworthy: The Language Poets Use 5. Geoffrey N. Leech: A Linguistic guide to English Poetry 6. Any Translated works: White Teeth/Song of Lawino and Ocol, Okot pBitek Th e African Child Camera Layo Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe River Between Ngugi wa Thiongo 7. Rodman Introduction to Language LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION Aim us to introduction students to basic ideas of language as a vital tool for a ppreciating literature. Introduction explanation of the nature, variety functions of language will be co vered in addition to the study of relationships at phonological, grammatical, le xical and semantic levels of language description. Students are expected to bring there linguistic experiences of mother tongue, Ki swahili and other known languages in addition to English experience. General aims of the cause 1. To present basic information about language as an interesting subject in its own right: To enable students be a ware of the nature of language and some of its multivarious aspects and uses. 2. To make students more respective to the artistic uses of language in lit erature. 3. To arose student intellectual curiosity about language to the point wher e they want to know more about it. 4. To influence students on the use of language and enable them cope succes sfully with the wealth of words both spoken and written, that surrounds us all. PART I LANGUAGE DESCRIPTION Linguistics: General introductionvarious branches Linguistics simply is the study of human language. A linguists who is interested in a given language attempts to take it apart, to see how it works, just as a m echanic may purely out of curiosity take a part of an unfamiliar motor just as a mechanic who has taken a motor part put it back again, a linguistic takes langu age apart only figuratively to describe the language. A linguistic description o f some part is called grammar of that language. Grammar is a set of statements s aying how language works, including description, principles for combining to for m grammatical sentences.

Branches of linguistics 1. Descriptive linguistics This is the investigation done by a linguistic on some aspect of language that i nterests him with no intension, what so ever of turning the results to practical application. He investigates because it intrigues him and because he wants to contribute to h uman knowledge in language. Linguists like Chomsky, Saussure, Freud, Sapir, Aristotle etc did a lot in descr iption of what a language is especially the aspect of psychology reality and phe nomenon of language. Descriptive linguistic seeks and involves the description of language in one poi nt in time. 2. Diachronic/Historical Linguistic This is the study of the history of language. its studies the changes that take place in a language through time (and all living language change through time ho wever imperceptively), seeking to reconstruct earlier stages of it where written records were not available to determine precisely what changes have taken place in the course of its historical period. Through 19th century linguists were concerned with investigating details of hist orical development of given language and with generating hypothesis about langua

ge change. This branch of linguistic traces the historical development of a lang uage and records the changes that have taken place in it between successive poin ts in time. A synchronic description of language is non historical it presents an account of a language as it is in some particular point in time. 3. Theoretical and applied linguistics Theoretical and applied linguistics studies language with a view to constructing a theory of their structure and functions without regard to any practical appli cation that the investigation of language and languages might have. Applied ling uistic is concerned with the application of concepts and findings to a variety o f practical tasks.

4. Anthropological linguistics This is the investigation of language by linguists as part of the investigation of their associated cultures. 5. Psycho linguistics This is the study of the linguistic behaviour and the psychomechanisms responsibl e for that language e.g. Freuli (community in Australia) where the language of m ale and female differs in terms of words, which are prohibited to each gender. 6. Social linguistics Its the study of the functioning of language in society. 7. Phonetics This is a branch that involves itself with the analysis of speech sound with res pect to there articulation, acoustic properties and perception. 8. Micro and macro linguistics In micro linguistics one adopts a narrower view of language. In macro linguistics one adopts a broader view macro concerns itself with the st ructure of language systems, without regard to the way in which languages are in quired stored in the brain or used in their various functions without regard to the independence of the languages without regard to the physiological, psychologi cal behaviour. Macro deals with broader aspects applied in language teaching.

PART II LANGUAGE DEFINITION INTRODUCTION Language is so much a part of us such that we regard it as both natural and simp le. Language is everywhere. Whatever else people may do when they come togetherwh ether they play, fight, dance, make love, or make auto-mobiles, they talk. Langu age permeates our thoughts, mediates our relations with others and even creeps i nto our dreams. We talk to our friends, our associate our wives and husbands or our mothers and mothers in laws: we talk to total strangers, our enemies, we talk face to face a nd over the telephone and everyone responds to us with more talk. As a result, h ardly a moment of our working lives is free from words; we talk even when there is no one to answer. We talk to our pets and even sometimes to ourselves.

The possession of language more than any other attribute distinguishes man from other animals. To use language in the mask of man, to understand language in the deepest sense is the mark of an educated man Aristotle. To understand mans humanity; one must understand the language that makes him a m an. It is language which is the source of human life and power according to the myths, philosophies and religions of many people. To some Africans a new born c hild is a Kinta i.e. a thing not yet muntu a person only by learning language does the child become a human being. When you know a language you are able to signify certain meanings and understand the meanings of the sounds others produceknowing which parts of sounds one part of the language and which are not. Knowing which starts and ends a word of which ones follow. If you dont know a language the sounds you hear would mean nothing to you this is because the relationship between speech sounds and the meanings they represent are arbitrary because the different words are only given meaning by language in which they occur.

