TOM MBOYA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE

(A Constituent College of Maseno University)

COURSE INFORMATION

COURSECODE: AEN 101

DEPARTMENT/FACULTY: INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE

PROGRAMME: [Link] ARTS

TOTALHOURS: 42

COURSE WELCOME MESSAGE

Welcome to the First Year, First Semester AEN101: An Introduction to Language course. The
entire course staff is looking forward to working with you this semester.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Theoretical definition of language; functions of language; basic characteristics of human and

non-human language; theories on the origin and development of human language; the form and
functions of written languages; the major writing systems of the world; their strengthens and
weaknesses; languages in Kenya: focus on the sociolinguistic geography of Kenya; the role of
English, Kiswahili and indigenous languages; language clusters in Kenya: Bantu, Nilotic,
Cushitic; broad structural characteristics of language clusters: phonological, lexical and
semantic; language and society: speech community; language varieties; language planning and
language policy.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this course are to:

1. Explicate the concept of language and its role in defining humanity

2. Identify and explain the different domains in which human language is used
3. Explain existing language theories and their applicability in understanding the different
manifestations of language
4. Possess adequate linguistic competence to work in any field within the language industry
5. Examine the concept of language planning and language policy in Kenya

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, you should be able to:

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 1. Define and describe language as a means of communication; and distinguish between
human language and other forms of communication
2. Identify and explain the theories of the origin of language
3. Acquire linguistic competence to work in any field within the language industry.

COURSE PRE-REQUISITES

In order to succeed in this course, students must have scored a mean grade of C + (Plus) and
above in English in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) or its equivalent; and
met the university requirements to enroll in this programme.

COURSE OUTLINE SCHEDULE

Topic Topic Weeks Scheduled Activity e.g. Assessments

No. online discussion
1 Introduction 1  Tracking of
Theoretical definitions of  Online discussion on learners’
language; functions of definition and participatio
language functions of n in the
language discussion
forums

2 Basic characteristics of 2  Online discussion on  Tracking

human and non- human characteristics of learners’
language human language participatio
n in the
discussion
forums
3 Theories on the origin and 3-4 Online discussion on  True or
development of human theories of origin of human false
language language questions
on the topic
4 CAT 1 5
5 The form and functions of 6  Online discussion on  Tracking
written languages functions of written learners’
languages participatio
n in the
discussion
forum
6 The major writing systems 7  Online discussion on  Tracking
of the world; their writing systems of learners’
strengths and weaknesses the world participatio
n in the
discussion

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 forum
7 Languages in Kenya: focus 8  Online discussion on  Tracking
on sociolinguistic sociolinguistic learners’
geography of Kenya Geography of Kenya participatio
n in the
discussion
8 CAT 2 9

9 The role of English, 10  Online discussion on  True or

Kiswahili and indigenous the roles of different false
languages; broad languages in Kenya questions
language clusters in Kenya on roles of
different
languages
in Kenya
10 Broad structural 11 Online discussion  Marking
characteristics of on characteristics of learners’
language clusters: the language submitted
phonological, lexical and clusters assignment
semantic
11 Language and society: 12  Online discussion on  Tracking
speech community; language varieties learners’
language varieties participatio
n in the
discussion
forum
12 Language planning 13  Online discussion on  Learners to
language planning write on the
process of
language
planning
13 Language policy 14  Online discussion on  Tracking
language policy in learners’
Kenya participatio
n in the
discussion
forum
14 EXAMINATION 15

15 EXAMINATION 16

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COURSE DELIVERY METHODS

The following communication tools will be used in the course:

The course is offered in a blended way, partly face to face and partly online and takes advantage
of affordance of online learning tools. These advantages and learning tools include access to
materials and resources online, discussion forums with fellow students and the lecturer,
automatically graded quizzes, attached and uploaded assignments. Course materials are on the
course website. You are responsible for checking the website regularly for the updates and
course materials.

COURSE FORMAT

This is a First Year, First Semester Course for undergraduate students. The course examination
is divided into:

1. Continuous Assignment containing 30 marks

2. Final Examination containing 70 marks
3. Total marks are 100%
 Your final grade will be determined by two components: (i) Homework Assignment
problem (14%), (ii) Two term papers (16%), (iii) Final Exam (70%)
 I will assign between 4 and 6 fairly large homework assignments. Your solutions to
homework problems will be graded primarily, but not exclusively, on the basis of
effort shown on forum participation and completeness of your solutions. If you
complete all the assigned problems in a problem set, you will get most points for it.
One or more (but not all) randomly selected problems on the homework will be
carefully grade for correctness.
 The pass mark is 40%
 Examination Rules and Regulations for Tom Mboya University College shall apply.

EFFECTIVE DATE

This is Year 1, Semester 1 course. The Semester is dictated by Tom Mboya University College
Calendar.

LECTURER INFORMATION

Instructor’s name: Dr. Wekesa Jesse Napwora

Email: wekesanapwora@[Link]

Mobile number: 0725667484/0736246398

FACILITATOR INFORMATION

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Instructor’s name: DR. Wekesa Jesse Napwora

Email: wekesanapwora@[Link]

Mobile number: 0725667484/0736246398

STUDENT READINESS

Technology and Equipment

 AEN 101: Introduction to Language is a stimulating course and to enjoy our

interactions you need the services of a computer or a mobile phone with internet
connectivity, digital camera for capturing real life situations which you can post to the
various forums for sharing with your colleagues.

Student commitments and contact times

 You will be required to spend a minimum of 42 hours navigating the internet for
interactive sessions. You must participate actively in discussion forums. Assignments
must be submitted on time. Confirm that your marks are entered correctly.

CORE BOOKS/MAIN COURSE TEXTS

1. Crystal, D. (1987) The Cambridge Encylopaedia of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press.
2. Fasold, R. & Connor-Linton, J. (Eds). (2006). An Introduction to Language and
Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. Fromkin, V., Rodman, R. &Hyams, N. (2003) An Introduction to Language, 7th Ed.
Boston, Massachusetts: WadsworthThomson.
4. Yule, G. (1996) The Study of Language 2nd Ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

OTHER TEXTBOOKS/ REFERENCES

1. McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to Linguistics and Language Studies (2nd ed.)

Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
2. Stenning, K., Lascarides, A., & Calder, J. (2014). Introduction to Cognitionand
Communication. Retrieved from
[Link]
3. Lyons, J. (1981) Language and Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
4. O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F. (1996) Contemporary Linguistics: An
Introduction. London: Longman.

ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

Assessment Percentagescore

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 Discussion Forum Participation, etc. 15%
CAT 15%
Examination 70%
Total 100%

Letter Grade Distribution

Grade Range
A 70%- 100%
B 60%- 69%
C 50%- 59%
D 40%- 49%
F 39% and Below

MINIMUM PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENT FOR THIS COURSE

 The Pas Mark is 40%

 Must have done all the assignments
 Your participation in forums is mandatory

COURSE POLICIES

General Academic Policies

 It is the student’s responsibility to be familiar with and adhere to thje TMUC Academic
policies. These policies can be found on the TMUC website.

Supplementary Policies

 Participation in forum is compulsory

 Assignments must be submitted in time
 Fees and levies must be cleared before sitting for exams

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

 Is the study of language a science or an art? Give reason(s).

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TOPIC ONE: INTRODUCTION TO LANGUAGE

A. INTRODUCTION

Human beings are distinguished from other creatures mainly through language. Language is a
vital tool for human communication and interaction. In this topic, you will be introduced to the
meaning and definitions of language, the relationship between language and communication, and
the reasons for studying language.

B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Define the concept of language

2. Discuss role of language in defining humanity
C. REQUIREMENTS
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer
Internet
CD- ROM
Reading books
Manual
3 Suggested reading
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to Linguistics and Language
Studies (2nd ed.) Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F. (1996) Contemporary
Linguistics: An Introduction. London: Longman.
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017) Pedagogy of English
(Part I).Haldwani: Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.
Stenning, K., Lascarides, A., & Calder, J. (2014). Introduction to
Cognitionand Communication. Retrieved from
[Link]
docID=3338661

D. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic One Notes or the Topic one Word
version notes
 Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment
 Listen to you tube lectures on web

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 E. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links
[Link] >publication PDF
[Link]>uploads>2018/06 PDF
[Link]>bit stream PDF
Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on language
[Link] [Link] Tayaab
[Link] Michael Alexender
F. TOPIC CONTENT/NOTES
Language is the ability to acquire and use complex systems of communication, particularly the
human ability to do so, and a language is any specific example of such a system. Language is
the divine gift of God. It is language that distinguishes man from animals. Language is man’s
finest asset. To the philosopher, language may be the instrument of thought, for we think through
language. Language is extremely important way of interacting with the people around us.
Without language, we cannot communicate with people as it is a vital tool of communication.

Definitions of language

 Oxford English Dictionary defines language as “words and the methods of combining
them for the expression of thoughts.”
 According to Edward Sapir (1921), “language is a purely human and non-instinctive
method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced
symbols.”
 According to Bloch (1942), “A language is a system of arbitrary symbols by means of
which a social group cooperates.”
 Chomsky (1957) defines language as “a set of finite or infinite of sentences, each finite in
length and constructed in a finite set of elements.”
 Bloom and Lacey (1978) define language as “knowledge of a code representing ideas
about the world through a convention system of arbitrary signals for communication.”
 Fasold and Connor-Linton (2006) define language as “a finite system of elements and
principles that make it possible for speakers to construct sentences to do particular
communicative jobs.”

Functions of language

Roman Jakobson (1960), Geoffrey Neil Leech (1974) among others look at the function of
language under two main areas:

i. Micro functions
 Physiological

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 
Phatic function- socialization, to build rapport- dear sir

Recording function- record knowledge, culture, scientific research, books (durable
record of things)
 Reasoning function- the instrument of thought
 Communicating function- conversation with each other, request, apologise, order,
inform, promise, refuse
 Identifying function- identify/name things classify different things- e.g. car, people; it
pleasing ideas and concepts
 Pleasure function- language itself is pleasing to hear- assonance, alliteration,
onomatopoeia, etc in poetry make
ii. Macro functions
 Ideation function- for conceiving and perceiving something
 Interpersonal function- interaction between and among people. Language is a social
phenomenon
 Poetic function- production of our imagination. Ability to manipulate language.-jokes,
literature
 Textual function- creation of longer utterances, writing both cohesively (unity) and
coherently (thematic unity).

Roman Jakobson (1960) identifies the following functions of language:

 Referential- refer to something

 Phatic- interaction-e.g., hello, bye
 Poetic
 Emotive- express emotions
 Conative- address other people-sender, message, receiver
 Meta-lingual- using language to refer to language, e.g. in marking students’ work.

The role of language in general

1. Role of language in emotional development

2. Language helps in social development of a child
3. Language helps in intellectual development- Language development; Cognitive development .
4. Language is a vehicle of thought .We think through language.
5. Language is a medium of communication
6. Base of education. Language is the base of all education. School education is
predominantly language- oriented. Reading, writing and arithmetic are all based on
language proficiency.
7. Language helps in human development process
 Language sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom and knits a strong
feeling of kinship amongst us.
8. Language is a medium of expression of our feeling and experiences.

