Ihsan Ullah Khan14-Arid-3800

BSCS-4C

What Is Language?

• A system for the communication, in symbols, of any kind of information.

• Through language, people share their experiences, concerns, and beliefs and communicate these to the next generation.

The origins of language

• No one knows exactly when or how human beings came up with spoken language.

• One postulate is that language began between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, with the advent (arrival) of modern man.

• This is well before the invention of the written language, about 5,000 years ago.

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• We do not know for sure when or why language originated in human beings.

• There are different competing theories about its origins, some more reasonable than others.

• We know that humans have the necessary physical characteristics to produce speech sounds and a unique ability to learn language.

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The origins of language

The origins of language

• Ability to produce sounds is located in an ancient (early) part of the brain which we share with all vertebrates (fish, birds, animals)

• Spoken language probably developed between 100 000 and 50 000 years ago while writing only dates back to about 5 000 years ago => no direct evidence about the development of speech

• A lot of assumptions about the origins of language.

The origin of languageTheories Arguments for Arguments against Development

The divine source (monogenetic)

Suddenly

The natural sound source (bow-wow/pooh-pooh)

Existence of onomatopoeia

Soundless things and abstract conceptsProduced with intake of breath

Gradually

The social interaction source (yo-he-ho)

Early humans lived in groups

Other primates also live in groups and use grunts

Gradually

The physical adaptation source (teeth, lips, mouth, larynx & pharynx)

There’s evidence for the evolutionary changes

These changes would not themselves lead to speech production

Gradually

The tool-making source (brain)

Accounts for structural organisation of language

Gradually

The genetic source (innateness theory)

Automatic set of developments in young children

Suddenly

• Physical features that distinguish humans from other creatures may have supported speech production

• Evolutionary development resulted in partial adaptations making speech possible for early humans:– Teeth– Lips– Mouth– Tongue– Larynx– Pharynx

The physical adaptation source

The Importance of Language• There are approximately

6,000 languages. • All languages are organized

in the same basic way.• Spoken languages use

sounds and rules for putting the sounds together.

• Sign languages use gestures rather than sounds.

Why is language so important?• Because everybody knows that only we talk• Language makes long-term cumulative (growing) cultural

evolution possible.• Language guides thinking and behavior by affecting

people to see the world in a certain way.• A language is not simply an encoding process but is rather

a shaping force.

• What is communication?– transmission of information– Suggesting, understanding,

meaning– maintaining social contact

• What is language?– a system of human

communication using words

Relationship of Language in Communication

Relationship of Language in Communication

• Language is a vehicle of Communication.• Communication is the act of using language

in order to convey a message, from one person to another, in an attempt to understand its meaning.Is the way of sending information between places,

using computer telephones radios, etc.

Have something to say Have something to say and say it as clearly as and say it as clearly as you can, that is the only you can, that is the only secret of style.secret of style.

- - Matthew Matthew ArnoldArnold

THANK YOU!!!!!!!

The End…!