What Defines a Language?

A detailed Summary of What Defines a Language?

There are two distinct types of communication that are used by humans. The first one involves body languages and facial expressions that are used to show the feelings one experiences. This combines the posture and gestures one uses as well as sounds of sobbing or laughter to represent one's emotional state. The other type of communication, which is only shared by humans, is language proper. Oxford Dictionary defines language as 'the use by humans of voice sounds and written symbols in combinations and patterns to communicate and express feelings'. Thus the key word in the definition is the 'combined voice sounds and written symbols', which are called words. To save the trouble getting into the history of words, even a simple question what is a definition of a particular word is head spinning. Simply to look up a definition would only give more words, and to look them up will create more words to be defined. Thus, a reasonable conjecture would be that the only way one can define a word is by pointing on an object that represents that word. This in turn shows that all written language started of from picturesque symbols, with alphabets being invented later.

Having established a general definition for a language, what dis

Language is a unique object; it takes thousands of years to develop, and only a fraction of time to make extinct. We use it everyday as an essential part of our life, and thus care must be taken to see the true value of the gift we, as humans, have.

tinguishes one language from another? The fundamental difference must lie in the basic phonetic sounds that make up words. Thus it is hard for English-speakers to pronounce d and z together as is one often in Russian language, or a combination of ng at the beginning of a word, which is widely used in the Navajo language. Further combination of these sounds makes up different words. As the patterns used to piece these sounds together are different, the words have only one meaning in a particular language. As language is used to communicate thought, when translating form one language to another several obstacles can arise. Some languages have limited vocabulary, while other have several meaning for one word. Cultural idioms and proverbs are also hard to communicate as they may sound ludicrous and confusing not in the original language. Two other distinct languages are mathematical and musical. These, though more universal, are also restricted in the sense that the reader has to be fa

Some common words found in the essay are:
Oxford Dictionary, Latin Greek, , Tony Regarding, language dialect, sounds words, voice sounds written, language combination, languages mathematical, voice sounds, extinct language, sounds written,

Approximate Word count = 840
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Science

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What Defines a Language?

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