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 9. Language helps in a child’s growth- emotional development
10. Language is a medium of literature. All great literature are produced through the medium
of language.
11. Language is the code of our consciousness and helps us see what we may be agreeing to
and creating in our world.
12. Every day we use language in denying and confirming circumstances
13. We use language to communicate with other countries
14. Language aids in developing and grooming one’s personality as a whole
15. Language contributes to the growth of our civilization. Language and civilisation are
inseparable
16. It develops peace. International understanding and international peace have been
possible through the medium of language

G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

1. Give any two definitions of the term language

2. Discuss the role of language in life.

H. DISCUSSION
Briefly explain why children should interact with others .

(Post your discussion in the discussion forum. You earn 6 marks for the best voted presentation)
I. SUMMARY
In this topic, you were introduced to the concept of language and its role in society. There
is no precise definition of language because the language phenomenon is complex.
Language can be defined in terms of structure, communication and culture.

TOPIC TWO: FEATURES OF HUMAN LANGUAGE

A. INTRODUCTION

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In this topic, you will be introduced to the characteristic/discrete features of human language that
distinguishes it from other languages and forms of communication. Parts of language will also be
briefly discussed.

B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the discrete features of human language

2. Explain parts of human language
C. REQUIREMENTS
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer
Internet
CD- ROM
Reading books
Manual
3 Suggested Reading
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to Linguistics and Language
Studies (2nd ed.) Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F. (1996) Contemporary
Linguistics: An Introduction. London: Longman.
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017) Pedagogy of English
(Part I).Haldwani: Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.
Stenning, K., Lascarides, A., & Calder, J. (2014). Introduction to
Cognitionand Communication. Retrieved from
[Link]
docID=3338661

D. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic Two Notes or the Topic Two Word
version notes
 Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment
 Listen to you tube lectures on web
E. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links
[Link] >publication PDF

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 [Link]>uploads>2018/06 PDF
[Link]>bit stream PDF
Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on language
[Link] [Link] Tayaab
[Link] Michael Alexender
F. TOPIC CONTENT/NOTES
Characteristic features/properties of human language
1. Modularity
 Most linguists believe that language is a modular system. That is, people produce and
interpret language using a set of complex subsystems (or modules) in a co-ordinated way.
 These modules include phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactical, lexical/ semantic
modules.

2. Discreteness. It is the mother property of all languages. The range of sounds that human
beings can make is continuous, like a slide whistle. .

3. Productivity. New words are formed every day. Sentences can become indefinitely long by
adding modifiers (recursive processes)

4. Constituency and recursion. All languages are organized into constituents allowing more
complex units to enter where simplest ones are also possible. So we can say in English, ‘She sat
down,” “The smart woman sat down.” Being composed of constituents gives language a balance
of structure and flexibility

5. Arbitrariness. With few exceptions, words have no principled or systematic connection with
what they mean. In English the first three numbers are one, two, three- but in Chinese they are
yu, er, san. Neither language has the ‘right’ word for anything else, because there is no such
thing (Bolton, 1982)

6. Variability (difference and diversity). The language that people use varies depending on who
is speaking and the situation in which they are speaking.

7. Reliance on context. Reliance on context is a crucial property of language not just in figuring
out the meaning of a word like one and won but in interpreting the meaning of an entire
utterance. E.g., if you say, “It’s cold here’ could be a complaint, a request to close a window or
even complement (about freezer, perhaps).

Parts/branches of Language

i) Phonology: it studies the combination of sounds into organized units of speech, the formation
of syllables and larger units.

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ii) Syntax: it is the level at which we study how words combine to form phrases, phrases
combine to form clauses and clauses join to form sentences.

iii) Semantics: it deals with the level of meaning in language. It attempts to analyse the structure
of meaning in a language, e.g. how words similar or different are related; it attempts to show
these inter-relationships through forming categories.

iv) Discourse: is the study of chunks of language which are bigger than a single sentence.

G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

1. Explain the characteristic features of human language

2. Briefly outline the branches of language.

H. DISCUSSION

How is human language different from other forms of communication?

(Post your discussion in the discussion forum. You earn 6 marks for the best voted presentation)

I. SUMMARY

In this topic, you learnt about the characteristic features of human language that include
modularity, discreteness, constituency and recursion, arbitrariness, variability, reliance on
context. We also introduced you to branches of language.

TOPIC THREE: THEORIES OF THE ORIGIN OF HUMAN LANGUAGE

A. INTRODUCTION

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For many centuries, people have speculated about the origin of human language. The question of
origin of human language preoccupied the 18th century and the 19th century philosophers. In this
topic, you will be introduced to the questions philosophers have posed about the origin of
language; the theories about the origin of language and their criticisms.

B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Discuss the different theories about the origin of language.

2. Give a critique on the different theories of language origin.

C. REQUIREMENTS
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer
Internet
CD- ROM
Reading books
Manual
3 Suggested Reading
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to
Linguistics and Language Studies (2nd ed.)
Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F.
(1996) Contemporary Linguistics: An
Introduction. London: Longman.
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017)
Pedagogy of English (Part I).Haldwani:
Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.
Stenning, K., Lascarides, A., & Calder, J.
(2014). Introduction to Cognitionand
Communication. Retrieved from
[Link]
ebooks/[Link]?docID=3338661

D. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic Three Notes or the Topic Three Word
version notes
 Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment

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  Listen to you tube lectures on web
E. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links
[Link]>wiki>origin
[Link]
[Link] theories-of-the-origins-of
[Link] >publication PDF
Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on theories of origin of human language
[Link] tube. American museum
You tube. TED-Ed How language began- Dan Everret
You Tube. TEDx San Franscico
[Link] Tube. Villanovauniversity
F. TOPIC CONTENT/NOTES
Theories of origin of human language

For centuries, people have speculated about the origin of human language. The question of origin
of human language preoccupied the 18th century and the 19th century philosophers. These people
asked questions such as the following:

(i) What is the oldest spoken language?

(ii) Have all languages developed from a single source?
(iii) Some Christians have asked what was the language that was spoken at the Garden
of Eden for instance, between God and Adam, Adam and Eve and Eve and the serpent?
(iv)How did words come to be? That is, where did words emerge from in the very
beginning?

The following are some of the theories of about language origin:

1. The Divine Theory

 This theory is centred around the fact that language was given to man by God. It is God’s
gift in humanity. This idea is found in religions throughout the world. This view is
largely associated with the Bible.
 This can be proved from Genesis 2:19 “So He took some soil from the ground and
formed all the animals and all the birds. Then He brought them to man to see what he
would name them; and that is how they got their names.” (Good News Bible). “ And out
of the ground the LORD, God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air,
and brought them to Adam to see what ‘he’ will call them. And whatever Adam called
every living creature then that was the name thereof.” (King James Version).

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  Babylonians, the Bukusu (Luhya), etc. ascribe the origin of language to divine
providence

2. The Evolutionary Theory (by Charles Darwin)

The evolutionists believe that:

 Man is more sophisticated than other animals and that language differentiates man from
them
 Human vocal tract is more sophisticated, hence man is able to speak more clearly. The
human vocal tract: tongue, teeth, lips, vocal cords/chords, nose- can be manipulated in
order to facilitate speech.
 According to evolutionists, the two divisions of the human brain make it man more
sophisticated than other primates. The division of human brain is the one which makes it
possible for every function to have a specific area controlling it in the brain. This division
of the human brain for different functions is technically referred to as lateralization.

3. The Inventory theories (old theories of language origin)

The inventory theories all hold the view that language came as a result of a man’s invention,
Therefore language is something that was invented by man. According to Otto Jespersen, these
theories are:

i. .Bow-wow- theory: this theory suggests that origin of language may lie in the echoic or
onomatopoeic imitation of sounds in nature .Man imitated animal sounds in the environment e.g.
bark of a dog, the laugh of the hyena ,the call of the cuckoo, the crowing of a cock \cockrel.
Imitation of sounds-bang, splash, roar, zoom, crack, etc.

[Link]- Dong theory: this theory suggests that language originated from man’s ability to react
to his environment in a mystical way. Speech sounds were produced to show that man was in
harmony with his environment and therefore that there is an inherent name for everything which
Our ancestors named.

iii. Ye-he-ho theory: it argues that the origin of language was the result of sounds people
produced during labour while working together .For example, carrying stones, bricksup,e.t.c.

-When people pull an animal up to be slaughtered in an open slaughter house ‘harambee! Yo-he-
ho!’ Kiswahili ‘Kuronya ! Yo-he-ho!’-lubukusu {Luhya}

(iv) The la-la theory (Otto’s theory): Otto felt that if any single factor was going to initiate
human language, it will arise from romantic way of life . For example, sounds associated with
love, poetic feelings, play and song-music convert you from one way to another

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4. Experiments with isolated infants

(i) Psametic 1 experiments.

According to Herodotas, Psametic in 5th century B.C., I wanted to find which of all the peoples
of the world was the first language. After two years, the shepherd came to the hut and the
children fell before him and said “Bekos bekos” meaning bread bread. Then the shepherd took
the children and ran to the Pharaoh with the children to report. Pharaoh sent the word to find
where this language came from. It was found that language was Pharegean-Turky .Pharaoh
concluded that the first Language was Pharegean .

ii) King James IV Experiment

 A second experiment was carried out by King James IV of Scotland. He took two children,
gave them to a mute (woman who did not talk) and took the trio to an isolated island in the
sea. He kept them there for two years, he sent somebody to check on them and found that the
children were speaking Hebrew. He concluded that speakers of in Hebrew were the oldest
speakers on earth.

5. New Theories of Language

i) Speech- Base Theory

 It states that bipedalism led to restructuring of the vocal tract. There was Big Change:
descent of the larynx (larynx much higher in other animals), which produces a larger
pharyngeal cavity. Larger pharyngeal cavity is useful in making a wide variety of vowel
sounds.
 Other changes (development of fat lips) useful in making consonant sound
 Ability to produce dynamic, rapidly changing stream of sounds makes language possible

ii) Intelligence –Based Theory

 It argues that increased brain size led to increased ability for symbolic thought. Symbolic
thought led to symbolic communication (‘mentalese ’precedes language ability).
Symbolic language endows humans with decided survival advantage (co-operation,
planning, etc.)

iii) Protolanguage Theory

 Protolanguage: basically limited to nouns (‘object-names’) and (‘action-names),

supported by ontogeny and some simple ordering requirements. Essentially no grammar.
 It claims that a wide range of things can be communicated using a system especially with
reference to immediate needs, things physically present, coordinating activities, etc.
 To fully express all things you can think about, the protolanguage has to be enriched to
use grammar. This heralds the emergence of true language.
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  ‘Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny’- evolutionary prior stages of an organism are
frequently replicated in the development of an immature individual of that species.
 The use of protolanguage spurred rapid development of the brain, making more
advanced language use possible.

iv) Gesture to Speech Theories

 States that first human linguistic systems were gestural (rudimentary sign systems).
Innovation of bipedalism frees up the hands, can be used for communication.
 Existence of signed languages today. A good vocal apparatus is not enough.

v) The Cognitive Niche

 Our niche in nature, the ability to understand the world well enough to figure out ways of
manipulating it to outsmart other plants and animals. Several things evolved at the same
time to support this way of life: cause and effect intelligence, social intelligence &
language.
 Each of these abilities- intelligence about the world, social intelligence and language,
reinforces the other two, and it is very likely that the three of them co-evolved like a
ratchet each one setting the stage for the other two to be incremented a bit.

G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

1. Explain the different theories about the origin of language.

H. DISCUSSION

In your opinion, which theory explains better the origin of language?