Definition of Language What is language? Language since time immemorial has always been the object of intense passions, p rejudice and patronage of man. Whether we take the already laid sources, origins of language e.g. the instantan eous creation of the world by God only by a word. In the Bible, there was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God or the Greek legislatures who gave the correct natural name to everything adults bubbling and babies bubbling back or whether it dates back to the days of the t ower of Babel the definition of language has always remained elusive. Before defining what language is, linguists have to dispel a number of myths abo ut language by dealing with question such as this. What is language? What do you know when you know a language? Is language unique to man? Why are there many languages? How do they change? Are some languages on dialects superior than others? What is the origin of language? How does a child learn language? Do machines and animals talk? Any one who asks the question what is language must expect to be treated with the same suspicion as a traveler who inquires of t he other passengers waiting on a platform station whether they can tell the way to the station. . . . The language users have the only concept of a language worth having. (Harris 198 0) Language is the most unique of abilities and the most complex. The following are some of the definitions of language linguists have come up with (But they are n ot absolute). 1. Sapir 1921:8 Language is purely human and non instinctive method of comm unicating ideas, emotion and desires by means of voluntary produced symbols. 2. In this outline of linguistic analysis, Bloch and Trager (1942:5) wrote a language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social grou p cooperates. 3. Chomsky in his syntactic structures 1913. Defines language to be a set of finite or infinite sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of fini

te elements. according to Chomsky, all natural languages either in their spoken o r written form, are languages in the sense of its definition since a) Each natural language has finite number of sounds in it and a finite num ber of letters in its alphabets) on the assumption that it has alphabetical writ ing system. b) Each sentence can be represented as a sequence of sounds or letters. 4. In an essay on language, Hall 1968: 158 language is the institution wher eby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral or auditory symbols. 5. Languages are systems of symbols as it were for the sake of communication Jonathan Saussure 1957 since language is treated by Hall and Sapir as purely hum an institutions, language that is used by a given society is part of that societ ys culture. Because language is unique to mean. 6. Language expresses identity, enables cooperation and converse freedom an d creates symbolic model of the world in which past and present are carried forw ard to the future. 7. Language is the naming of experience and what we name we have power over . committee of inquiry into the teaching of language by John Kingman march 1988.

Theories of language When studying or defining language the following assumptions are made: 1. As humans we use language for social reasons and multi-simplicity of pur poses. 2. Language is dynamic. It varies from one context to another and from one set of users to another language also changes over time. 3. Language embodies social and cultural values and carries meaning related to each users unique identity. 4. A language reveals and concerns much about human relations. They are int imate connection e.g. Between language and social power Language and culture Language and gender 5. Language is a system and its systematically organized. 6. Meaning created through language can constrains us as well as liberate u s. Language users must constantly negotiate and renegotiate meanings. LANGUAGE USE AND LINGUISTICS Language is often referred to as a tool. The implication equal like a hammer, sa w or drills, it can be used to perform certain jobs. Language as a tool is the most remarkable one because unlike tools which have a single function; drills used to bore holes, saw to cut wood, language does many things. Depending on the job at hand, we use language differently and we respond differently to various uses. One very important use of language is to communicate, inform, this is accomplish ed by affirming, or denying propositions. 1. Language used to affirm or deny propositions, or presents arguments serv es the informative function both in false or true proposition, incorrect as well as correct arguments. Informative discourse is used to describe the world and to reason about it; whet her the alleged facts that are being described are important general on particul ar does not matter.

2. Expressive function of language Just as science provides us with the clearest examples of information discourses , poetry provides us with the best serving expressive function e.g. in the poem: O my loves red red rose Thats newly spring in June O my loves like the melodies Thats sweetly played in the tune The poets purpose is to communicate feelings and attitudes; to express certain em otions that the poet felt very keenly and to evoke feelings of similar kind to t he reader. Language serves the expressive function whenever it is used to vent or communica te feelings in emotions. However, NOT all expressive language is poetry. We express sorrow by saying That is too bad Oh my And enthusiasm by shouting e.g. oh boy! etc A worshiper may express his feelings of wonder and awe at the verseness and myst ery of the universe by reciting the lords prayer in psalms 123. People use language to express emotions feeling and attitudes Expressive language may be in two forms a) Self expression i.e. when a man curses to himself when he is alone, prai se in solitude and b) When an orator seeks to inspire his audiences, when a lover loves his fr iends in poetic licenses, when the crowd cheers their team. The language used no t only evinces the attitude of the speaker but also is intended to evoke feeling of the hearer. The expressive discourse is used to evoke the spoken feelings on the part of the audience. 3. DIRECTIVE FUNCTION Language serves a direct function when its used for the purpose of causing or pre venting an overt action e.g. commands and requests. When a mother tells her little boy to wash his hands before supper, her language is intended to get the results, to cause a specific action not to evince or evo ke any particular emotion. When the same mother asks the grocer to deliver certain goods to her house, she is using language directively to effect action. However the different between a command and a request is rather a subtle one, for almost any command can be tran slated into a request by adding the word please or by suitable change in voice to ne or in visual expansion. Whether a command is obeyed or not does not affect or determine its true value. Effective communication needs some certain combinatio ns of function. Actions may be caused by evoking emotions. 4. Ceremonial use of language Included here are many different phrases ranging from trivial words of greetings to more potential discourse of ceremonies. This use of language is a mixture of expressive and directive discourse. The usual ceremonial greetings and chit cha ts at social gatherings serves the purpose of evincing good will and sociability . The impressive e.g. in a marriage ceremony is intended to express the solemnit y of the occasion (its impressive function) and also to cause the bride and groo m to perform in their new roles with heightened appreciation of the seriousness of the marriage contract (its directive function). Summary of Functions of Language 1. Conveying and getting information Language can be used to describe events present and pasts, to predict the future and relate all these to one another. Questions can also be asked to elicit such information which can be conveyed through radio, tapes, TV, newspaper etc

2. Expressing feelings, opinions and attitudes. Language can be used to express emotions, desires, and ideas. It can convey what an individual or a group of people feel and think. Questions can also be used t o elicit such feelings and thoughts because one speaks from ones thoughts.

3. Instructing and directing: Through language, a person can instruct, requests, encourage someone to do somet hing or not to do it. He can give direction on how to do something similarly, he can ask for instructions on directions hence; language can convey orders or giv e facts. 4. Recording information: Language is used for recording information e.g. speeches, oral literature, repo rts etc and also for keeping those records. 5. For ceremonial purposes: Language is used at various established functions e.g. marriage, weddings, buria ls etc 6. For influencing people: language is used in persuasion and propaganda

7. Creative expression: language is used in plays, songs, poems etc All these are the vehicles of imaginations as they are used in creative language and their role and function of meaning vary in skill, creativity and the langua ge ability of the writer. 8. To promote unity and harmony: Language is used to promote writing and learning among those who use the languag e e.g. in establishing personal and social relations e.g. Kiswahili used as a na tional language in Kenya, English as an official and international media of comm unication. 9. For establishing relationships: People use language (among other things) to give their identity to one thing and the other. Personal pronouns and names play a large part in establishing relati onships; often as part of statements, origin, family etc. The way language is us ed also reflects social differences and degree of friendliness, politeness etc l anguage is also used for the social conventions which lubricate e.g. greetings, thanks etc all the above uses of language should be considered in terms of produ ctive, receptive, aspect e.g. giving instruction and responding to instruction. LEARNING OF LANGUAGE Learning is two much part of us that we save time tend to regard it as both natu ral and simple. Language is a product of culture and thought pattern. What we th ink about and how we think about if one impart determined by the nature of over language which we must learn. In general term there is no difference between the way one learn language and the way one learns to do something else. Beyond reco gnizing that only human beings posses the capacity for learning language; there is no other complex internal endowment that allows human beings to learn a new l anguage. (Learning of a language is controlled by the conditions under which it takes pla ce and that as long as individuals are subjected to the same conditions under wh ich it takes place they will learn in the same way.). Each learning opportunity or experience provides a learning opportunity. every p iece of utterance is produced as a result of the presence of some kid of stimulus the stimulus to which an utterance forms a response may be physically present or verbal since language can be produced as a response to other languages or may b

