hello everyone welcome to english studies my name is salman today i'm here with the new course and the first lesson in this course introduction to linguistics in the first introductory video i introduced the course contents in this lesson i'm going to start the first unit that is introduction to language in this first unit we will be studying what is language etymology of the word language where it comes from definition of the word language origin of language characteristics of language importance of language and then some important questions related to this unit so let's get started first what is language language is a human system of communication it this communication system uses voice sounds gestures or symbols voice sounds gestures or written symbols human systems they communicate through language and language uses voice sounds as we have the alphabet in language there's sounds we also use gestures of hand and eyes or eyebrows and we also use written symbols for written language language is a mean of expressing our thoughts dreams prayers meditation relation and communication so it is only and only through language that we express our thoughts our dreams our prayers and meditations our relations and communications and our rituals expressing these things are not possible without the use of language language is a storehouse of knowledge and language is a source of delight as well in the form of singing language is a symbolic communication system and is learned instead of biologically inherited you see human language is unique in being a symbolic communication system because the animals communication system is not symbolic they do not have symbols and human language is not actually biologically inherited as we inherit some of the features like our colors of hair like our body structures most of the things we inherit biologically from our parents but language is not something that we inherit biologically language is actually gained or learned or acquired in a society next what is the etymology of the word language where it comes from it has been derived from the latin word lingua which implies tong so in the french from the french term language which also refers to a specific form of speech so talking comes before writing an oral composition comes before written composition next is what is the definition of the word language there are so many definitions the first is language is defined as an organized noise used in actual social situations what does it mean language is a noise but that is organized organized because it has rules for its sound system it has rules for its word formation it has rules for its uh sentence structures and everything and these this organized noise this language is used in actual social situations because we as members of society communicate in our social situations through this organized noise which is language language is a system of signs for encoding and decoding information we give information we receive information through this language which is a system of science language is as explained in the encyclopedia britannica a system of conventional spoken or written symbols by means of which human beings as member of social group and participants in its culture communicate it's explained encyclopedia britannica that language is a system of conventional conventional that tends to follow what is considered acceptable by the society so it's a system of conventional and spoken or written symbols in case of spoken we have sounds in case of written we have letters and through this through this system human beings in a social group communicate as explained again in another encyclopedia britannica as well with communication of thoughts and feelings through an arbitrary signals such as voice sound gestures or written symbols we communicate through our voice sounds or gestures as well and also are written symbols as well so when we communicate our thoughts and feelings through this system this is called language or it's explained in the collaborative international dictionary of english that any means of conveying or communicating ideas specifically human speech the expression of ideas by voice sounds expressive of thoughts articulated by the organs of the throat and the mouth because these sounds are articulated by the organs of the throat and the mouth this is called language language is a primarily human and non-instinctive unnatural method of communication communicating ideas emotions desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols look language is primarily human quality it's not animal quality and it's non-instinctive it's unnatural method of communicating ideas your emotions and your desires by means of what by means of a system that is voluntarily produced symbols because we willingly produce these symbols it was the definition of sapir gardener says that language in its widest sense means the total sum of such signs of our thoughts and feelings is are capable of external perception is could be produced and repeated henry's sweet says that language is expression of thought by means of speech sounds in dictionary of linguistics it said that a system of communication by sound through the organs of speech and hearing among human beings of a certain group or community using vocal symbols possessing arbitrary conventional meaning then we have the origin of language we have simply different theories of the origin of language how language came into being we simply do not know and will never know how or when language began that's the comment of bernard campbell but it does not stop our speculations there are theories and they are called by their nicknames we have the theory the bow theory the ding dong theory the lala theory the poopoo and the yohi what do these theory mean what do these theories say the bow word theory says that according to this theory language began when our ancestors started imitating the natural sounds around them so the first speech was anna metta pierce that was marked by echoic words such as mu or mu or splash or cuckoo and bang ana metaphors where the sound and the word the meaning they are somehow related for example we have the word cuckoo so the sound is also like this and the word is also like this the second is but but this theory has some flaws the flow of this theory is that relatively few words are animated in a language and we cannot just by this theory say that language began this way the second way the ding dong theory this theory favored by plato and pythagoras maintains that speech arose in response to the essential qualities of objects in the environment the original sounds people made were supposedly in harmony with the world around them but again the flaw of this theory is that apart from rare instances of sound symbolism there is no persuasive evidence in any language of an innate connection between sound and meaning again and the third is the lala theory which says that the danish linguist auto justin suggested that language may have developed from sounds associated with love play and songs but again the flaw is this that as david crystal notes in the book how languages works this theory still fails to account for the gap between the emotional and the rational aspect of speech expression according to this theory speech may have come from the emotional words but what about the rational aspect of the speech expression the next theory the pupu theory this theory holds that speech begin with interjections spontaneous crisis of pain like ouch surprises like oh and other emotions again the flaw of this theory is that no language contains very many interjections so again this is the flaw of this theory and the last theory suggests the yohi ho theory according to this theory language evolved from the grunts groans and snorts evoked by heavy physical labor again though this notion may account for some of the rhythmic features of language it does not go very far in explaining where words come from so there were some theories of the language all these speculations have serious flaws and none can withstand the close quantity of present knowledge about the structure of language and about the evolution of our species now we are talking about the characteristics of language what characteristics does language have so we have the first language is a means of communication that it is a tool through which people communicate people can express their thoughts their ideas their emotions and feelings with the help of language people expressing their thoughts this this is possible only through the help of language other non-verbal means of communications are also uh used for communication but they are very much limited like the use of uh eyes or hand gestures or anything that is not verbal that is used for communication that is a means of communication but it's very limited it is very hard to think of a society without language so language is actual means of communication and to think of a society without language is impossible second we have language is verbal vocal and language is sound it's one of the characteristics of language that