Republic of the Philippines

NORTHERN ILOILO STATE UNIVERSITY

Reg. No. 97Q19783

Course Code : GE 5
Descriptive Title : PURPOSIVE COMMUNICATION
Term and Academic Year : 2nd Semester, A.Y. 2023-2024
Department and Year Level : BSHM 1
Professor : PROF. MERLITA C. DAGOHOY

Module 1,
Lesson 1
The
Nature of
Language
What is Language?
Definition of Language
1. “Language is a system of conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by means of
which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in its culture, express
themselves.” – David Crystal, Writer and Editor, Honorary Professor of Linguistics, Bangor University
2. A systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs,
sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings. – Merriam Webster Dictionary
3. “Language refers to the grammar and other rules and norms that allow humans to make utterances
and sounds in a way that others can understand.” – John McWhorter, Linguist and Associate
Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University
Based on the following definitions of language above, the most common thing among them all, is
that a language is a wonderful and dynamic human capacity that enables us to communicate ourselves
to others by the use of a system of rules. This system of rules is the very reason that a language can be
called a language which linguists also agree on.
Since a language is composed of a system of rules, it is also said that only human beings are truly
capable of producing a language. Animals may produce sounds of their own and communicate with
other animals, however, the sound they produce often reflect their state of emotions. Also, these
sounds are not organized into a meaningful system with rules unlike humans which can communicate
their desires such as sharing of foods through many different ways such as uttering the word, raise a
question, give a statement, or using a hand gesture by extending the arm with food to others.
To understand more the system of rules, definitions and examples are given below:
Language System of Rules
1. Phonology – refers to the sound system of a language which includes the sounds used in a certain
language and how these sound can be combined to produce a word. It can also be broken down
into smaller units known as phonemes.
Phoneme – basic unit of sound. Example: the sound /l/ in love
2. Morphology – the system of how words are formed. Words combined is also determined by individual
languages.
Morpheme – smallest meaningful unit in a language. Example: affixes (anti, dis, re, in, etc.)
3. Syntax – refers to the word order, word placement, and word combination that creates meaning.
Also refers to the creation of a grammatically correct sentences.
4. Semantics – refers to the study of meaning that is used to understand human expression through
language.
5. Pragmatics – studies the way in which context (condition or location) contributes to meaning.
Example: use of polite words when talking to teacher.

Furthermore, when people use language and they can understand each other, they are said to
belong in the same speech community. This is so because they share the same set of rules in the
language system. Since people share the same set of rules in a speech community, they can eventually
acquire the language while growing up. This refers to the process of language acquisition.

Module 1, Lesson 1 Purposive Communication, The Nature of Language Page | 1

 Language acquisition is the process where people acquire their first language commonly called native
language or mother tongue. It is a process where humans acquire the capacity to see and understand language
and the ability to produce words to communicate with other people in their speech community.

However, aside from acquiring our first language, people also discovered that learning other languages is necessary
for various reasons and purposes. These languages are called second languages that people may learn through formal
instruction at school or informal learning on their own. This also refers to language learning.

 Language learning refers to the ability to communicate in the second/foreign language.

If people visit another speech community that is different from their own, what do you think will happen?

Take for example, the Americans and the British which both uses English. Despite using English as their first
language, it can still be noted that they have differences in pronunciations, spellings and also differences in expressing
the same ideas. With this, it can be concluded that they don’t actually belong in the same speech communities and may
have difficulty in communicating their feelings and ideas despite having the same mother tongue because they do not
exactly share the same set of rules.
Moreover, what do you think will happen if you, for example, who speaks a mother tongue and English, stay in
Japan for work, where the people speak Nihonggo as their mother tongue and a little bit of English? Will you be able to
communicate well with them? The answer here is yes. Despite having different mother tongues and languages used,
eventually, you will be able to communicate as you slowly learn and understand each other’s language though of
course, it would be a challenge to both parties. This phenomenon is called language contact.
 Language Contact refers to the contact between people having or speaking different languages either written
or spoken.
It also leads to the formation of new languages that is understandable to both of the speakers. Speakers’ languages
may also change as they constantly communicate with one another, thus resulting to language change.
 Language Change is the phenomenon by which permanent alterations are made in the features of language
over time.
Indeed, language is a complex human capacity wherein people should be aware of its features in order to
communicate more effectively with others.

----End of Module 1, Lesson 1----

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