First I want to discuss a property of language called productivity. According to the text, Productivity in a summarized definition is when users create sentences never before known, yet perfectly understandable to their receivers. So take this sentence for example: "the wild blue cat was hanging by its tail. " Now I hope that this is new sentence to those of you who are reading. If not then I sincerely apologize, but try to pretend for me. So as you can see from the example sentence above, we can create sentences never before known (seen) yet perfectly understandable.
Humans use productivity in their everyday lives. According to Bolton we take this productivity for granted in our uses of language, but in fact it is the one thing that make human communication unique (p22). The next property introduced by Bolton, Language is arbitrary, where the word for something is not necessarily connected with the thing itself. According to Bolton the Chinese say yi, er, san but we say one, two, three. Neither language has the "right" word for the numerals, because there is no such thing (p23). I hope the previous sentence helps you to understand how language is arbitrary.
This property can also be examined even further; according to the text even the sounds of language are arbitrary. Bolton states how English can be spoken using only 36 significantly different sounds, the sounds turn arbitrarily by 26 letters, some standing for two or more sounds, others overlapping according to his text (p23). Bolton concludes language is arbitrary and language is productive to be founded by Charles Hockett labeling them "design features" of language. Discovered by Hockett in 1958 as part of an attempt to see how human language differs from animal communication (p24).
Now I would like to direct your attention to the physiology of speech (p24). There are two sorts of breathing; "speech breathing" and "quiet breathing" those quoted terms may look familiar. I mentioned them both briefly in my beginning paragraph. According to the text, "quiet breathing" is more rapid and shallow than breathing during speech. Quiet breathing is also more even and restful than speech breathing, for during speech the air is taken in quickly and the expelled slowly against the resistance of speech organs (p25).
Bolton also states that quiet breathing is mostly hrough the nose, speech breathing through the mouth (p25). Now I hope these in text citations have given you a better understanding of how "quiet breathing" and "speech breathing" differentiate from one another. Okay time to change directions a bit. Change is always in good in the words of Obamas Republican Party. Bolton introduces readers with a change of topic when he begins to discuss the ear, but could we have speech without sound. Unless you were has three divisions: the outer ear, which extends to the ear drum, the middle ear, and the inner ear.
The outer ear collects the sound, passes it through the ear membrane hich is set into motion by the vibrations of sound energy. That motion is carried through the middle ear by three tiny bones. Those last three bones deliver the sound motion to a membrane called the oval window (p29). Finally the motion will then be converted by a set of intricate organs into electrical impulses and fed into the central nervous system for delivery to the auditory center of the brain. (p30). In the words of W. F. Bolton, speech turns meaning into sound while hearing turns sound into meaning.
So speech and sound (ear and mouth) go hand in hand. Now one might say the topic of language is unnecessary or unimportant. We as humans self-consciously speak differently to every person we interact with. So how can we study a persons language or speech when it is inconsistent. That question might best be answered by a linguistics or psychologist. I personally would say that language Just like all things in human history is something that should be studied, researched, and improved. We tend to think less of the most valuable things. Such as our arms, legs, lips, ears.
So why is the topic of language important when it comes to tudy/history of language and speech? And how could this concept be used in other professions? The topic of language can vary on continually, touching bases with every concept that deals with speaking in general. Why is the topics that I discussed such as "quiet breathing," language is arbitrary, language is productive, and speech and sound correspond with each other important to the makeup of language. To answer this question, we must first ponder the word "language". See when we think of language we think of writing, talking, brain waves, nationalities, and much more.
The several opics that I discussed in this essay are merely Just summarized introductions to the world of language. A world that as you should imagine is pretty "big". These topics discussed in this paper are Just a few facts that correspond with the history of language. They are important because they are the founded discoveries of the topic language, and will be used to continue the research of how and why language is used. Ask yourself what if we lived in a world with language. Would we still have writing, would there still be books or even education? Language is important, wouldn''t you say so yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment