THE NATURE OF MEN'S LANGUAGE
When we study language, we are aspproaching what some might call the "human essence", the distinctive qualities of mind, that are as far as we know, unique to man. (Noam Chomsky in Language and Mind).
Tehis chapter is a review about Man's Language. This is needed to remind the students about the impotance of knowing what language is
1. What is Language?
All people will get bored if they just keep silent all day long, we need to talk with others. Wherever we go when we visit our relatives,our friends or family, we talk. We always great people when we meet them such as assalamua'alaikum,good morning,good night,gutend aben,guten morgen, etc. The people we great will never answer our greatings in return such as : Wa'alaikumsalam or with the same greatings such as :morgen,guten tag,gutend aben,etc.
These show that we can not live alone without talking. When we were alone, such as in our sleep sometimes people talk,we also talked aloud in our sleeping and in also our dream, we talk to others. Even when we are alone in the jungle as stated in Pochontas, an indian story: there was interaction between Pocahontas and her ancestor that was in the shape of a tree, in other word Pocahontas talked to a tree. She said : "I'm a red man If the Great sprit had desired to be a white man, He would have made me so in the first place". Therefore, we talk to ourself. Sometimes we talk to our pets or plants or flowers regarded that they understand the words that we convey. In fact, it is hard for us to be freefrom talking or free from using words in our daily routine action.
Fromkin states : " According to the philosophy expressed in the myths and religions of many people, it is language that is the source of human life and power"
According to African culture, a newborn baby is a "kuntu" that means a thing, not yet a "muntu"meant a "person". Thus, a kid can be called a human being after he/she ould master at least one language by the process of learning of that language.
As has been stated above that the language that man possessed not only as an attribute for human being that distinguish them from animals. Therefore, to understand the human through language that makes us human, we must understand the language that we posses. Moreover, based on African: "we all become human because we all come to know at least one language"
To know a language means you should know:
- Linguistic Knowledge
- Knowledge of The sound System
- Knowledge of the meaning of word
- The creativity of Linguistic Knowledge
- Knowledge of Sentences and Non-Sentences
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