e internal, in that in a state of thirst may provide the stimulus for utterance su ch as I would like to have a plan of water. A single emission of a response even if it is reinforced it is by no means enoug h for learning to take place. Learning of a language takes place if a response i s repeated several times. The notion of (repetition) is important in learning a language. The language res ponse must be active i.e. one learns what one practices doing. In learning a language one has to acquire both a formal thematic and repertoire of response. Children learn and acquire language by acquiring bits e.g. in the word (goat) th e child learns that it has 4 legs and hence uses goats for cats, horses and any animal with four legs and the other bits are learned i.e. it bleats etc Daddy at first may mean a male man and used for any male and only later learning, the other important parts of the meaning, namely that it means a man with a part icular relationship to him. Children take meanings of words one at a time. They dont acquire the whole meanin g when they first start using it but learn the meaning bit by bit. The child use of adult words means something different from us. This is shown by a child who says I have got headache in my tummy that we learn that headache mean s something different to him. Other examples are big and old. These have the sam e meaning for the child a big person in their term is also old. To them bigger p eople are usually older people. For men and women, the difference is a matter of clothes they wearthe superficial ones of appearance and behaviour. At first the child may think that the crucial meaning of girl is a child who plays with dolls and wear dresses. Somethings calls for the childs attention than others, the bits of meanings he lea rns reflects the things he has noticed within his surrounding and the way he ass ess them when learning a language and child starts with question words e.g. why, who, how etc. The child starts with simple meanings which gradually add together to get more c omplicated one i.e. he learns the simple meanings which gradually add together t o get more complicated i.e. he learns the simple ones later the complicated ones that combine later. The child possesses part of adult meaning because he has limited experience of a word. Does the way we think influences our language or does language influence the way we think If language comes first, then language must be treated as a foundation on which a child builds his thinking. At home our chief task is to help the Childs languag e as everything else follows from his language development. At early stages a ch ilds language may be based on thinking, at teens the reverse may be true. The dif ference between a childs system of thought and the adults are profound. Piaget carried out experiments that show the system of thought and speech of chi ldren under seven. One of them was on the tall think glass and a short fat glass that contains the same amount of water. If a child was asked the glass with mor e water, he will say that the thin glass has more water even if he sees the wate r being poured out the fat glass to the other in his eyes. The concept of volume goes with height. A childs early attempts to communicate th rough language depends on ways of thinking before he can use words, a child has to be able to group things together that have something related e.g. dogs are al l animals because he groups things with similar fantasies. According to Piaget, there is an important change in a childs, system of thinking at the age of seven. Here the child starts using more mature ways of thinking c alled concrete operations. This is when he is no longer ruled just by how things

look as was the case of the child and the two glasses. Language leads to thinking. One way through which language is likened to thinkin g is through memory. Adults language uses language to a large extent. A child sta rts with a very limited memory capacity. The child can only remember a list of 1 or 2 words when an adult can remember se veral. As a Childs memory expands the words and sentences expand. Memory is used in many ways of thinking and speaking and influence the development and behaviou r of a child. In early stages of a child, thinking affects language rather than the other way round in adults and its difficult to use language as a way of contr olling his action. A childs actions are governed by what he sees than language at an early stage may still have no influence ever the childs action i.e. dont go near the fire until th e child gets burnt by the fire as the child grows up, language becomes more invol ved in his way of thinking. Action and memory goes together. Thinking and language differ hence its foolish to insist that a child must be tau ght language so as to think a taught thinking so as to speak. When a child is bo rn, it is helpless and it expresses its helplessness by using sound-unlike the y oung of other animals who get on their feet few minutes after birth and run with the head. Language is species specific to human race, every child is born with th e capacity to learn language and to use the language acquired to make sense on t he world into which it is born. Any child can develop language as long as it hasnt suffered any damage-physical, physiological, deprivational and physical brain damage. A child capacity to lear n language is a general capacity and can be used on whatever language or languages the community presents him. All infants are capable of making any of the sounds used by any of the worlds natural languages. If a child is regularly exposed to two languages he will probably learn both and he will buy and succeed in keeping the 2 linguistic systems separate, which as a considerable achievement in some. A child learning to speak will communicate through synprexic means i.e. a mixtur e of speech gesture and action. Childrens language is brief and is a disjointed kind of language composition beca use they are limited in what they are able to say however, it is not limited in meaning. Most conversations involving young kids are rooted in the here and now. They have restricted powers of expression and on understanding of the world tha t is both limited and nave. The sequence of language learning in children is the same. They make use of appa ratus such as (there), (look), (that), (want), (more), (all gone), either alone or in combination. An American child of 6 men who moves to Japan with his parents for instance will be at home in Japanese in no time; the parents however may have to depend on th e child as an interpreter. Stages of language acquisition in children Age Nature of sound Actual sound/sentence 0-2 months Discomfort sounds Aa,ee,Eeeei 02-04 months Add please Aga Aga 04-08 months Bubbling Maa Maa 08-12 months Bubbling phonemic systems, words, phrases, without sense Ba ba didi di 12 -16 months Development of different tenses, conjunctions, conditional, mood , passive, voc, passive form crying internal speech Disjointed sentences whi ch can be understood by filling for them Errors that a child makes in the process of learning a language are called produ

