The Origin of Language
Language is the symbol of the system of communication between people. It is said a natural language is a language born
spontaneously like English, Japanese and Chinese. The meaning of ‘English’
can be defined through its origin and history (Gelderen 1) .
When and How was Language Born?
When, where and how language started is
unknown and many opinions exist. Brinton and Arnovick explain “In
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a number of alternative theories were
proposed; the rather amusing names of these speculations suggest that none was
given much credence” (18). They outlined the six theories below:
1. Pooh pooh theoryLanguage developed from feelings from the voice that came out unintentionally
2. Bow bow theoryLanguage develop from the cry of animals
3. Ding ding theoryLanguage developed from the natural sounds of objects
4. Ye-he-ho theory
Language developed from the vocalisation of gestures
6. Ta-ra-ra-boom-de
ay theory
Language developed from sounds associated withritual incantation and dance
Language Change
Speed of the language change is not
uniform. If there is more aggression, trade, and movement or multiracial
contact, the language greatly changes. For example, English and French have changed a lot for these reasons. English has changed significantly over time, with sound change, lexical change, semantic change,
and morphological change (Hodder 5). On the contrary, if there is little
contact, languages hardly change. For example, German, Icelandic, and Greek
have not changed much over time. In fact, basic Icelandic grammar has
hardly changed in 1000 years.
Cause of Change
Internal Causes
The
reason why some language change is that users find new ways to express themselves. For example, words that are thought unnecessary are eventually dropped. Furthermore, as new words become necessary, new words are made (Brinton 56). An modern example of this is when new technology is created.
External Causes
When speakers of a language are faced with other languages or different dialects of the same
language, blending occurs. It is possible for this to happen in many situations (Brinton 58). In Japanese, words that are added from other languages are written in katakana to highlight their foreign origin.
Questions to consider
・What language is the major source of
borrowing for English?
・What is likely to change the English language in the future?
・What is likely to change the English language in the future?
Keywords
・Language change: variation over time in a language’s
sound, semantics, morphology, and syntax.
Main Influential Linguists ・William Jones (1746-1794)
He is British linguist who discovered some common points between Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Celt, German, and other languages . Because of this, he realized there was a possibility that these languages had same origin. His achievements inspired others to consider the links between languages.
・Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)
He was a Suisse linguist who is often called "the father of modern linguistics" (32). He focused on internal linguistic structure, and had a great influence on structural linguistics. Jean Aitchison quoted him as saying that "all language items are essentially interlinked." Aitchison also noted that "it was de Saussure who first suggested that language was like a game of chess, a system in which each item is defined by relationship to all the others"(32). He proposed that there is no arbitrariness between "signifiant" and "signfie", which is a main point in his work.
・Noam Chomsky (1928-)
Although he is an American linguist, he also studies philosophy and sociology, and he studies linguistics connected with those. He is evaluated as "the father of modern linguistics" (Mango Languages), and still now, he keeps studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2013.7.3). He founded generative grammar, which argues there is a certain amount of innate language ability that humans have. It is said that he is "the most influential linguist of the twentieth century" (Aitchison 34).
Links
If you want read more about history of linguistics, go to the website put in below.
*A History of Linguistic Thought...There are lots of theories proposed by various linguists. If you click the people's names (blue part), you can read about them.
*Linguistics...There is so much information here, so if you want to understand one specific topic, you can get useful information by skipping to the part that you are interested in.
*History of Corpus Linguistics...This is a rather interesting link, because it is focused on corpuses. There are some sections, such as when linguists start to use corpuses to study, and what they thought about using them for.
Works Consulted
Brinton, Lourel J, and Leslie k. Arnovick. The English Language. A Linguistic History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.
Gelderen, Elly Van. A History of the English Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 2006. Print.
Reardon, Rachel. "Noam Chomsky-His Contribition to Linguistics." Mango Languages. 2 Dec. 2010. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
＜http://www.mangolanguages.
No comments:
Post a Comment