(Post your discussion in the discussion forum. You earn 6 marks for the best voted presentation)

I. SUMMARY

The topic has dealt with the different theories about the origin of language and different
questions posed about them. This has led to prolonged discussions and experiments whose
history dates back to over 3000 years yet no generation could successfully find out what the
origin of language was. Consequently, many people continue to theorise/ formulate about the
origin of language.

TOPIC FOUR: SPEECH AND WRITING AS FORMS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION

A. INTRODUCTION

Speech and writing are known as the productive skills of language. It is through speech and
language that learners or produces (output) what they have listened to or read. In this topic, you

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will be introduced to speech and writing as forms of human communication and differences that
exist between them.

B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Describe speech and writing as forms of human communication.

C. REQUIREMENTS
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer
Internet
CD- ROM
Reading books
Manual
3 Suggested Reading
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to
Linguistics and Language Studies (2nd ed.)
Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F.
(1996) Contemporary Linguistics: An
Introduction. London: Longman.
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017)
Pedagogy of English (Part I).Haldwani:
Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.
Stenning, K., Lascarides, A., & Calder, J.
(2014). Introduction to Cognitionand
Communication. Retrieved from
[Link]
ebooks/[Link]?docID=3338661

D. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic Four Notes or the Topic Four Word
version notes
 Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment
 Listen to you tube lectures on web
E. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links

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 [Link]>wiki>origin
[Link]
[Link] theories-of-the-origins-of
[Link] >publication PDF
Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on spoken and written forms of
communication
[Link] tube. Ballard and Tighe
[Link] tube. Tai wy ban
F. TOPIC CONTENT/NOTES
Functions and forms of written language
 A language function refers to what students do with language as they engage with
content and interact with others. Functions represent the active use of language for a
specific purpose. Students use language functions in order to express ideas, communicate
with others, and show understanding of content in an academic setting.
 In oral language some common functions may include: giving instructions, making
requests, defending an argument.
 In academic writing, we use a range of specific functions in order to communicate ideas
clearly. These include: classifying objects or ideas, describing processes, comparing and
contrasting things or ideas, etc.
 Examples of language functions: expressing needs and likes; summarizing, describing
people, places and things; sequencing; contrasting; making claims; evaluating;
interpreting; asking clarifying questions; asking informal questions; describing cause and
effect; generalizing; defining; explaining; expressing and supporting opinions; drawing
conclusions, etc.
 Language forms are the language structures and vocabulary that are used to support
language functions. They deal with the internal grammatical structure of words and
phrases as well as the words themselves. When one compares boy and boys, or man and
men, s/he is considering the relationship between different language forms or structures
 Language forms also include cross- curricular academic vocabulary- words or phrases
frequently used across different content areas. They include verbs (e.g. hypothesise,
analyse), complex prepositions (e.g. in contrast, in addition to, as well as, inspite of the
fact), and nouns (e.g. comparison, analysis, summary, conclusion).
 Language learners need to acquire both the functions (uses) and the forms (structures +
cross-curricular vocabulary) that make up the English language in order to reach higher
levels of proficiency. Teachers also need to understand the language demands of a task as
they relate to both function and form in order to best support students’ language
development.

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 Examples of language forms: nouns, pronouns, adjectives; indirect/direct object, subject verb
agreement, prepositional phrases; specific vocabulary, etc.

Speech and writing as forms of communication

Differences between Speech and Writing

1. Speech is usually a spontaneous activity, while writing is a deliberate, conscious process,

which can and should be planned and organized.
2. In terms of physical for, speech uses ‘phonic substance’, typically in the form of air-
pressure movement ; writing uses ‘graphic substance’ typically in the form of marks on
the surface.
3. The syntax of spoken language is typically less structured that that of written language
4. Speech is time-bound, dynamic and transient as it is part of an inceration in which
typically both participants are present, and the speaker has a specific addressee or group
of addresses in mind. On the other hand, writing is space-bound, static and permanent
5. Written communication grapples with the effects of time lag between production and
reception and hence with the problems of ambiguity and vagueness of meaning. A
speaker does not have a similar worry, there is immediate feedback.
6. There are graphological features, which are only typical of writing. Such unique features
include punctuation, capitalisation, spacing, colour and other graphic effects. In speech,
there is little that corresponds
7. Written language tends to be more formal than spoken language and for that reason it has
the opportunity of providing the conventions that society values.
G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1. Explain the differences between spoken and written language.
2. Explain form and function in written language

H. DISCUSSION

In your opinion, which form of language is superior? Is it spoken or written language?

(Post your discussion in the discussion forum. You earn 6 marks for the best voted
presentation)
I. SUMMARY
The topic has dealt with the differences between spoken and written language. Spoken
language existed from time immemorial.

TOPIC FIVE: HUMAN LANGUAGE AND OTHER FORMS OF COMMUNICATION

A. INTRODUCTION

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In this topic, you will be introduced to human language; language as a system of communication;
other forms of communication; language of animals: birds, bees, chimps, spiders, crabs

B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Differentiate between human and animal language

2. Describe the language of different animals
3. Explain other forms of communication

C. REQUIREMENTS
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer
Internet
CD- ROM
Reading books
Manual
3 Suggested Reading
Burton, M. (1973) The six Sense of Animals.
London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to
Linguistics and Language Studies (2nd ed.)
Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F.
(1996) Contemporary Linguistics: An
Introduction. London: Longman.
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017)
Pedagogy of English (Part I).Haldwani:
Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.
Stenning, K., Lascarides, A., & Calder, J.
(2014). Introduction to Cognitionand
Communication. Retrieved from
[Link]
ebooks/[Link]?docID=3338661

D. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic Five Notes or the Topic Five Word
version notes
 Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment

22 | P a g e
  Listen to you tube lectures on web
E. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links
[Link] >publication PDF- Animal communication and human
language: An Overview
Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on animal and human language
[Link] tube. Martin Hilpert
[Link] tube. Centre for innovation> Module 1. Human language and animal
communication systems
F. TOPIC CONTENT/NOTES
(A) HUMAN COMMUNICATION

 Is language the exclusive property of the human species? The idea of talking animals is
as old and as widespread among human societies as language itself. All cultures have
some legends in which some animal play a speaking role. All over West Africa, children
listen to folk tales which ‘a spider-man’ is the hero. The hare, squirrel and hyena are
favourites in East Africa; coyote is a favourite in native American tales.
 If language is viewed only as a system of communication, then many species
communicate
 Humans also use systems other than language to communicate and to send and receive
‘messages’, like so-called body language. The question is whether the communication
systems used by other species are at all like human linguistic knowledge, which is
acquired by children with no instruction, and which is used creatively rather than in
response to internal or external stimuli.
 Most humans who acquire language use speech sounds to express meanings, but such
sounds are not a necessary aspect of language, as evidenced by the sign languages. The
use speech sounds is therefore not a basic part of what we have been calling language
 Animal communication refers to transfer of information by an animal that provokes a
change in behavior of the receiver of the information.
 If animal communication systems are not like human language, it is not because of a lack
of speech. Conversely, when animals vocally imitate human utterances, it does not they
possess language. Language is a system that relates sounds or gestures to meaning.
(B) OTHER FORMS/SYSTEMS OF COMMUNICATION
i) ANIMAL “LANGUAGES”
The birds
 Talking birds such as parrots and mynahs are capable of faithfully reproducing words and
phrases of human language that they have heard, but their utterances carry no meaning.

23 | P a g e
 They are speaking neither English nor their own language when they sound like human
beings.
 Talking birds do not dissect the sounds of their imitations into discrete units. Polly and
molly do not rhyme for a parrot. They are as different as hello and good bye. Human
language is discrete. Speech or gestural units can be ordered and reordered, combined
and split apart. Generally, a parrot says what it is taught or what it hears and no more.
 If the parrot learns the words cat and cats, dog and dogs, and then learns the word
parrot, she will not be able to form the plural parrots as children do by the age of three;
nor can a parrot form an unlimited set of utterances from a finite set of units, or
understand utterances never heard before.
 Reports of an African gray parrot named Alex suggest that new methods of training
animals may result in more learning than was previously believed possible. When the
trainer uses words in context, Alex seems to relate some sounds with their meanings. This
is more than mere imitation, but it is not how children acquire the complexities of the
grammar of any language
 The imitative sounds of talking birds have little in common with human language, but the
natural calls and songs of many species of birds have a communicative function. They
also resemble the human languages in that there are ‘regional dialects’ within the same
species, and as humans, these dialect are transmitted from parents to offspring
 Birdcalls (consisting of one or more short notes) convey messages associated with the
immediate environment, such as danger, feeding, nesting, flocking, and so on.
 Bird songs (more complex patterns of notes) are used to stake out territory and to attract
mates. There is no evidence of any internal structure to these songs, nor can they be
segmented into independently meaningful parts as words of human language can be
 In the study of the territorial song of the European robin, it was discovered that the rival
robins paid attention only to alternation between high-pitched and low-pitched notes, and
which came first did not matter. The message varies only to the extent of how strongly
the robin feels about his possession and to what extent he is prepared to defend it and
start a family in that territory
 The robin is creative in his ability to sing the same thing the same thing in many ways,
but not creative in his ability to use the same units of system to express many different
messages with different meanings.
 Bird songs are similar to human language, for which there is also critical period of
acquisition. Although this is an important aspect of both bird song and human language,
bird calls and songs are fundamentally different kinds of communicative systems. The
kinds of messages that birds can convey are limited, and messages are stimulus controlled
Honey bees
 Messages of honey bees are also limited and stimuli controlled just as in birds.
 A forager bee is able to return to the hive to communicate with other bees where a source
of food is located. It does so by performing a dance on a wall of the hive that reveals the
location and the quality of the food source
24 | P a g e
  For one species of Italian honeybee, the dancing behavior may assume on of the three
possible patterns:
i) round – which indicates the locations near the hive, within 20 feet or so.
ii) sickle- which indicates locations at 20 to 60 feet from the hive
iii) tail-wagging- for distances that exceed 60 feet. The number of repetitions per minute
of the basic pattern in the tail-wagging dance indicates the precise distance; the slower
the repetition rate, the longer the distance.
 An experimenter who forced a bee to walk to the food source showed the inflexibility.
When the bee returned to the hive, it indicated a distance of twenty-five times farther
away than the food source actually was. The bee had no way of communicating the
special circumstances in its message. This absence of creativity makes the bee’s dance
qualitatively different from human language.
 The bees’ dance is an effective system of communication for bees. It is capable, in
principle, of infinitely many different messages, like human language; but unlike human
language, the system is confined to a single subject-food source.
 In the seventeenth century, the philosopher and mathematician Rene’ Descartes pointed
out that the communication systems of animals are qualitatively different from human
language. Human language is not just a response to external , or even internal, stimuli, as
are sounds and gestures of animals. He warns against confusing human use of language
with ‘natural movements which betray passions and may be… manifested by animals.’
Spiders
 Most animals possess some kind of ‘signalling’ communication system.
 Among certain species of spiders there is a complex system for courtship. The male
spider, before he approaches his ladylove, goes through an elaborate series of gestures to
inform her that he is indeed a spider and a suitable mate, and not a crumb or a fly to be
eaten.
 These gestures are invariant. One never finds a creative spider changing or adding to the
courtship ritual of his species.
Crabs
 A similar gestural language is found among the fiddler crabs.
 There are forty species of crabs and each uses its own claw-waving movement to signal
to another member of its ‘clan’.
 The timing, movement and posture of the body never change from one time to another or
from one crab to another within the particular variety. Whatever the signal means, it is
fixed. Only one meaning can be conveyed.
Chimpanzees
 In their natural habitat, chimpanzees, gorillas, and other non-human primates
communicate with each other through visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile signals.
Many of these signals seem to have meanings associated with the animals’ immediate
environment or emotional state. They can signal danger and can communicate
aggressiveness and subordination
25 | P a g e
  However, the natural sounds and gestures produced by all non-human primates are highly
stereotyped and limited in the type and number of messages they convey, consisting
mainly of emotional responses to particular situations. They have no way of expressing
the anger they felt yesterday or the anticipation of tomorrow.
 Throughout the second half of the twentieth century, there were a number of studies
designed to test whether non -human primates could learn human language. In early
experiments researchers raised chimpanzees in their own homes alongside children, in
order to recreate the natural environment in which human children acquire language
 The chimps were unable to vocalize words despite the efforts of their caretakers, though
they did achieve the ability to understand a number of individual words
 One disadvantage suffered by primates is that their vocal tracts do not permit them to
produce many different sounds. Because of their dexterity, primates might be better
taught sign language as a test of their cognitive linguistic ability.
 Starting with a chimpanzee named Washoe, and continuing over the years with a gorilla
named Koko and another chimp, ironically named NimChimpsky (after Noam
Chomsky), efforts were made to teach them American Sign Language. The primates
achieved small success such as the ability to string two signs together, and occasionally
show flashes of creativity, non achieved the qualitative linguistic ability of a human
child.
 Similar results were achieved in trying to teach primates artificial languages designed to
resemble human languages in some respects. Sarah, Lana, Sherman, Austin and other
chimpanzees were taught languages whose ‘words’ were plastic chips, or keys on a
keyboard, that could be arranged in ‘sentences’. The researchers were interested in the
ability primates to communicate using such abstract symbols. These experiments came
under scrutiny. Questions arose over what kind of knowledge Sarah and Lana were
showing with their symbol manipulations. The conclusions was that the creative ability
that is so much a part of human language was not evidenced by chimps’ use of artificial
languages.
 Psychologist Patricia Greenfield and Sue Savage- Rumbaugh studied a different species
of chimp, a male bonobo (or pygmy chimpanzee) named Kanzi. They used the same
plastic symbols and computer keyboard that were used with Lana. They claimed that
Kanzi not only learned, but also invented grammatical rules. One rule they described is
the use of of a symbol designating an object such as ‘do’ followed by a symbol meaning
‘go’.
 After combining these symbols, Kanzi would then go to an area where dogs were located
to play with them. Greenfield and Savage- Rumbaugh claimed that this ‘ordering’ rule
was not an imitation of his caretakers’ utterances, who they said used an opposite
ordering in which ‘go’ was followed by ‘dogs’. Kanzi’s acquisition of grammatical skills
was slower than that of children, taking about three years(starting when he was five and a
half years old). Most of Kanzi’s ‘sentences’ are fixed formulas with little if any internal
structure. Kanzi has not yet exhibited the linguistic knowledge of a human three-year-old,
26 | P a g e
 whose complexity level includes knowledge of sentence structure. Unlike, Kanzi’s use of
different word order from his caretakers, children rapidly adopt the correct word order of
the surrounding language; and without explicit teaching or overt reinforcement, create
new and complex sentences never spoken and never heard before.
II) SIGN LANGUAGE
This is a system of communication based on bodily signals or a code of hand and arm
gestures. Other parts of the body besides the hands may be used.
It has been employed in the education of the deaf.
III) BRAILLE
This is a system of writings for the blind. It uses a combination of raised dots to be read
with fingers. It was developed by a French teacher of the blind called Louis Braille.
IV) MORSE CODE
It uses lines and dots.