ctive errors. For a child to master language adults talk, they must have the Lang uage Acquisition Device (LAD) which entails listening, repeating and copying. If a child is born in Kenya and taken straight to Russia, the child will learn Rus sian with ease using LAD assuming that all the factors of learning a language ar e provided. A Childs level of language development will depends among other thin gs. The level of social interactions, if a child is induced into a homogenous la nguage situation is likely to learn faster than in heterogeneous situations. The re are variabilities of people to be imitated is a vital factor. Characteristics of human language as compared to other forms of animal communica tion based on repetition of sound: The idea of talking animals is as old and as widespread as human societies as la nguage itself. No culture lacks allegiance in which some animals plays a spiking role. All over west Africa, children listen to folktales includes a spider man is the hero. Coyote is a favorite figure in many American/Indian tales. The hare and the tortoi se are common in after fold tales. Whether language is the exclusive property of human; language species is an inte resting question. The articulated signs of human language are not like the expre ssions or emotions of children or animal. Animals noises cannot be combined to f orm syllables (Aristotle) if language is viewed as only a means of communication then many animals species communicate. Humans use other systems other than their language to relate to each other and t o send messages. Language is not a claimed; uniquely human because sign language is a system comparable with human spoken language. The squeaking of dolphins the dancing of bees and the manipulation of plastic th ings by chimpanzees may represent systems similar to human language. By birds imitating vocally human speech, it doesnt means they possess human langu ages language is a system by which sound and meaning or gestures and meaning are related. Most animals possess same kind of signalizing communication system Talki ng birds e.g. parrots and the Mynah birds capable of flawlessly pronouncing words of human language and phrases. They imitate what they have heard. A bird that has learnt to say hallow goodbye is l ikely to use one for the other despite the occasion. This is because the utteran ces to the bird carry no meaning. They are neither speaking English nor their la nguage when sound like us. A parrot does not take speech to pieces nor can she form unlimited sets of utteran ces from a finite set of units. All humans can which marks the major differences between humans and animals. The abilities to produce sounds similar to those us ed in human language cant be equated with the ability to learn human language. A similar kind of gesture language is found among (Fiddler) crabs, there are 40 different varieties and each uses its own particular claw waving movement to sig nal another member of its clan. The timing, movement and posture of the body nev er changes from one time to another or from one crab to the other within a given species. Whatever the signal means it is fixed and only one meaning can be conveyed at a time and there are no infinite sets of fiddler crabs nor can the signal be broke n down into smaller elements as its possible with human languages. Among the spider there is a complex spiders system for courtship. The male spide r before he approaches his lady love goes through elaborate gestures to inform t hat he is indeed a spider and not a (crump) or a fly to be eaten. The gestures a re invariants. One never finds a creative spider changing or adding to a particula r courtship ritual of its species.

The language of the honey bees is far more complex than that of the spider or fi ddler crabs when a forager bee returns to the hive, if it has lacked a source of food, it does a dance which gives certain information about the source of foods , it does a dance which givens certain information about the source to other mem bers of the colony. The dancing behaviour assumes any of the 3 possible patterns . a) Round b) Sickle c) Tail wagging The determining factor in the choice of dance and the distance of the food sourc e from the hive AIndicates locations near the hive within soft or so. BIndicates locations at an intermediate distance from the hive apprx 20-6 0 fit CIs for distances beyond 60 fit Sickle Dance Figure 1 Angle left of the sun Figure 2 Angle right of the sun The Tail Wagging Dance Figure 3 Angle left of the sun Figure 4 Angle Right of the Sun

NB: The number of times per minute the bee dances a complete pattern (1-2-1-3) i ndicates the distance of the food source. The bees dance is capable and is infinitely capable of meaning many messages. it is varied like human language. Unlike human language the communication system o f bees is confined to a single subject or though; that of food. This dance gives us a chance to illustrate other property that every natural language of the wor ld posses especially the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign. When we say that the linguistic sign is arbitrary, we mean there is no connectio n between the linguistic form and the corresponding linguistic meaning. There is no connection between the sound of the word (tree) or the notion of (stop-dange rs) the set in this case is a cultural matter what has been taken to be by the c ommunity. Even in the bees dance the relationship between tail wagging and the so urce of food is arbitrary because there is nothing indicating whether the food i s of lesser or better quality, there is no priori way of telling. We have talked about the language systems of the spiders, crabs and the bees. Wh at of the birds? It is known that the songs of certain birds have certain meanin gs. One song may mean (lets build a nest together) another song may mean (go get some worms for the babies) but birds cannot make new songs to cope up with new situation nor can they vary old songs to reflect some new meaning. Birds songs se em to be more similar to human language than the movement of the spider, the cra w waving of the crab or the dancing of the bees. All these system are fixed in t erms of messages which can be conveyed hence they lack the creative element of h uman language. A study of higher animals also reveals that no language systems are creative in

