Purposive Communication

Module 1: Lesson1
HANNAH JANE B. SUMABAT
SUBJECT TEACHER

1
 MODULE 1, LESSON 1
THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE
At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:

 describe the concept of the Nature of Language; and

 explain the vital characteristics of human language

Introduction
Welcome to Lesson 1! This lesson introduces you to the Nature of Language. In
this lesson, you are expected to apply the basic concepts of language given the specific
linguistic scenarios and value the characteristics of your own language. This lesson
will also help you in understanding your language. Enjoy this lesson and keep reading!

The Nature of Language

I. Language is uniquely human.

A. Wherever humans exist, language exists.
1. Today, about 6,900 languages are spoken throughout the world.
B. The possession of language, perhaps more than any other attribute,
distinguishes humans from other animals.
1. Most animals possess some kind of “signaling” communication
system.
2. Despite certain superficial similarities to human language, animal
communication is fundamentally a different kind of communicative
system from human language.
a. The number of messages that can be conveyed is finite
b. Messages are stimulus controlled.
c. A human being has the ability to combine the basic linguistic
units to form an infinite set of “well-formed” grammatical
sentences, most of which are novel, never before produced or
heard.

II. There are no “primitive” languages

A. All languages are equally complex.
1. The Filipino language is as intricate and sophisticated as the English
or Japanese language

B. All languages are equally capable of expressing any idea in the universe.
1. The Filipino language can describe natural phenomena and

2
 technological advancements just as well as the English or Japanese
language.

III. Speakers of any language use a finite set of rules to produce and
understand an infinite set of possible sentences.
A. PHONOLOGY is the study of how speech sounds form patterns.
1. Phonology concerns itself with the ways in which languages make
use of sounds to distinguish words from each other.
a. Phonology tells us what sounds are in a language.
b. Phonology informs how sounds do and can combine into words.
2. Human languages have discreteness of the speech or gestural units,
which are ordered and reordered, combined, and split apart.
a. All the languages in the world sound so different because the
way the languages use speech sounds to form patterns differs
from language to language.

B. LEXICON is the knowledge a speaker has about the words of a language.

1. Lexicon is regarded as an inventory/network of words in a language.
2. Lexicon includes information on the form and meanings of words and
phrases.
a. Lexicon includes lexical categories or classes of words such as
nouns, verbs, adjectives, determiners, prepositions, and adverbs.
3. Lexicon includes the appropriate usage of words and phrases.
4. Lexicon includes relationships between words and phrases.

C. MORPHOLOGY is the study of words and the rules for word formation in
a language.
1. Morphology is concerned with the constituent parts and the internal
organization of words.
2. A word is a meaningful unit of language that can stand on its own.
a. A word is composed of one or more morphemes.
b. A morpheme is the smallest meaningful linguistic unit.
c. A morpheme may be a root or an affix
d. Example: “oversimplifications”
root: simple
1 stem:
st
simple + ify
2nd stem: simple + ify + cation
3 stem:
rd
over + simple + ify + cation
4th stem: over + simple + ify + cation + s

D. SYNTAX is the study of the structure of phrases or sentences and the rules
governing how words are combined to form phrases or sentences.
1. These rules are acquired at a very young age and internalized.
2. Sequences of words that conform to the rules of a language are

3
 grammatical (well-formed).
3. People do not store whole sentences in the mind, but the words and
the rules that combine them.
a. The set of rules is finite, but the set of possible sentences is not.