language is an organization of sounds it's a vocal sounds so vocal sounds are the sounds that are produced by human vocal organs like mouth your tongue your teeth and so on speech is actually primary to writing because speech is verbal and speech came before writing several languages in the world which have no writing system but our languages because are spoken this also shows the supremacy of the speech or the writing that there are several languages in the world which are languages because they are spoken even though they have no writing system music and singing also employ vocal sounds but they aren't languages language is a systematic verbal symbolism it's a systematic because it is based on a complete sound system and it's of verbal symbolism because it's it's verbal it's vocal and it has its own symbols its sounds language is vocal in as much as it is made up of sounds language is vocal because it is made up of sounds then the third characteristics of language we have language is non-instinctive and it's conventional every language is a convention in a community it's it's an agreed upon system in a community it's acquired by human beings and nobody gets a language in heritage it's actually a matter of acquisition it it's not a matter of uh heritage you may get some biological features in heritage but or or you may get something other some other thing uh in your society but actual thing is that language is acquired by human beings nobody gets language from their parents human is provided with an innate ability to acquire language actually language is learned and acquired in a society but human beings are capable to acquire this they are they have the innate capability and capacity to learn language if you keep animals in the same environment where human and animals are there animals can not learn language because they do not have the capacity to acquire language another characteristics is that languages means of cultural transmission we transmit culture through language language is a vehicle and transmitter of our culture because it is through language that we transmit the culture language is a carrier of culture and civilization it is through language that we carry culture and civilization human thoughts ideas culture and philosophies travel from one generation to next generation with the help of language this traveling of human thoughts ideas culture and philosophies from one generation to the next generation is possible only and only with the help of language the next characteristics is that language is species specific so what does it mean it means that language is a unique possession of human beings only humans possess language animals do not possess language language is specific property of human beings and it's structurally very complex it's a specific property of human beings because animals do not have this property and this language is structurally very complex though animals would have communication system they would have they would use some gestures or some sounds for communication purposes but their system is not complex is like our language system is complex no other species is blessed with this except human so it's this language is specific with humans humans are called homologues talking animals and that is because of the language as they used to be called homo sapiens now they are called homo loquins animals can't acquire human language because of its complex system and their inadequacies animals they cannot acquire human language because human language system is very complex and animal have inadequacies because of this animal cannot acquire human language another characteristics is that language is system of systems all languages have phonological and grammatical system and within a system there are several subsystems we have phonological systems and grammatical systems for example in grammatical system we have morphological and syntactic systems as grammar is composed of morphology and syntax and then within these two we have systems of like plural of mood of aspect of tense etc so all these are complex systems so language is a system of systems another characteristics is that language is a social institution language is a social phenomena language is a set of conventional signals used by humans for communication in a community and language is a position of a social group it is a social institution language exists in society and language is a means of nourishing and developing culture and establishing human relations to nourish and develop a culture it is only possible through language and to establish human relations of course it's possible with the help of language otherwise it's not possible language is a as a member of society it is it is as a member of society that a human acquires language another characteristic says language is arbitrary what is arbitrariness when there is no logical relation or similarity between any feature of language and its meaning and there is no direct connection and relation between the nature of things and the meanings that it stands for for example we have the word dog so this word dog and that for animal they they do not have any logical relation or similarity it is what we associated it with them so for example uh the same word in arabic would be kalp so anyone who does not know the meaning of the word kalp and when they look at the four-legged animal they cannot predict that there is relation between the word cult and that four-legged animal so languages actually are bit ready there is no direct relation or connection between the word and the thing or the object it refers to another characteristic that language is symbolic language is a system of arbitrary symbols and for concepts things ideas objects etc we have sounds and words as symbol so we have sounds and words referring to different concept things ideas objects etc as a symbol another characteristics is that language is unique creative and evolving in nature language is a unique phenomena of the earth it is unique it is unique feature only associated with humans not with animals not with plants or anything else language has creativity and productivity because you can create and you can produce any kinds of sentences in in any language for example you would produce a sentence that would have never been produced before languages evolve in response to changing historical and social conditions languages do change with the passage of time we have the great vowel shift where sounds have changed we have a lot of vocabulary they have that have changed their meaning with the passage of time now we have the importance of language what is the importance of language so language is an extremely important way of interacting with the people around us we use language to let others know how we feel what we need and to ask questions through language we can connect with other people and make sense of our experiences language reflects the identity and values because nowadays people are known by their language you can when you listen to someone you can identify their culture their identities their values their place language is an integral part of culture and society it is in the culture and society that we use language and without language there would not exist any culture or society now we have some important questions these questions are for your practice once you watch this video try to uh solve and answer these questions as in as a practice these questions and this practice will give you a lot of help and it will help you memorize and learn what you already watched in the video so the first question is give a theoretical background on the origin of language so you can explain the origin of language what do you think the origin of language is what are the theories and how do you think what do you think these theories are correct or not and it's so on what is language and in the viewpoint of different linguists like how different linguists have defined language write a detailed description of attributes and importance of language is the last topic we just did importance of language why language is important to us again the same question but in a different way what purposes does the study of language serve in a society again the importance of language in a society the same questions but in a different way how culture is transmitted through language is one of the characteristics of language that is cultural transmission through language we transmit our culture so you have to answer this question how culture is transmitted through language and discuss uniqueness and creativity of language with the help of suitable examples as the last point in the characteristics of the language so this was all i hope it was useful this is a complete course and uh other lessons are also coming next will be about linguistics then different uh branches of linguistics as i already explained in the introductory video subscribe to the channel for more videos because there are other courses on the channel as well they are related to grammar writing literature linguistics and so on so see you very soon thank you goodbye