the way human language is. Wolfs use many facial expressions, movements of their tails and growls to express different degrees of threats, submission, anxiety, depression etc. the sounds and gestures produced by non human primates monkeys an d apes shows their signals are stereo types and limited in terms of messages the y convey. The communicative system of animals is qualitatively different from language use d by man. (One of the major differences is that mans use of language is not just a response to an external or even an internal emotional stimulus as is the case with those of animals) Descartes warns against confusing human use of language wit h natural movements which betray passions and may be manifested by animals. Dolphins researchers are still trying to prove Descartes wrong. For a while the D olphin, the monkey of the sea appeared to be a good candidate for refusing that la nguage is unique to man. The animal has a brain comparable in size with human br ain and the cerebral cortex is wriggled like that of human brain due to the thin ness of the cerebral cortex. The dolphin does not use sound to communicate it produces clicking, squeaking an d whistling sounds to communicate with others. These sounds are directional sounds produced to help locate the position and obj ects which may get in their way, just as blind bats do. The analysis of the soun d units shows that like other animals signals they are closely related to emotio nal situation thus a falling pitch- whistle represents the dolphins call for dis tress at times and at times the mating call of the male dolphin. Janis Bastian conducted many experiments with dolphins to see whether they commu nicate message to each other. A male and female dolphin were kept in separate t anks, the female was shown a continuous or flashing light, the male could neithe r see the female nor the light. The task then was: if the continuous light was shown, the female had to press ri ght hand paddle and inform the male by her calls to press his right hand paddle and again call out to the male to press his left hand paddle. They would only be rewarded with fish if they communicate correctly. In this exp eriment it appeared that the dolphins were signaling to each other and later the y had learnt their task as conditioned responses and behaved more like the Pavlo vs dogs than communicating human. The calls of the female dolphin had little to do with her desire to communicate with the male. She did it because she had been conditioned. Such studies of anim al communication provide evidence for descants between the fixed stimulus messag es of animals and the creative linguistics ability possessed by human animals.

CLEVER HANS At the beginning of this century, a famous horse appeared to disapprove the idea s of uniqueness of human language. His fame spread from Berlin where he lived th roughout out the world. According to the trainer Hert Von Osten, hans was able t o understand what was said to him and the respond appropriately by tapping his f oot. He tapped his foot in case of arithmetic problems e.g. 2+2 it would tap the foot four times. He would answer 4/16 as the sum of 1/8 and 2/16 by first tappi ng the four then the sixteen, when he was taught a chord, relating a certain numbe r of hoof beats for each letter of alphabets; he spelt answers to non mathematic al problems. That Hans was responding to visual cues which were used by the questioner uncons

ciously and that hand could only provide answers to questions when the answers w ere known to the interrogator. It was also proved that when the movement was deliberately made, at the wrong ti me, Han would give wrong answers because he didnt understand the question or the answer. His answers were therefore conditioned answers. Han was clever but not clever en ough to learn mans language. Summary If language is defined as a system of communication then language is not unique to man. A basic property of human language is its creative aspect a speakers abi lity to string together discreet units to form an infinite set of novel sentence s. Children need not be taught language in any way, they require only linguistic input to enable them form their own grammar. The fact that deaf children learnt language shows that the ability to hear or pr oduce sound is not a necessary requirement for language learners and the ability to imitate the sounds of human language is not sufficient basis for human languag e since birds imitate sounds but cant segment these sounds into smaller units nor understand what they are imitating. Birds, bees, wolves, dolphins and chimpanze es and most animal communicate in some way through limited and fixed. Their communication is stimulus bound although studies have been made to prove w hether animal have language or not, its clean that language still seems unique t o man. LANGUAGE AS A SYMBOLIC SYSTEM Relationship between sound and referent Language binds as together as men and women; yet paradoxically it divides us. Th e French speak French, German, speak German and the Italian speak Italian. In or der for a speaker of a language to communicate with each other effectively membe rs of the same speech community must use and know the same symbol. The English w ord for bread is pain in French and Brot in German and pane in Italian. In each language, the symbols are different but they are equally effective becau se the symbolic process is the same regardless of the language. Symbols are at the heart of language without symbols we would be unable to commu nicate. Symbols are instruments of great power. They are central in language just like t he language of arts and creative artists try to explore it to the powers of insp iration; in painting, sculpture etc in any utterance 3 factors are concerned. a) the speaker b) the act of speech c) the hearer and the message For the speaker the act of speech is normal and is a means to convey his desires . For the hearer it is meant for taking some action or attitudes. From that point of view, it is an act of communication. K.A Buhler an Australian psychologist advanced the formula that the act of speec h is the speakers mind and a signal to the hearer. The word people denotes a parti cular object and not other symbols of studying language are those signs man uses to communicate with one another (Ogaden Richards 1972) such symbols can be clas sified from various view points. They may appeal to some situation. Sound and si ght are the most developed. Symbols are either natural or conventional. Natural symbols have a relationship with what they represent i.e. some gestures are a reflection of the mind. Pictorial sculpture representative of e.g. goddess of justice are allegorical based on internal analogy.

The cross is a natural Christian norm not because of the allegorical implication but through its historical association because of the importance of crucifixion of Jesus. Other symbols include: siren - time signed, or air raid warning. Black threads symbolize a sign of mourning. Shaking of the head means negation. In Japan white is the colour for mourning while in Turkey shaking of the head me ans to assent. These are purely conventional devices as they become intelligible outside the communication. Some symbols are isolated while others form intricat e symbols e.g. Naval signals codes, the deaf and damn alphabets language and wri ting. A sign is only one aspect of language. Its a mental construct designed to enhance communication e.g. gestures as resulting from mimes for the deaf. Signs are always metaphors and metaphors are always represented. Literus is the ability to put down letters and make meaning out of letters. Language (langue) was regarded by Saussure as Deposit of signs he gives three dist inctions of language namely: Language, Langue, and parole. Langue: it is language in its formal properties opened to examination as a fixed object. Parole: is language as it is spoken Language: is the sum of the two elements. In using the word sign he was thinking of complex phenomenon made up of acoustic image and a concept the thing signifie d thus a word or words in a language indicates refers to or indicate an existing thing or idea which is the customary meaning of sign in discussing language in communication. The sign is arbitrary associated with some concept and when its us ed, it conjures up a mental concept. Raymond Forth: distinguishes 4 concepts of signs in language a) Index b) Signal c) Icon and d) Symbol An index is a sign with direct relation to what is signifies e.g. the foot print which shows that someone has passed or the smoke which shows the existence of f ire. A signal is a sign with emphasis on consequential outcomes as stimulus requiring some response e.g. thirsts is to water. An icon is a sign which has a sensory relationship with what is represented e.g. a painted likeness or possibly music which reproduces some special characterist ics of an experience i.e. birds song, wind or storm. A symbol is a sign of a complex series of association meant for conveying some t houghts, emotions or events. Meaning of symbol in language as being allocated depending on Habits Convention or Agreement by natural disposition of the interpreters. The process of communication based on indices, icons, or symbols have a differen t reach and different power from those based on conventional signs. Symbols are not combined with the same group of users but can convey meaning amo ng the cross the normal boundaries of the speech on language community. They are also important for media and transmission other than speech and writing. Language of gesture Language of gesture, movement and physical posture are other major forms of expr ession. Observers of social interaction have noted regularities of body movement and positioning visual expression and gestures which indicate the mental proces

s (paralanguage) which at least explains a state of mind, intentions and often a ct to convey meaning in an efficient way as formal spoken language. The study of (paralanguage) have reached a point where one can be sure of the fa ct that members of the same culture instinctively make use of non verbal communi cation which is well understood consistent in use and rests are the same convent ion language as proper. Sounds are not necessarily aspect of language. Children that are born damn cant s peak without special training. These unfortunate children are never the call les s able to learn language. Many learn the sign language Deaf sign on sign language ut ilizes the hands and fingers as the organs and articulation. For some words e.g. proper names, a finger spelling system is used. There is a d ifferent gesture representing each letter of the alphabet. These uses are not li nguistically derived. Poetry of high quality has been written in sign and also p lays have been acted. Certain individual cured of their deafness as adults are able to use language vo cally never the less prefer sign language since its their native language. Sign utilizes distinct properties differentiated by the place of articulation i. e. where the gestures is placed just the same way speech sound may be distinguis hed by their place of articulation e.g. /b/ vs. /p/ sign language also distingui shes meaning by a particular configuration of the fingers and the direction of m ovement. The sentences produced in sign language are rule governed by a particul ar syntactic system. Sign is undoubtedly compared with human language but its not vocal. THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE STRUCTURE AT LEVEL OF: a) Phonology: is the study of sound systems of a language. The sound system s of the words language are varied than they are similar. Speech sounds have phy sical entities definitely varied but when they function as elements in the langu age, they are highly constrained. The study of sound system (phonology) of language is fascinating because it reve als how mans linguistic ability brings him to extract regularities from the physi cal sound. (Phonology is concerned not only with the variation of sound systems but also th e phonetic universals) We find that the relatively set of phonetics characterize all human speech sounds, that the same classes of these sounds are utilized in language spoken from the arctic circle to cape of good hope, and the same kinds of regular patterns of speech sounds occur all over the world. Despite the infin ite variation which occur when we speak, all users of a language agree that cert ain utterances are the same (others are different; their knowledge of language per mits such judgments (phonology therefore study how the speech sounds form patter ns and forms in human language). Phonological knowledge permits a speaker to pro duce sounds which form important utterances to recognize a foreign accent, to ma ke new words, to add appropriate phonetic segments and past tense, to produce as pirated and inspirited voiceless stops in their context.

