What Do We Know When We Know A Language?
'Be able to listen, speak, write and read in the language' is what most people
think they can perform when they know a language. If we study linguistic or
language studies, we shall realize we actually know much more than that when we
know a language. According to the linguists, not only do we have the ability to
'speak and be understood by others who know that language', we also 'have the
capacity to product sounds that signify certain meanings and to understand or
interpret the sounds produced by others' (Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams, 2003).
Language, which is different from speech, is actually a code made up of a group
of rules that includes the meaning of words, how to make new words like and how
to combine words together etc (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association,
1997-2005) which are known as the 'Semantics', the 'Morphology' and the 'Syntax'
respectively in the linguistic field. The linguist, Noam Chomsky, even defined
in 1957 that a language as 'a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite
in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements' (The American
University in Cairo, 2005).
Therefore, it is correct to say 'knowing a language is also to know that certain
sound sequences signify certain concepts or meanings' (Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams,
2003). For example, when we want to address the concept, ' ', we should be able
to know it is represented by 'Manos' if we know Spanish, by 'Mains' if we know
French and by '手' if we know Chinese. According to the linguists, we know the
'Semantics' which is the system of meanings in the language we know
unconsciously if we know a language just as the writers of the 'An Introduction
To Language' said about ‘when you know a language, you know words in that
language, that is, the sound units that are related to specific meanings'
Not only do we know the 'Semantics', the 'Morphology' which is seen as the rules
of word formation are what we know unconsciously if we know a language. For
instance, when we want to change the part of speech of the word, 'strong', from
an adjective to a verb which gives the meaning 'to be strong', we should be able
to change from 'fikas' to 'fumikas' if we know Philippines, from '強壯' to '使強壯'
in Chinese and from 'fort' to 'pour être fort' if we know French. If we know the
'Morphology' in a language, we should be able to insert affixes or extra word in
front of or behind the word we want to describe in order to give different
expressions and certain of parts of speech.
'Knowledge of a language enables you to combine words to form phrases, and
phrases to form sentences…Knowing a language means being able to product new
sentences never spoken before and to understand sentences never heard before' (Fromkin,
Rodman & Hyams, 2003). If we know the significant grammatical rules and the
'rules of sentence formation' which is named as 'Syntax' provided in a language,
it should be possible for us to produce new grammatically correct sentences in
the language. For example, when we want to give an expression like 'I don't want
to speak with anyone', we should be able to know it is represented by 'Non voglio parlare con nessuno' if we know Italian, by
'No quiero hablar con nadie'
if we know Spanish and by '我不想跟任何人說話' in Chinese. There may be different word
orders due to the different 'Syntax' in each language but we should know the
arrangement of the words in the language in order to express the same meaning
unconsciously when we know a language.
Indeed, we know the 'Grammar', 'Syntax', 'Morphology', 'Vocabulary', 'Cohesion'
etc of the language unconsciously when we know a language. It is even proved and
analyzed by various linguists that each language human beings speak contains
those aspects which allow us to find easier to learn any other languages which
we do not natively speak. When we become the speakers of a language, it does not
only allow us to be the listeners of the language too, but also gives us the
ability to reproduce any message we understand which is unlike the courtship
message of some other species.
It is claimed by several linguists that 'each language has its own
characteristics that we usually do not start to speak before we are one year
old' (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 1997-2005) while we should
realize 'there are many things we do not yet know about the nature of human
languages, their structures and use' (The American University in Cairo, 2005).
Nevertheless, 'wherever humans exist, language exists' (Fromkin, Rodman & Hyams,
2003). In fact, the investigations of linguists throughout history and the
analysis of spoken languages have started at least from 1600 B.C. in Mesopotamia
(American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 1997-2005). With the unconscious
elements which we have when we know a language and the characteristics which we
learn about at a very early age, we can still pass down our own language from
generation to generation through processes of teaching and learning as well as
learn a great deal that a number of facts pertaining to all languages are yet to
be stated (The American University in Cairo, 2005).
Bibliography
Print sources
Fromkin, Victoria, Rodman, Robert, Hyams Nina (2003) An Introduction of Language
(seventh edition) U.S.A.: Thomson Wadsworth
Internet sources
The American University in Cairo (2005) The American University in Cairo (AUC)
http://www.aucegypt.edu/ accessed December 2004
American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (1997-2005) What Is Language? What
Is Speech? http://www.asha.org/ accessed December 2004