These forms of language/communication are different from human language as human language
contains medium transferability- be written or spoken in more than one language.

G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

Explain the different forms of language/communication.

H. DISCUSSION

In your opinion, do we have a primitive human language?

(Post your discussion in the discussion forum. You earn 6 marks for the best voted presentation)

I. SUMMARY

In this topic, we have looked at different forms of communication/language. Human, animal and
other forms of communication. It can be concluded that many animal species possess senses and
means of communication that humans do not have. However, animal communication systems are
in general primitive and instinctive and are incapable of expressing a wide range of concepts.

TOPIC SIX: LANGUAGE OF MACHINES

A. INTRODUCTION

In this topic, you will be introduced to the language of machines. The concept of language of
machines will be described.

B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

27 | P a g e
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Describe the language of machines

2. Effectively interact with machines

C. REQUIREMENTS
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer
Internet
CD- ROM
Reading books
Manual
3 Suggested Reading
Burton, M. (1973) The six Sense of Animals.
London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
“Form ever follow Function.”, Louis Sullivan
(architect, 1856-1924)
Journal of Information Technology
Jocabus,E.J.B. (2013) The Language of
Machines. Dublin : Media Lab Europe, Sugar
House House.
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to
Linguistics and Language Studies (2nd ed.)
Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F.
(1996) Contemporary Linguistics: An
Introduction. London: Longman.
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017)
Pedagogy of English (Part I).Haldwani:
Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.
Stenning, K., Lascarides, A., & Calder, J.
(2014). Introduction to Cognitionand
Communication. Retrieved from
[Link]
ebooks/[Link]?docID=3338661

D. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic Six Notes or the Topic Six Word
version notes

28 | P a g e
  Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment
 Listen to you tube lectures on web
E. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links
[Link] >publication PDF-
[Link]>Language-machines
[Link]>technology
Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on machine language
[Link] tube. John Philip Jones
[Link] tube. Argos multilingual
[Link] tube. Crash course
F. TOPIC CONTENT/NOTES
Machine Language

 We are living in a rapidly evolving information age. Computers, networks, and

information pervade modern society. Some of the components are visible: Virtually every
office and home is equipped with information devices such as personal computers (PCs),
printers, and network connection devices.
 An increasing fraction of the population is using the Internet for tasks as varied as e-mail,
messaging, searching for information, entertainment, and electronic shopping. The
amount of information on the Internet is measured in exabytes.
 Most of the infrastructure supporting the in-formation age, however, is not evident.
Today’s information appliances such as TVs, organizers, and phones contain
microprocessors and other forms of embedded computer systems. Telecommunications
and Internet access systems are all controlled by networked computers. Wireless
networks with voice and data capabilities are found the world over.

 Although software is the key enabler of the global information infrastructure, the amount
and extent of software in use in the world today are not widely understood, nor are the
programming languages and paradigms that have been used to create the software. The
vast size of the embedded base of existing software and the increasing costs of software
maintenance, poor security, and limited functionality are posing significant challenges for
the software community.

 Software used by governments, companies, educational institutions, and people

throughout the world is staggering. An individual system, such as a PC operating system,
can consist of many tens of millions of lines of code.

29 | P a g e
  A computer can be described constructively, by laying out its hardware platform and
explaining how it is built from low-level chips. A computer can also be described
abstractly, by specifying and demonstrating its machine language capabilities.
 As machines become pervasive, numerous and even autonomous fixtures in the home and
work place, our interactions with them will become more sophisticated and inevitable. .
 The machine’s social interaction with us and other machines will develop as explicit
social interactions in order to manage an increasing number of entities (agents) sharing
the environment to accomplish their tasks.
Social interaction with Machines
 In recent years, examples of explicit social interaction between machines has been
framed in terms of a multi-agent system, where individual agents pursue their own
interests or share tasks to accomplish a collective goal
 In social robotics, communities of multiple mobile agents can decompose a complex task,
and negotiate the performance of its constituent steps through the use of a structured
language of communication
 An agent in the context of a robotic community is an embodied autonomous unit
possessing its own goals, decision making processes, and physical capabilities. An
agent’s goal may be individually held or communally shared, and an agent may approach
a conflict between individual and community goals with competitive and cooperative
strategies. Moreover, an agent’s physical abilities may or may not be sufficient to
complete a goal without the aid of other members of the community.
 When a human is added to the social loop, a basic form of human-machine interaction
can be defined as the acceptance of the human as an agent by the machine within a
multi-agent system. Interaction, particularly goal-ori4ented interaction, in a community
of agents requires both a communication protocol between agents, and the availability of
a profile of each agent’s abilities to the community, so that negotiation of actions may
take place.
 A human can enter into a community of machines , provided that he shares a
communication protocol with the machines and that a profile of the abilities of a generic
or specific human agent can be shared with the community.
 It is easier to be acquainted with a new computer system by first seeing some low-level
programmes written in its machine language. this helps us understand not only how to
programme the computer to do useful things, but also why its hardware is designed in a
certain way
 A machine language is an agreed –upon formalism, designed to code low-level
programmes as series of machine instructions. Using these instructions, the programmer
can command the processor to perform arithmetic and logic operations, fetch and store
values from and to the memory, move values from one register to another, test Boolean
conditions, and so on. It is a low level language comprised of binary digits (ones and
zeros)

30 | P a g e
  As opposed to high level languages, whose basic design goals are generality and power
of expression, the goal of machine language’s design is direct execution in, and total
control of, a given hardware platform.
 High level languages, such as swift and C++ must be compiled into machine language
before the code is run on a computer. Since computers are digital devices, they only
recognize binary data.
 Machine language is the most profound interface in the overall computer enterprise- the
fine line where hardware and software meet. This is the point where the abstract thoughts
of the programmer, as manifested in symbolic instructions, are turned into physical
operations performed in silicon.
 Machine language is construed both a programming tool and an integral part of the
hardware platform. In fact, just like we say that the machine language is designed to
exploit a given hardware platform, we can say that the hardware plat is designed to fetch,
interpret and execute, instructions written in a given machine language.
 Current programming languages include Fortran, Python, Scheme
 Machine language is an agreed-upon formalism, designed to manipulate a memory using
a processor and a set of registers.

Memory: refers to the collection of hardware devices designed to store data and instructions.

 Some computer platforms store data and instructions in the same memory device, while
others employ different data and instruction memories, each featuring a separate address
space
 All memories have the same structure: a continuous array of cells of some fixed width,
also called words or locations, each having a unique address
 An individual word representing either a data item or an instruction is specified by
supplying its address
 Individual words can be referred to using the notations Memory[address],
RAM[address], or M[address] for brevity

Processor: is normally called Central Processing Unit (CPU) and is a device capable of
performing a fixed set of operation.