Phonology helps us to know the different what is or not a sound in ones language , and to know that different phonetic strings may present the same meaningful un it. Phonology is part of grammar of a language. In our effort to make utterances , in foreign language, the learner is influenced by the sounds, which exist in h is mother tongue. There substitution and phonological states. phonological knowl edge stipulates that one must know the (sound) and (spelling) of the word i.e. t he word top is different from pot, cats is different art dog is different from Go The straight forward phonological features include. voiced sounds

voiceless sounds plosive sounds velar sounds etc

MORPHOLOGY Linguists have distinguished morphology and syntax. Morphology is the combinatio n of morphemes into words. a morph is derived from the Greek word (morphe), mea ning form a single word may have more than 2 morphemes. A favorite word for young children is antidisestablishmentarianism which comes from establish and establis h is the root word. Anti is against. dis means reverse the process of or not as in disinherit, disclaim etc ; e occurs in many lingual terms meaning to do as in escribe, estop e tc stable occurs on its own at an ad, meaning farm; sh occurs after other verbs e.g. Varnish, brandish, sluggish etc ment is added to verbs to form nouns e.g. achievement shipments, etc ary is added to N to form ads e.g. momentary, honorary etc an refer to a particular individual e.g. American, African etc ism at the end of words signifies belief in something or system of something as in idealism, imperialism etc. Thus we can break the world above into nine par ts, each with a particular meaning. Thus the study of morphemic structures such as the above is called morphology. Morphemes are units of words added on the other words to form new words ie desir e vi desirable, likely vs. unlikely advantage vis disadvantage phoneme are the s ounds of words and should not be confused for morphemes. Syntax This is simply the study of the combination of words (morphemes) in to sentences Syntax helps languages users to combine simple sentences into derivation of comp lex sentences- there are no definite methods of formulating definitive syntactic rules: In the sentence my uncle has been dieting and my want has been dieting too it has two components i.e. Uncle dieting and my aunt doing the same the statement have been conjoined with (and) and (too). This could be represented differently i.e. both my aunt and uncle have been eati ng less than usual in order to loose weight which could come up with the followin g different sentences. My uncle has been dieting, and my aunt has been dieting too My uncle has been dieting and aunt too My uncle has been dieting and my aunt has too My uncle has been dieting and my aunt too The four sentences come from a common structure in which the full verb sequence has been dieting is common. The study of the normal structure and the underlying structure of sentences is called syntax. LEXIS In language, it is assumed that each word has a meaning although one can discove r these relations between the meanings of different words; these relations deriv e from the meaning that the words have and do not contribute to the meaning word s are comprehensive in terms of their references. There are complex and varied types of relations that exist between words. This study of the complex study and relations of words is called Lexis. Possible relations 1. Synonyms show the word that can be substituted for the other in all cont exts with no change in meaning e.g. a weak rather than a strong conception is a syn

onym of idea in the context, my idea of the university is of a community of scholar s which means my conception of a university as a community of scholars. 2. Hyponyms: shows the relation of inclusion i.e. vehicles include: cars, b uses, lorries etc 3. Incompatibility: This is the reverse hyponyms in that it is one of exclu sion. The incompatibility is between stems that are similar in meaning i.e. to s ay morning is not to say afternoon, not night etc. red entails exclusion of blue , green, yellow etc scarlet is hyponymy of red. 4. Antonymy: This is to use a term to imply a comparison with some norm e.g . young-old Big small Few-many 5. Complementarity: this is the relation to which or word is used to predic ate one term, to contradict another e.g. Perfect- imperfect Single married Dead alive The assertion of the truth of the other can be falsifying one by asserting not p erfect then not perfect. Single not single Dead not dead Alive not alive 6. Converseness: This is the case where the prediction of one term inevitab ly implies the other i.e. parents child Buy sell Employee employer The study of all these relationship is under lexis of language. SEMANTICS: The word refers to a theory of language and meaning developed by a polish schola r Alfred Korzybski who was an engineer and a mathematician who served during the First World War. During the war, he had seen people succeed very well in solvin g their problems giving an example of an engineer who saw the need of bridging a river. The engineers studied the river, the soil, the weather and the traffic t o use the bridge, and made up the bridge design to be built using given specific ation. The building would last and carry that entire load. He observed that when teachers, clergymen, law makers or diplomats try to make designs to cope with h uman behaviour they often fail. A diplomat made a treaty meant to guarantee peac e in a given time and months later there was war. He wondered why the engineer w as successful while the above failed. The answer is in the language used. Scient ists and Engineers use a way special limited language that is intended to fit ob served facts i.e. 2 + 2 = 4 or e = mc2 law makers teachers poets propagandists Use the language of every days speech which can be a complicated instrument which is not limited to the limitations of the observed facts. Therefore semantics is about what we know and what we say which into close correspondence with the reality which is observable, It is the study of words in a language to show that words of a aning and also have a way in which they divide the range of our ience into categories. Further Reading: Read the Relationship between: must be brought measurable term. language have me conceptual exper

 Reading and writing Recording and hearing Writing and speaking Development of learning a language by a child Multilingual and bilingualism (problems we have in Kenya) i.e. in our schools Language and the African writer Why they choose to use a given language BOOK CALL NO: HQ 767.9 .S725 1992.