Language: A Human System of Communication

What is considered a language? A language is a human system of communication that uses arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols. in John McWhorter’s book “What Language Is” it states that language is made up of four categories:What words mean,How to make new words, how to put words together and which word combination works best in a certain situation. All of these factors define what a language is and how its used. If a boy was isolated from his community but still had some knowledge of his previous language then he would automatically find the similarities of another language allowing him to have the knowledge of both his old language and some new knowledge of the dialect he used in order to figure out his own language. If a language is missing one of the factors that make up a language then its impossible for it to be considered one because not many people would be able to understand how it works and how to figure out how it links to other languages. For example when learning a new language you have to learn compare and learn the different ways the grammar and sentence structure works, when comparing chinese with english the sentences are backwards and the subject and activity is put before the verb. Using native languages can help to learn other ways of speech and see how the sentence structures vary from each other.

Growing up the first thing we learned in english was our ABC’s it was a starting point to where our vocabulary and speech expanded; So what’s the starting point for other children growing up learning their native language? Well as stated in Trevor Pateman’s book “Language in Mind and Language in Society” There are three different categories of alphabets around the world; They inclu...

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... the original place where humans first communicated with one another.

Armstrong, David , Sherman , Wilcox. The Gestural Origin of Language. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2007. Print

This book will be used as evidence from and about sign languages to explore the origins of language as we know it today.

Perfetti, Charles, Bolger Donald "The Brain Might Read That Way" Studies of reading, 8(3), 293-304 Copyright 2004, Lawrence Erlbaum Association, Inc

This PDF helps show how the brain works and reacts when reading and comprehending words and phrases.

Pateman, Trevor “Language in Mind and Language in Society” Oxford University Press, 1987. Print

This book helps identify what a language is and what characteristics a language has and how it influences the way we speak and act.