 These operations include arithmetic and logic operations, and control (also called
branching) operations
 The operands of these operations are the current values of registers and selected
memory locations
 The results of the operatio ns can be stored either in registers or in selected
memory locations

Registers: memory access is a relatively slow operation requiring long instruction formats (an
address may require 32 bits)

31 | P a g e
  Located in the processor’s immediate proximity, the registers serve as a high-speed local
memory, allowing the processor to quickly store and retrieve data.
 This setting enables the programmer to minimize the use of memory access commands,
thus speeding up the programme’s execution.
 A machine language programme is a series of coded instructions. E.g., a typical
instruction in a 16-bit computer may be “ 101001100011001” . we have to know the
rulexs of the game, i.e. the instruction set of the underlying hardware platform. For
example, the language may be such that each instruction consists of four 4-bit fields: the
left-most field codes a CPU operation, and the remaining fields represent the operation’s
operands.
 Thus the abovecommand may code the operation “set R3 to R1+R9” depending on the
hardware specification and the machine language syntax.
 Since binary codes are rather cryptic, machine languages are normally specified using
both binary codes and symbolic mnemonics (symbolic label that stands for something-
in our case binary codes). E.g. the language designer can decide that the operation code
“1010” will be represented by the mnemonic “add”, and that the registers of the machine
will be symbolically referred to using the symbols R0, R1, R2,…
 using these conventions, one can specify machine language instructions either directly, as
“1010001100011001”
 The symbolic notation is called assemblylanguage, or simply assembly, and the
programme that translates from the assembly to binary is called assembler.
 Commands: every computer is required to perform basic arithmetic operations like
addition, and subtraction as well as basic Boolean operations like bit-wise negation, bit
shifting,etc.
 Types of memory Access commands
[Link] and logical commands
[Link] and store commands
 Memory access commands may use several types of addressing modes- ways of
specifying the address of required memory word:
1. Direct Addressing- the most common way to address the memory is to express a
specific address or use a symbol that refers to a specific address: LOAD R1, 67 //R1 ---
MEMORY [67]//
Assume that sum refers to memory address 67 LOAD R1, SUM//R1—Memory [67]
2. Immediate addressing-this form addressing is used to load constants- i.e. load values
that appear in the instruction proper: instead of addressing the field that appears in the “
load” command as an address, we simply load the value of the field itself into the
register.
LOAD R1, 67 //R1---67
3. Indirect addressing: in this mode, the address of the required memory location is not
hard-codedinto the instruction; instead, the instruction specifies a memory location that
holds the required memory address.
32 | P a g e
 This addressing mode is used to manage pointers in high level programming languages.
E.g., the high level command “ x=arr[j] where arr is an array and x and j are variables
 Flow of control commands: while programmes normally execute in a linear fashion,
one command after the other, they also include occasional branches to locations other
than the next command.
 Branching serves several purposes including: repetition (jump backward to the
beginning of a loop), conditional execution ( if a Boolean condition is false, jump
forward to location after the ‘if-then’ clause), and subroutine calling (jump to the first
command of some other segment)
 In order to support these programming constructs, every machine language features
means to jump to various locations in the programme, both conditionally.
 In assembly languages, locations in the programme can also be given symbolic names,
using some syntax for specifying labels.

G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

1. Explain the term machine language
2. Describe the terms memory, processor and register in relation to computer
programming.
3. How is speech act theory related to computer programming?
H. DISCUSSION
Discuss the importance of the language of machines to humanity?
(Post your discussion in the discussion forum. You earn 6 marks for the best voted
presentation)
I. SUMMARY
The topic has dealt with the language of machines. In the current world, it is
impossible to communicate more effectively with others without the use of modern
technology such as computers. Consequently, one needs to know the computer
language in order to interact with the machines successfully.
TOPIC SEVEN: ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING
A. INTRODUCTION
In this topic, you will be introduced to the origin of writing and the earlier forms of
writing.
B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Identify and explain the ancient forms of writing
2. Describe the earlier/ancient forms of writing
C. REQUIREMENTS
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer

33 | P a g e
 Internet
CD- ROM
Reading books
Manual
3 Suggested Reading
Burton, M. (1973) The six Sense of Animals.
London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
“Form ever follow Function.”, Louis Sullivan
(architect, 1856-1924)
Journal of Information Technology
Jocabus,E.J.B. (2013) The Language of
Machines. Dublin : Media Lab Europe, Sugar
House House.
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to
Linguistics and Language Studies (2nd ed.)
Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F.
(1996) Contemporary Linguistics: An
Introduction. London: Longman.
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017)
Pedagogy of English (Part I).Haldwani:
Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.
Stenning, K., Lascarides, A., & Calder, J.
(2014). Introduction to Cognitionand
Communication. Retrieved from
[Link]
ebooks/[Link]?docID=3338661

D. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic Seven Notes or the Topic Seven Word
version notes
 Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment
 Listen to you tube lectures on web
E. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links
[Link]>wiki>list of writing systems
[Link] >publication PDF-
https:[Link]/products/writing systems of the world

34 | P a g e
 [Link]>files>2014/04 PDF writing systems
Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on early forms of writing
[Link] tube. [Link]
[Link] tube. xidnaf
F. TOPIC CONTENT/NOTES
Earlier Forms of Writing
 The creation and development of writing systems is one of the greatest of human
achievements. By writing, we mean a visual system for representing language,
including hand writing, printing, and electronic displays of these written forms.
Braille writing is a tactile system for the visually impaired.
 It might be argued that today we have electronic means of recording sound and
images, so writing is becoming obsolete. If writing become extinct, however, there
would be no knowledge of electronics for engineers to study; there would be, in fact,
little technology in years to come. There would be no e-messaging, no literature, no
books, no mail, no newspapers. There would be some advantages- no spam, no
poison-pen letters, no ‘fine print’- but the losses would far outweigh the gains.
 An Egyptian legend relates that when the god Thoth revealed his discovery of the arty
of writing to king Thamos, the good king denounced it as an enemy of civilization.
“Children and young people,” protested the monarch, “who had hitherto been forced
to apply themselves diligently to learn and retain whatever was taught them, would
cease to apply themselves, and would neglect to exercise their memories.”( Will
Durant, The Story of Civilisation Vol.1, 1935)
 Greek legend has it that Cadmus, Prince of Phoenicia and founder of the city of
Thebes, invented the alphabet and brought it with him to Greece
 In one of the Chinese fable, the four-eyed dragon-god CangJie invented writing, but
in another, writing first appeared as markings on the back of the chi-lin, a white
unicorn of Chinese legend
 In other myths, the Babylonian god Nebo and the Egyptian god Thoth gave writing as
well as speech to humans.
 The Talmudic scholar Rabbi Akiba believed that the alphabet existed before the
humans were created.
 According to Hindu tradition, the goddess Saraswati, wife of Brahma, invented
writing.
 Although these are delightful stories, it is evident that before a single word was
written, uncountable billions were spoken. The invention of writing comes relatively
late in human history, and its development was gradual. It is highly unlikely that a
particularly gifted ancestor awoke one morning and decided, “Today I’ll invent a
writing system.”

Pictograms and ideograms

35 | P a g e
  “One picture is worth a thousand words.” (Chinese proverb).
 The roots of writing were the early drawings made by ancient humans. Cave art, called
petroglyphs, such as those found in the Altamira cave in northern Spain, created by
humans living in more than 20, 000 years ago, can be ‘read’ today. They are literal
portrayals of life at the time. We do not know why they were produced; they may be
aesthetic expressions rather than pictorial communications.
 Later drawings, however, are clearly ‘picture writings’ or pictograms. Unlike modern
writing systems, each picture or pictogram is a direct image of the object it represents.
There is a non -arbitrary relationship between form and meaning of the symbol.
 Comic strips minus captions are pictorial- literal representations of ideas to be
communicated. This early form of writing represented objects in the world directly rather
than through linguistic names given to these objects. They did not represent words and
sounds of the spoken language.
 Pictographic writing has been found throughout the world, ancient and modern: among
Africans, Native Americans including the Inuits of Alaska and Canada, the Incas of Peru,
the Yukagririans of Siberia, and the people of Oceania.
 Pictograms are used today in international road signs, where the native language of the
region might not be understood by all travellers. Such symbols do not depend on words.
 Once a pictorial was accepted as the representation of an object, its meaning was
extended to attributes of that object, or concepts associated with it. A picture of the sun
could represent warmth, heat, light, day time, and so on.
 Ideograms. Pictograms began to represent ideas rather than objects. Such generalized
pictograms are called ideograms (‘idea pictures’ or ‘idea writing’).
 Ideograms tend to be less direct representations, and one may have to learn what a
particular ideogram means. Pictograms tend to be more literal. E.g., the no parking
symbol consisting of a black letter P inside a red circle with a slanting red line through it
is an ideogram. It represents the idea of no parking abstractly. A no parking symbol
showing an automobile being towed away is more literal, more like a pictogram.
 Pictograms and ideograms became highly stylized and difficult to interpret without
knowing the system. To learn the system, one learned the words of the language that the
ideograms represented. Thus the ideograms became linguistic symbols. They stood for
the words, both meaning and sounds, that represented the ideas
 This stage was the revolutionary step in the development of writing systems.

Cuneiform Writing

Translation of a Sumerian Poem in Cuneiform

Bridegroom, let me caress you,

My precious caress is more savory than

36 | P a g e
Honey in the bed chamber, honey-filled,

Let me enjoy your goodly beauty, Lion let

Me caress you.

 Much of what we know about writing stems from records left by the Sumerians, an ancient
people of unknown origin, who built a civilization in southern Mesopotamia (modern Iraq)
more than 6,000 years ago.
 They left innumerable clay tables containing business documents, epics, poems, prayers,
proverbs and so on. So copious are these written records that the Pennsylvania Sumerian
Dictionary Project has been able to publish electronically an eighteen- volume online
dictionary of their written language. It has been available since June, 2006.
 The writing system of the Sumerians is the oldest one known. They were a commercially
oriented people, and as their business deals became increasingly complex, the need for
permanent records arose. An elaborate pictography was developed, along with a system of
tallies:
 Over the centuries the Sumerians simplified and conventionalized their pictography. They
became to produce the symbols of their written language by using a wedge-shaped stylus that
was pressed into soft clay tables. The tablets hardened in the desert sun to produce permanent
records that were far harder than modern paper or electronic documents
 This form of writing is called cuneiform- literally, ‘wedge-shaped’ (from Latin cuneus,
‘wedge’
 As cuneiform evolved, its users began to think of the symbols more than in terms of the name
of the things represented. Eventually, cuneiform script came to represent words of language.
Such a system is called logographic or word writing. Logograms, the symbol of word-
writing system, are ideograms that represent in addition to the concept, the word or
morpheme in the language for that concept
 This system spread throughout the Middle East and Asia Minor. The Babylonians,
Assyrians and Persons borrowed it. In borrowing the cuneiform characters, the
borrowers often used them to represent the sounds of the syllables in their own
languages. In this way cuneiform evolved into a syllabic writing system.
 In syllabic writing system, each syllable in the language is represented by its own
symbol, and words are written syllable by syllable
 The Assyrians retained many word symbols, even though every word in their language
could be written out syllabically if it were desired
 The Persians (ca. 600-400 B.C. E.) devised a greatly simplified syllabic alphabet for their
language, which made little use of word symbols. By the reign of Darius I (521-486
B.C.E.), this writing system was in wide use. The following characters illustrate it: ; I:*
bizarre; :-S crying
 Emoticons are strings of text characters that, when viewed sideways, form a face
expressing a particular emotion . They are mostly used in e-mail and text messaging to

37 | P a g e
 express a feeling. They are a modern, pictographic system similar to cuneiform in that the
same symbols are combined in different manners to convey different concepts .
 Most smart phone and e-mail users recognize the smiley face  to mean ‘not serious’ or
‘just joking’
 The invention, use , and acceptance of emotions reflect on a small scale how a writing
system such as cuneiform might spread throughout a country.