E. SEMANTICS the study of the meaning of morphemes, words, phrases, and

sentences that is used to understand human expression through language.
1. The relationship between the form (sounds) and meaning (concept)
of a word in spoken language is arbitrary.
a. Arbitrariness is the absence of any natural or necessary
connection between a word's meaning and its sound or form.
b. Typically, the sound of a word gives no hint of its meaning,
Example:
in Cebuano: lima
in English: five
in Deutsch: fünf
in Nihongo: go
in French: cinq
c. Onomatopoeic words, sounds that “imitate” what they refer to,
are exceptions to arbitrariness.
Examples: dingdong, tick-tock, bang, zing, swish, plop
2. Denotation and Connotation are two principal methods of describing
the meanings of words.
a. Denotation is the precise, literal definition of a word that might
be found in a dictionary.
b. Connotation refers to the wide array of positive and negative
associations that most words naturally carry with them.
Connotation can be neutral, positive, or negative.
Example: “proud”
Denotation: having self-respect or self-esteem
Neutral Connotation: proud
Positive Connotation: self-confident
Negative Connotation: conceited

IV. Language Acquisition is innate for normal children all over the world.
A. Children acquire language without being taught the rules of grammar by
their parents.
1. Children learn aspects of language about which they receive no
information.
a. Children are exposed to false starts and ungrammatical
incomplete sentences.

B. Children acquire language in similar stages across the world.

1. There are predicable patterns in the acquisition of language.

4
 a. This is related to their cognitive development (predictability).
2. The language acquisition of children reflects the word order of the
language that they are hearing.
a. The combination of the words has a meaning relationship
(learning through imitation).
3. The language acquisition of children shows that they are able to apply
the rules of the language to make sentences which they have never
heard before (creativity).

C. There are different reasons why children do not acquire a spoken language.
1. Hearing loss or deafness is one main reason for non-acquisition of
spoken language.
a. Children who are born deaf communicate through Sign
Language.
2. Problems with the brain structure of a child in the Broca’s area and
Wernicke’s area cause language acquisition problems.
3. Extreme environmental deprivation can cause language acquisition
delay.
a. If a child is neglected or abused and does not hear others
speaking, they will not learn to speak.
b. Specific language impairment (SLI) is a communication disorder that
interferes with the development of language skills in children who
have no hearing loss or intellectual disabilities.

D. The mother tongue is the first language or L1 that a child learns.

1. The child’s mother tongue facilitates learning.
a. Use of a familiar language to teach beginning literacy facilitates
an understanding of sound-symbol or meaning-symbol
correspondence.
b. Learning to read is most efficient when students know the
language.
2. Children need to develop a strong foundation in their mother tongue
before effectively learning additional languages.
E. Language learning is the process of learning a second language or L2.
1. A second language or L2 is any language other than the 1st language
learned.
2. A language learned after the 1st language in a context where the
language is used widely in the speech community.
a. Example: For many Tagakaulo peoples, their mother tongue is
Tagakaulo and their second language or L2 is Cebuano
(Cebuano is learned after Tagakaulo. Cebuano is used widely
in the speech community).

F. A foreign language or FL is a 2nd (or 3rd, or 4th) language learned.

5
 1. A language that is learned in a context where the language is NOT
widely used in the speech community.
a. Example: Japanese is a foreign language for people in the
Philippines.
(Japanese is NOT widely used in the speech community).

V. All languages change through time.

A. The vocabulary of any language can be expanded to include new words for
new concepts.
1. Languages “coin” or create new words for new things or new
phenomena.

B. Meanings of words may change over time or may be attributed new and
different meanings.
1. Before the invention of the computer, the word “mouse” referred
mainly to a species of rodents.
2. With the invention of the computer, the word “mouse” may mean an
input device for computers.

C. Contact with other languages contribute to language change.

1. Language contact is a situation in which groups of speakers of
different languages come into contact with one another because of
trade, immigration, or conquest
2. Language contact leads to a transfer of linguistic features.
a. Pidgin is a language that arises to fulfill restricted and ongoing
needs for communication among people who have no common
language.
Example: Filipino taxi driver talks to a German tourist:
“You want chicks? Chicks cheap. I bring you.”
b. Creole is a language that arises when parents transmit a pidgin to
their children, and the pidgin becomes the child's native language.
Example: Chavacano

Congratulations! You have successfully completed the task in Lesson 1. Should

there be questions and clarifications in some part of the lesson, kindly message your
instructor.

If you do not have any questions or clarifications, you are now prepared to move
on to Lesson 2. Enjoy and keep working! GOD Bless.