Analyzing Key Features of Language

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Language
Language is an essential thing needed to communicate and to develop the skills one needs to be a complete, whole, intelligent individual. Language is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Here we shall define language and lexicon, evaluate the key features of language, describe the four levels of language structure and processing, and analyze the role of language processing in cognitive psychology.
To begin, we shall define language. The way to define language can be quite intricate but is important to understand for the sake of human communication. Language possesses many different elements that are needed for one to understand it. Understanding how the language processing in cognitive psychology works, one should examine it and have a clear view on cognitive psychology (Boroditsky 2001). Basically, language is an intricate process of communication that flows with ones’ thoughts. Lexicon can be defined as somewhat of a mental dictionary. It can hold many depictions of known words which are spelling, part of speech for each word, and the way a word is pronounced (Boroditsky 2001). Lexicons help in matching the spoken word with that of the meaning of the word. Therefore, people will start to see words through this way of doing things because spoken words are similar with a lexicon (Boroditsky 2001).
Next, we shall evaluate the key features of language which are; communicative, arbitrary, structured, generative, and dynamic. Communicative, language can allow one to interact with another. According to Willingham (2007), the bond found with the elements in language and what they mean is arbitrary. The way language is set up shows how the symbols are not arbitrary. The set up language shows precisely how intricate it can be. Generative, one is able to build countless number of meanings from words. Dynamic, language never stays the same, therefore it can be known as sporadic. According to Willingham (2007), changes are being made all the time as new words get added and as the ways of grammar change. These elements can be quite critical when it comes to language.
To continue with the key features, language is known to be special because of how children are able to learn in ways that are different from learning other things. (Willingham, 2007). Strong evidence shows how prepared the human brain is to learn language with very little stimulation. The results that show this point of view to be true is known to be the worldwide consistency of language learning.

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