The Rebus Principle

 When a graphic sign no longer has a visual relationship to the word it represents, it
becomes a phonographic symbol, standing for the sounds that represent the word. A
single sign can then be used to represent all words with the same sounds- the
homophones of the language
 A rebus is a representation of words by pictures of objects who names sound like the
word. Thus ………… might represent eye or the pronoun I. The sounds of the two
words are identical, even though the meanings are not .
From Hieroglyphics to the Alphabet
 At the time that Sumerian pictography was flourishing (around 4,000 B.C.E), the
Egyptians were using a similar system, which the Greeks later called hieroglyphics (
hiero, ‘sacred’ + glyphikos, ‘carvings’). These sacred carvings originated as pictography.
 The Phoenicians, a Semetic people who lived in what is today Lebanon, were aware of
hieroglyphics as well as the offshoots of Sumerian writing. By 1500 B>C.E., they
developed a writing system of twenty characters, the West SemeticSyllabary. Mostly, the
characters stood for consonants alone. The reader provided the vowels, and hence the rest
of the syllable, through the knowledge of the language.
 Thus the west SemeticSyllabary was both a syllabary and a consonantalalphabet (also
called abjad).
 The ancient Greek tried to borrow the Phoenician writing system but it was
unsatisfactory as a syllabary because Greek has too complex a syllable structure. In
Greek, unlike in Phoenician, vowels cannot be determined by context, so a writing
system for Greek required that vowels be specifically written
 The Greeks used the leftover consonants symbols of Phoenicians to represent vowel
sounds. The result was alphabeticwriting, a system in which both consonants and
vowels are symbolized(The word alphabet is derived from alpha and beta, the first two
letters of the Greek alphabet.)
 Most alphabetic systems in use today derive from the Greek system. the Etruscans knew
this alphabet and through them it became known to the Romans, who used it for Latin.
 The alphabet spread with western civilization, and eventually most nations of the world
had the opportunity to use alphabetic writing.
 According to one view, the alphabet was not invented, it was discovered. If language did
not include discrete individual sounds, no one could have invented alphabetic letters to
represent them. When humans started to use one symbol for one phoneme, they were
38 | P a g e
 making more salient their intuitive knowledge of the phonological system of the
language.
G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
1. Identify and explain the ancient forms of writing

H. DISCUSSION

Why is writing an important innovation?

(Post your discussion in the discussion forum. You earn 6 marks for the best voted presentation)

I. SUMMARY
The topic has dealt with the theories about the origin of writing, and ancient forms of
writing.

TOPIC EIGHT: MODERN WRITING SYSTEMS

A. INTRODUCTION

In this topic, you will be introduced to the modern forms of writing. They include the following:
logographic, syllabic, consonantal alphabet and alphabetic writing systems.

B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Identify and explain the modern forms of writing

2. Discuss the characteristic features of each form of modern writing

3. Outline the timeline for the development of the Roman alphabet.

39 | P a g e
 C. REQUIREMENTS
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer
Internet
CD- ROM
Reading books
Manual
3 Suggested Reading
Burton, M. (1973) The six Sense of Animals.
London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.
“Form ever follow Function.”, Louis Sullivan
(architect, 1856-1924)
Journal of Information Technology
Jocabus,E.J.B. (2013) The Language of
Machines. Dublin : Media Lab Europe, Sugar
House House.
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to
Linguistics and Language Studies (2nd ed.)
Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F.
(1996) Contemporary Linguistics: An
Introduction. London: Longman.
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017)
Pedagogy of English (Part I).Haldwani:
Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.
Stenning, K., Lascarides, A., & Calder, J.
(2014). Introduction to Cognitionand
Communication. Retrieved from
[Link]
ebooks/[Link]?docID=3338661

D. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic Eight Notes or the Topic Eight Word
version notes
 Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment
 Listen to you tube lectures on web
E. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links

40 | P a g e
 [Link]>wiki>list of writing systems
[Link] >publication PDF-
https:[Link]/products/writing systems of the world
[Link]>files>2014/04 PDF writing systems
Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on early forms of writing
[Link] tube. [Link]
[Link] tube. xidnaf
F. TOPIC CONTENT/NOTES
Modern Forms of Writing

Modern writing systems are varied and they depend on where they originated. These writing
systems are discussed below.

1. Word or Logographic Writing

 Is a system used in China and Japan.
 In this system, a written character represents both the meaning and pronunciation of each
word or morpheme. Such systems are cumbersome, containing thousands of different
characters. By contrast, all of the 450, 000 entries in Webster’s Third New International
Dictionary may be written using only twenty-six alphabetic symbols and a handful of
punctuation marks and other characters
 It is understandable why word writing gave way to alphabetic systems in most places in
the world.
 The Chinese writing system has an uninterrupted history of 3,5000 years. For most part,
it is a word writing system, each character representing an individual word or morpheme.
 Longer words are formed by combining two words or morphemes, as shown by the word
meaning ‘business,’ ma imai, which is formed by combining the words meaning ‘buy’
and ‘sell.’ This is similar to compounding in English.
 A word writing system would be awkward for English and other Indo European
languages because of the pervasiveness of inflected verb forms such as take, takes,
taken, took and taking and inflected noun forms such as cat, cats, cat’s and cats.’
These are difficult to represent without a huge proliferation of characters. The Chinese
languages on the other hand, have very little inflection.
 . Thus writing has served as a unifying factor throughout Chinese history, in an area
where hundreds of languages and dialects co-exist. This is illustrated by the Chinese
proverb, “people separated by a blade of grass cannot understand each other.”
 This use of written Chinese characters is similar to the use of Arabic numerals, which
mean the same thing in many countries. E.g., the character 5 ( or V- for that matter)
stands for a different sequence of sounds in English, French, and Finnish. It is five/faiv/
in English, cinq/sak/ in French, and viisi/vi:si/ in Finnish, but in all these languages 5

41 | P a g e
 means ‘five’ however it is pronounced. Similarly, the spoken word ‘rice’ is different in
various Chinese languages, but the written character is the same.
 If the writing system in China were to become alphabetic, each language would be as
different in writing as in speaking, and written communication would no longer be
possible among the various language communities.

2. Syllabic Writing

 Syllabic writing systems are more efficient than word-writing systems, and they are
certainly less taxing on the memory. However, languages with a rich structure of
syllables containing many consonant clusters (such as tr or spl ) cannot be efficiently
written with a syllabary. To see this difficulty, consider the syllable structures of English:
 I /ai/ V; ant /ant/ VCC; Key /ki/ CV; striped/straipt/ CCCVCC; triumphs/ traiempfs/
 With more than thirty consonants and over twelve vowels, the number of different
possible syllables is astronomical, which is why English, and Indo-European languages in
general, are unsuitable for syllabic writing systems.
 The Japanese language, on the other hand, is more suited for syllabic writing, because all
words in Japanese can be phonologically represented by about one hundred syllables,
mostly of the consonant-vowel (CV) type, and there are no underlying consonant clusters.
To write these syllables, the Japanese have two syllabaries, each containing forty-six
characters, called kana.
 The entire Japanese language can be written using kana. One syllabary, katakana, is
used for loan words and for special effects similar to italics in European writing. The
other syllabary, hiragana, is used for native words.
 The hiragana characters may occur in the same word as ideographic characters, which are
called kanji, and are borrowed Chinese characters. Thus, Japanese writing is partly word
writing and partly syllable writing.
 However, spoken Japanese is unlike spoken Chinese. (They are genetically unrelated
languages). A word-writing system alone was not suitable for Japanese, which is a
highly inflected language in which verbs may occur in thirty or more different forms.
 Scholars devised syllabic characters, based on modified Chinese characters, to represent
the inflectional endings and other grammatical morphemes. Thus, in Japanese writing,
Kanji is commonly used for the verb roots, and hiragana symbols for inflectional
markings.
 In theory, all Japanese could be written in hiragana. However, in Japanese, there are
homographs (like lead in’ lead pipe’ or ‘lead astray’), and the use of kanji disambiguates
a word that might be ambiguous if written syllabically, similar to the ambiguity of can in
‘ He saw the gasoline can explode.’ In addition, kanji writing is an integral part of
Japanese culture, and it is unlikely to be abandoned.

3. Consonantal Alphabet Writing

42 | P a g e
  Semitic languages such as Hebrew and Arabic, are written with alphabets that consist
only consonants. Such an alphabet works for these languages because consonants form
the root of most words. E.g., the consonants ktb in Arabic form the root of words
associated with ‘write.’ Thus katab means ‘to write’, aktib means ‘I write’, kitab means ‘
a book’ and so on.
 Inflectional and derivational processes can be expressed by different vowels inserted into
the triconsonantal roots.
 Because of this structure, vowels can sometimes be figured out by a person who
understands the spoken language, jstlk y cnrdthsphrs, prvdng y knwnglsh.
 English however, is unrelated to semitic languages like Arabic and Hebrew, as its
structure is such that vowels are usually crucial in reading and writing. The English
phrase I like to eat out would be incomprehensible without vowels,viz. lk t tt.
 Semitic alphabets provide a way to use diacritic marks to express vowels. This is partly
out of the desire to preserve the true pronunciation of religious writings, and partly out of
deference to children and foreigners learning to read and write.
 In Hebrew, dots or other small figures are placed under, above, or even in the centre of
consonantal letter to indicate the accompanying vowel. E.g.,
 These systems are called consonantal alphabets because only the consonants are fully
developed symbols.
 Sometimes they are considered syllabaries because once the reader or writer perceives a
vowel, the consonantal letter seems to stand for a syllable. With a true syllabary,
however, a person need know only the phonetic value of each symbol to pronounce it
correctly and unambiguously.
 Once you learn Japanese syllabary, you can read Japanese in a ( more or less)
phonetically correct way without any idea of what you are saying. ( The syllabic text does
not always show word boundaries, and there is no indication of prosodic features such as
intonation.) this would be impossible for Arabic or Hebrew.

4. Alphabetic Writing

 The term sound writing is sometimes used in place of alphabetic writing, but it does not
really represent the principle involved in the use of alphabets. One sound ----one letter is
inefficient and unintuitive, because we do not need to represent the [ph] in pit and the [p]
in spit by two different letters.
 Most alphabets, if not all, have been devised on the phonemic principle
 In the twelfth century, an Icelandic scholar developed an orthography derived from the
Latin alphabet for the writing of the Icelandic language of his day.
 Other scholars in this period were also interested in orthographic reform, but the
Icelander, who came to be known a ‘the First Grammarian.’ (because of his anonymous
paper was the first entry in a collection of grammatical essays), was the only one of the

43 | P a g e
 time who left a record of his principles. The orthography he developed was clearly based
on the phonemic principle. He used minimal pairs to show the distinctive contrasts.
 King Seijong of Korea (1397-1450) realized that the same principle held true for Korean
when, with the assistance of scholars, he designed a phonemic alphabet called Hangul,
which had seventeen consonants and eleven vowels. The king was an avid reader and
realized that the more than 30,000 Chinese characters used to write Korean discouraged
literacy.
 Other the Korean has sounds /r/ and /l/ , Seijong represented them by a single letter
because they are allophonic variants of the same phoneme. The same is true for sounds /s/
and /Seijong showed further ingenuity in the design of the characters themselves. The
consonants are drawn so as to depict the place and manner of articulation. The letter
for/g/ is to suggest the raising of the back of the tongue to the velum. The letter for/m/ is
the closed figure to suggest the closing of the lips. Vowels are drawn as long vertical or
horizontal lines, sometimes with small marks attached to them.
 Many languages have their own alphabet, and each has developed a certain conventions
for converting strings of alphabetic characters into sequences of sound (reading), and
converting sequences into strings of alphabetic characters (writing).
 Most European alphabets use Latin (Roman) letters, adding diacritic marks to
accommodate individual characteristics of a particular language. E.g., Spanish uses n to
represent the palatalized nasal phoneme of senor, and German has added an umlaut for
certain of its vowel sounds that did not exist in Latin (e.g., in uber). Diacritic marks
supplement the forty-six kana of the Japanese syllabaries to enable them to represent the
more than 100 syllables of the language
 Diacritic marks are also used in writing systems of tone languages such as Thai to
indicate the tone of the syllable.
 Some languages use two letters together- called a digraph- to represent a single sound.
English has many digraphs, such as sh/s/ as in ishe, ch /ts/ as in chop, ng as in sing/si/
and oa as in loaf/lof/
 Besides the European languages, languages such as Turkish, Indonesian, Swahili, and
Vietnamese have adopted the Latin alphabet.
 Other languages that have more recently developed a writing system use some of the
IPA phonetic symbols in their alphabet. E.g., Twi, uses , , and  symbols.
 Many Slavic languages, including Russian, use the Cyrillic alphabet, named in honour
of St. Cyril, who brought Christianity to Slavs in the ninth century C.E. it is derived
directly from Greek alphabet without Latin mediation.
 Many co contemporary alphabets, such as those used for Arabic, Farsi (spoken in Iran),
Urdu (spoken in Pakistan), and many languages of the Indian sub -continent are
ultimately derived from the ancient Semitic syllabaries.
Timeline of the Development of the Roman Alphabet
15000 B.C.E. -------Cave drawings as pictograms
4000 B.C.E.-------Sumerian Cuneiform
44 | P a g e
 3000 B.C.E.------Hieroglyphics
1500 B.C.E.------West Semitic Syllabary of the Phoenicians
1000 B.C.E.------Ancient Greeks borrow the Phoenician consonantal alphabet
750 B.C.E. ------Etruscans borrow the Greek alphabet
500 B.C.E.------Romans adapt the Etruscan/ Greco alphabet to Latin.
 Alphabetic writing systems are easy to learn, convenient to use, and maximally efficient
for transcribing any human language.

G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

1. Identify and explain the different writing systems of modern language.

H. DISCUSSION

In your opinion, do you think that there is a writing system which is better than others?

(Post your discussion in the discussion forum. You earn 6 marks for the best voted
presentation)

I. SUMMARY

The topic has dealt with types of modern writing systems and their features

TOPIC NINE: LANGUAGES IN KENYA: FOCUS ON SOCIOLINGUISTIC GEOGRAPHY OF KENYA

A. INTRODUCTION

In this topic, you will be introduced to the main languages spoken in Kenya, that is, the
sociolinguistic geography of Kenya; and the structural characteristics of language in terms of
phonological, lexical and semantics.

B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Describe the sociolinguistic geography of Kenya.

2. Outline the main branches of linguistics

C. REQUIREMENTS
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer
Internet
CD- ROM

45 | P a g e
 Reading books
Manual
3 Suggested Reading
Kurian, G.T. (1992) Encylopaedia of the Third
World, fourth edition, volume 3, Facts on File.
New York:N.Y, P.970
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to
Linguistics and Language Studies (2nd ed.)
Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F.
(1996) Contemporary Linguistics: An
Introduction. London: Longman.
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017)
Pedagogy of English (Part I).Haldwani:
Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.
Stenning, K., Lascarides, A., & Calder, J.
(2014). Introduction to Cognitionand
Communication. Retrieved from
[Link]
ebooks/[Link]?docID=3338661

D. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic Nine Notes or the Topic Nine Word
version notes
 Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment
 Listen to you tube lectures on web
E. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links
[Link]>wiki>list of writing systems
[Link] >publication PDF-
[Link]
Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on Kenya language groups
[Link] tube. [Link]- Tribes of Kenya.
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]+5 origin of kenya

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 F. TOPIC CONTENT/NOTES
Kenyan languages have been classified into three broad linguistic groups: Bantu, Nilotic and
Cushitic.

1. The Bantu- is part of the Niger Kordofan family.

It includes the Eastern bantu: Kikuyu, Akamba, Meru, Embu, Tharaka, Mbeere; Coastal
bantu: Mijikenda, Taita, Taveta, Swahili ; Western bantu: Luhya,Gusii, Kuria, Suba

[Link] Nilotic- is part of the Nilo-Saharan family.

It includes the Plain nilotes: Maasai, Samburu, Teso and Turkana; River-lake nilotes: Luo;
Highland nilotes: Kalenjin.

[Link] Cushitic is part of the Afro-Asiatic family.

They include: Somali, El-molo, Boran, Burji Dasssenich, Gabbra, Orma, Sakuye, Boni,
Wate, Yaaka, Daholo, Rendille and Galla.

[Link] principal non- indigenous ethnic minorities are Arabs and Asians

Structural Characteristics of Language Clusters: phonological, lexical and semantic

1. Phonology- is the system of contrastive relationships among the speech sounds that constitute
the fundamental components of a language. The branch of linguistics that deals with systems of
sounds ( including or excluding phonetics),within a language or between different languages.
It is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their
sounds.
Phonological awareness- ability to hear and attend to different units of language, e.g. syllables,
rhyme, initial sounds. It is listening at auditory level. We have 44 phonemes in English.
Phonemic awareness- it is one specific piece of phonological awareness; involves breaking a
word into its individual sounds.
2. Lexical- relating to words or vocabulary of a language. Relating to or the nature of a lexicon
or dictionary.
Lexicon is the vocabulary of a person, language, or a branch of knowledge; a dictionary. It is the
inbuilt vocabulary; as part of the competence of a native speaker.
3. Semantics- is the meaning of meaning; denotative and connotative meaning; study of meaning
in Language (English, Kiswahili, Lubukusu).
language- identifies languages we use in daily life
Language- principles of Human Language.
Linguistics- is the study of human Language

Language is divided into three basic parts: sounds, form and meaning

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 [Link] of linguistics that studies sounds – Phonetics and phonology

[Link] of linguistics that studies words- Morphology

[Link] of linguistics that studies phrases and clauses- Syntax

[Link] of linguistics that studies meaning- Semantics, Pragmatics

Grammar of a language: every single part of a language- sounds, syllables, morphemes, words,
phrases, clauses, sentences.

G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

1. Describe the branches of linguistics
2. Identify and give examples of the main linguistic groups in Kenya.
H. DISCUSSION
Why is grammar of a language important?
I. SUMMARY
In this topic, we looked at the linguistic geography of Kenya where we discussed the
three main linguistic groups: the Bantu speakers, Nilotic speakers and the Cushitic
speakers. You were also introduced to the branches of linguistics.

TOPIC ELEVEN: LANGUAGE PLANNING (LP)

A. INTRODUCTION

In this topic, you will be introduced to the concept of language planning, standard language,
varieties of language, dialects and the rise of pidgin and creoles.

B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

[Link] the terms language planning, language variety, dialect and idiolect

[Link] the process of language standardization

3. Describe the rise of English pidgin and creoles

[Link]
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer
Internet
CD- ROM
Reading books

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 Manual
3 Suggested Reading
Cooper,R.L. (1989) Language Planning and
Social Change. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Encylopaedia of Language and Education
Book Series (LANG, Volume 8)
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to
Linguistics and Language Studies (2nd ed.)
Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F.
(1996) Contemporary Linguistics: An
Introduction. London: Longman.
Research Journal of English (RJOE), Pp. 69.
Roy- Campbell, Z.M. (2014) Teaching English
as a Second Language in Kenya and the United
States: Convergences and Divergences.
Global Education Review 2(2)
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017)
Pedagogy of English (Part I).Haldwani:
Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.

D. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic Eleven Notes or the Topic Eleven
Word version notes
 Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment
 Listen to you tube lectures on web
E. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links
[Link]
[Link]>PDF
[Link]>doi>pdf language varieties
[Link]>doi>abs
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]>publication PDF- pidgin and creole languages
[Link]>cre…PDF

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 https;//[Link]/lg/lg449/[Link]. Accessed on 14/07/13

Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on language planning and policy
[Link]. University of Gronigen> Language planning by Robert Phillipson vs
Abramole
[Link] Audiopedia>wha is language planning?
[Link] Tahir
[Link] Tube. The virtual linguistics
[Link] Tube. Ajie Putra> Definition of Language varieties

[Link] CONTENT/NOTES
Language planning refers to activities that attempt to bring about changes in the structure
(corpus) and functions (thus, status) of languages and/or language varieties, using sociolinguistic
concepts and information to make policy decisions and to implement them, in order to deal with
linguistic and/or extra linguistic problems at national, international or community level (Cooper,
1989).

 It involves graphication- the development section and modification of scripts and

orthographic conventions for a language standardization.
One variety of language takes precedence over other social and regional dialects
‘standard’ variety is understood as a supra-dialectal and the ‘best’ form of the language (Cooper,
1989)
 The field of language planning and policy is concerned with the policies both explicit and
implicit that influence what languages are spoken, when, how and by whom, as well as the
values and rights associated with those languages.
 Corpus planning refers to the changes or standardization of certain elements of the
language, e.g. lexicon, orthography. This level includes ‘codification’ and elaboration’ and it
is done by sociolinguists.

Standard Language

 This is the ideal or proper language. It is the language which is taught in schools, printed in
text books and used in broadcasting.
 The standard language is more clearly described in terms of written language- focusing on
vocabulary, spelling and grammar- and not necessarily in speech, because of the various
interferences prone to spoken language. For example, we have Standard British English
which we use in Kenya in the written forms but use a variety of the same (Kenyan English)
in speech.

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 One feature which distinguishes Kenyan English from Standard British English is
nativatisation, where there is transference of the native forms into the Standard English as is
influenced by the social cultural and linguistic contexts. This may happen when, for instance,
no exact linguistic equivalents exist in English, for example, ugali. it may also happen when
using linguistic items that denote nationalism even though equivalents do exist in English,
with the name like uhuru.
 A standard language is a supra- dialectal norm adopted use as a medium of wider
communication.
Language standardisation.
 The existence of a standard norm presupposes that there is existence of dialect in the
language concerned.
 The process of changing a dialect into a standard norm is called standardization.
 Prior to standardization, the dialects of the language are equal in usage. Dialect meets the
communicative needs of its speakers.
 The dialect that has been standardized becomes a language but the other dialects not
standardized remain dialects. E.g., dialects A, B, C, D. if B is elevated or standardized, then
it becomes a language.
 Speaking a language at the level of dialect is called a restricted code while the standard form
of language usage is called elaborated code.
 The process of usage at two levels of dialect and standard level of language is called
diglossia.

Characteristics of a standard language

1. It has a respected body of written literature. It is used widely in acquiring information and
knowledge.
2. It is learned through formal education. Language standardization is a vital exercise in the
whole process of education/learning.
3. The level of proficiency is commensurate to one’s level of education.

Processes in Language Standardisation.

1. Selection

A decision has to be made on the dialect or variety to be standardized based on several criteria.

a) Variety/dialect used in important political or commercial centre.

b) Choosing the dialect spoken by the majority.

c) Combine peculiar aspects from different dialects.

2. Codification

 Developing of writing systems in that language.

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  For example, if that language had not been written before, you must establish the
orthography (spelling, grammar books, dictionaries, etc.) in writing system

3. Elaboration of Function

 This is the expanding of language to take care of all aspects of social development.
Language must be able to be used in wide for a e.g., used effectively in parliament,
judiciary, issues pertaining to science and technology
 Dictionaries and encyclopaedias of all fields of study should be established.

4. Acceptance

 Users of that language use it as a symbol of their identity. Speakers of that language
should see it as a unifying factor.

VARIETIES OF LANGUAGE

Language is a term that has internal differences,e.g., music-reggie, Jazz, lingala, etc. Language
varieties occur from individual to communal level.

IDIOLECT

 The way an individual uses language can be manifested in several ways: different
pronunciation, people using long or short sentences, using statements or questions, using
archaic versus modern terms.
 Despite the difference, it does not hinder us from hearing what an individual is talking
about. It is a concern of stylisticians-experts of style.

DIALECT

 Every language has its dialects. The term dialect refers to various variations of the same
language.
 Differences that occur in language used by groups in a community that has one common
language
 They are mainly marked at two levels:
i) Phonological/Sound level
One group has a particular sound which lacks in another group. E.g., /p/, pa and
/b/ ba.
ii) Lexical/Vocabulary level
Where different words refer to the same thing. E.g., platform versus dais, bucket
versus pail, sweater versus cardigan.

Causes of Dialects

1. Social factors

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 Social dialects can arise from class differences, religion, etc. For example, Received
Pronunciation (RP)- Queen’s English- is high class.
2. Geographical factors
 Geographical dialects are due to regional differences. They are influenced by the
environment we live in. E.g., Kiswahili dialects- Kiswahili of Lamu, Kinguzija (in
Komoro highlands), Kinguja, Kiamu, Kimvita, Kingare, etc.
 Luhya dialects are eighteen. For example, Bukusu of Bungoma, Maragoli of Vihiga,
Marama of Kakamega, Bakhayo of Busia, etc.
 English has two main dialects: the British and American English.
 The British English can further be subdivided into a Kenyan variety, Nigerian variety,
Australian variety among others.

Conflicts between the concept of dialects and language.

 There has occurred differences in marking the difference between language and dialect.
 From linguistic point of view, there is mutual intelligibility- is a measure, if two speakers
can communicate effectively each using his or her mother tongue despite slight differences.
Then these people are speaking the same language.
 Non-linguistic criteria has also be used to categorise these two –dialect and language. E.g.,
in China we have Cantonese and Mandarin- all are called Chinese language yet when they
speak, they cannot understand each other.
 In Norway, they speak Norwegian and in Sweden they speak Swedish yet they understand
each other- mutual intelligibility. These might be called dialets of the same language yet they
refuse this. They say they have the same language but not dialects. That there is a language
of Sweden and that of Norway.

THE RISE OF ENGLISH PIDGINS AND CREOLES

PIDGIN

 Is a variety of language adopted for incidental communication between people with

different mother tongues (languages). It is not another tongue to any of the speakers.

Factors that cause Pidgin

1. Trade- speakers of different languages engage in common trade. E.g., on a market place in
Kenya you cannot use standard Kiswahili.
2. Labour migration- where people of different languages move together for the purpose of
employment. E.g., mining in South Africa- people from Zambia, Namibia went to South
Africa.
3. Slave trade- slaves from different linguistic backgrounds settled together. E.g., in Sierra
Leone- Freetown.

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Characteristics of Pidgin

1. Grammatical simplicity- has highly simplified grammar

2. Lexical (vocabulary) – is dominated by a prevailing language. E.g., Central mines
dominated by Kiswahili for people who come from East Africa while West African
Pidgins are dominated by English.
3. Linguistic items that dominate Pidgin have to be the area of interaction, e.g. trade terms-
names of currency, names of goods exchanged. In plantations- their vocabulary will be
on names of crops, tools, machines and other farming activities.

CREOLES

 Is closely related to Pidgin in that it is a pidgin that has acquired native speakers. The
offspring of Pidgin speakers will know pidgin as their language (native speakers).
 Pidgin language can be said to be bilingual. That is, one can speak both home language
and pidgin language. But in case of Creole, the only language known to them is Pidgin.
 The process/change of a Pidgin becoming a Creole is known as creolisation.
 We have the Krio. Creole based on English, found in Sierra Leone, we have Jamaican
creole based on English people in plantations (slaves). E.g., Bob Male, Lingala creole in
Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo) based on French and Kiswahili and in Mauritius-
creole dominated by French.

G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

1. Differentiate between language planning and language policy.

2. Outline the process of language standardization

3. Describe the process of pidginisation and creolisation.

H. DISCUSSION

Discuss the differences between pidgins and creoles.

(Post your discussion in the discussion forum. You earn 6 marks for the best voted presentation)

I. SUMMARY

The topic has dealt with the concept of language planning, process of language
standardization, dialects and their causes, and pidgins and creoles. We hope you have
enjoyed this topic.

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TOPIC TWELVE: LANGUAGE POLICY DEVELOPMENT IN KENYA

A. INTRODUCTION

In this topic, you will be introduced to language policy and development in Kenya. The issues of
language policy, lingua franca, national language, official language and the reasons for choosing
an official language are highlighted.

B. EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

1. Define language policy

2. Explain what a Lingua Franca is?

3. Explain the importance of English as an official language in Kenya

[Link]
1 Time recommended to complete this topic 3 hours
2 Hardware/Software requirements
Computer
Internet
CD- ROM
Reading books
Manual
3 Suggested Reading
Cooper,R.L. (1989) Language Planning and
Social Change. New York: Cambridge

55 | P a g e
 University Press.
Encylopaedia of Language and Education
Book Series (LANG, Volume 8)
McCabe, A. (2017). An Introduction to
Linguistics and Language Studies (2nd ed.)
Sheffield: Equinox Publishing.
O’Grady, D., Dobrovolsky, M. &Katamba, F.
(1996) Contemporary Linguistics: An
Introduction. London: Longman.
Research Journal of English (RJOE), Pp. 69.
Roy- Campbell, Z.M. (2014) Teaching English
as a Second Language in Kenya and the United
States: Convergences and Divergences.
Global Education Review 2(2)
Singh, K., Tripathi, K., & Mishra, P. (2017)
Pedagogy of English (Part I).Haldwani:
Uttarakhand Open University, Department of
Teacher Education, School of Education.

F. LEARNING ACTIVITY
(Reading assignment, notes, you tube lectures and do questions under assignment)
 Read the notes in the PDF file titled Topic Twelve Notes or the Topic Twelve
Word version notes
 Read the various literature provided under requirements:
 Do the questions under assessment
 Listen to you tube lectures on web
G. READING ASSIGNMENT
Read and take notes from the following links
[Link]>wiki>list of writing systems
[Link]
[Link]>PDF
[Link]>doi>pdf language varieties
[Link]>doi>abs
[Link]
Listen to You Tube lectures and take notes on language planning and policy
[Link]. University of Gronigen> Language planning by Robert Phillipson vs
Abramole
[Link] Audiopedia>wha is language planning?

56 | P a g e
 [Link] Tahir
[Link] Tube. The virtual linguistics
[Link] Tube. Ajie Putra> Definition of Language varieties

[Link] CONTENT/NOTES
LANGUAGE POLICY DEVELOPMENT

 Language policy is the decision made by the state on language usage- that is, language
learning and development.
 It is how the government assigns status to different languages.
 The government decision on the language to be used for purpose of national unity
(national language).
 The chosen languages become the lingua francas. These language(s) are used as media of
communication. People with different mother tongues will use the media language(s) for
unity, used in learning instruction.

Choosing of Official Languages

1. Some countries favour adoption of local/indigenous languages.-called Endoglossic Nations

(Indo- inside, Glossia-tongue/languages)

2. Countries that favour the implementation of a foreign language for official communication.
These countries are called Exoglossic Nations (Exo-outside; Glossia- tongue/language)

Advantages of adopting an Exoglossic Policy

1. Occurs in multilingual nations. It helps the decision-makers to avoid the social conflict-
social political problems.

2. The languages are basically international.

3. Materials developed in these languages can be used by different groups

4. These are already developed languages and they are not difficult to initiate.

Disadvantages of Exoglossic Languages

1. They can only be acquired through formal education

2. It creates class differentiation (social classes)- learned and illiterate

3. Cultural alienation

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LANGUAGE POLICY ISSUES IN KENYA

 Githinji and Wanjohi (2009) argue that all governments and societies need to put up
guidelines governing language matters for children, adults, institutions of learning,
the judiciary, the executive and the legislature.
 Kenya is a multilingual state with over 45 vernaculars, whose speakers are
perpetually seeking recognition even at national level.
 The choice of language to be used in learning institutions especially learning
institutions, especially in the cosmopolitan regions has a source of conflict. Some
communities which have used the languages of their neighbours in schooling and
worship have recently realized that their languages can also serve these functions.
 On top of the over 45 vernaculars, is English, Kiswahili and other foreign languages
that are seeking recognition.
 The modern generation has also developed sheng, which can be termed as an argot
but which is quickly acquiring the status of a full language. Githinji and
Wanjohi(ibid) argue that the youth view sheng as a national language. This is why a
nation like Kenya will need proper guidance and direction in matters of language
(ibid:85).

NATIONAL LANGUAGE

 A national language is a language that is legally recognized as being understood and

spoken by the majority in a country.
 It is a language whose corpus is established
 This a language used as a unifying medium of communication by the citizens of a
country. This is a medium of communication between and among different
nationalities within the same nation.
 It is a language of national identity and it is a language believed to foster nationalism.
 Kiswahili is the national language in Kenya. It is spoken and understood by the
majority of her citizen, both literate and illiterate.
 Kiswahili is therefore a lingua franca- language spoken by people with different
mother tongues.
 The Kenyan new constitution (2010) made Kiswahili both a national language and
official language alongside English.

Advantages of a National Language

1. It is a language of national identity

2. It promotes patriotism
3. It unites a multi-ethnic community
4. It fosters national consciousness
5. It breaks tribalism and ethnic divisions

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 6. It makes those literate and illiterate to communicate at par
7. It promotes national culture(s) and traditions.
8. It fosters communalism.

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE

 This is the language used for formal purposes (used in purely formal domains) and for
instruction in schools.
 It is used for government transactions in the legislature, executive and judiciary.
 In Kenya, both English and Kiswahili (since the promulgation of the new constitution
in 2010) are official languages. However, a lot is expected from the government and
Kiswahili specialists to make Kiswahili to be at par with English.
 Some countries like Kenya adopted English as an official language while some like
Tanzania adopted Kiswahili (indigenous language) as an official language.

Advantages of having English as an official Language

1. It eases communication at international conferences and forums

2. It eases social cultural interaction with people from other parts of the world.
3. It enhances scientific and technological advancement.

The role of English language in the school curriculum and outside school

In the school curriculum

i. used as a medium of instruction in Kenyan schools, colleges and universities

ii. Learning and teaching materials are written in English
iii. All examinations except the other languages are done in the English language

Outside school

1. It is the official language in Kenya and a large number of other countries

2. English is the dominant business language and it has become almost a necessity for people to
speak in English if they are to enter a global work force, research shows that cross boarder
business communication is most often conducted in English
3. Many of the world’s top books, films and music are published and produced in English.
Therefore learning English you will have access to great wealth of entertainment and will be able
to have a greater cultural understanding
4. Most of the content produced on the internet (50 %) is in English. So knowing English will
allow you access to an incredible amount of information which may not be otherwise available

G. SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

1. Identify the national and official languages in Kenya.

59 | P a g e
 2. Describe the process of language policy development.

H. DISCUSSION

Why is English important in Kenya?

(Post your discussion in the discussion forum. You earn 6 marks for the best voted presentation)

I. SUMMARY

The topic has dealt with the concept of language policy development, choosing of a
national and official language, advantages of choosing a foreign language as an official
language.

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