Suzanne K. Langer states that (16) “The birth of language is the dawn of humanity” in her writing of Langer, S. K. (2015). Language and Thought. In Exploring Language (14th ed., pp. 118-122). Northeastern University, U.S.A.: Gary Goshgarian. I agree with her statement whole heartedly for many reasons in which I will explain throughout this writing. Without language and thought we cannot separate ourselves from the most anthropoid of beast, or perhaps even the most primitive of beast. Language allows us to think and not just act and fulfill needs, it allows us to pursue more meaningful things beyond hunting and gathering. Language gives us more power than we can imagine. If you have ever been to a foreign country and been unable to speak the …show more content…
Susanne K Langer says (4) “The young would romp and make love, the old would sleep, the middle aged would do the routine work almost unconsciously and eat a great deal. But that would be the life of a social, super intelligent, purely sign-using animal” Langer, S. K. (2015). Language and Thought. In Exploring Language (14th ed., pp. 118-122). Northeastern University, U.S.A.: Gary Goshgarian. Without language we do not get past the point of living for survival, we do not get the enjoyment from life, we only live as a pure need for survival. Language is needed to separate us humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. Symbols are the stepping stones to language, symbols allow us to think and speak about things that are not immediately present to us. Without symbols giving us language, we are only able to think and react to something that is presently at hand. When Susanne K. Langer states that (16) “The birth of language is the dawn of humanity.” She is really just referring to the presently known form of humans. Without language humans would still exist, we would not be top of the food chain anymore, or top of the animal kingdom, but we would still be an intelligent sign using form of our current selves. Symbols and the furtherance of language have brought about doors to deeper thought, for without language ideas are ineffable. Language is the simplest thing that most humans take for granted, however it brings about the most complicated and diverse thoughts that couldn’t otherwise be expressed. In this way I completely and whole heartedly agree with Langer’s statement that (16) “The birth of language is the dawn of humanity” for without language we would not be the exceptional form of humanity we are
Language is our power and expression is our freedom. Through a puff of air, we are able to communicate and influence the environments that surround us. Over the course of time humans have evolved, but by the means of language, humans have matured into humanity. The possibility of thought and emotions such as empathy show the ability to think with complexity. A crucial element that helps Suzanne K. Langer’s illustrate the essence of humanity throughout her essay “Language and Thought.” Langer thoroughly depicts what sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom by explicitly stating “The line between man and beast […] is the language line” (120). Consequently, this implies that if a person is declined the freedom of language they are hardly considered human. Many people around the globe have had their voices silenced due to corrupt governments and the oppression of their culture. These individuals are subjected to the devastating effects of the loss of language, which in turn, translates to the loss of power. Language is our foundation for hopes and opportunity, for with out it a person is shell of possibility that is subjected to a passive existence.
Although babies are born without language, they learn to communicate by listening to the world around them. Language is crucial for the development of a child. By the time the child is school age he or she should have amassed some sort of vocabulary without any instructional lessons. Children pick up grammar, language, and meaning from the people around them. No one should be denied a language. We use language to express our feelings, state our needs and say what’s on our minds. Without language it would be like we are in a prison in our own heads with no means on how to communicate with other people. This can lead to frustration, resentment, and uncontrolled behaviors.
Language allows us to communicate with other human beings and without it the world would be doomed. We would not be able to understand anything or have the abilities to cooperate with each other. Although language is made up by humans and not the world, we choose to believe otherwise. Everyday we go on with our lives thinking that the world created everything, but that is not true because something or someone had to create the world as the world was not just there. Language is essential to the world just as water is essential to people. For example, those who are deaf and communicate with sign-language sometimes struggle because not everyone knows how use
The article Is Language the Key to Human Intelligence? , Written by David Premack a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, explains how humans have displayed their intelligence through language, unlike animals whose language, (any) hasn’t evolved at all. Premack uses examples such as grammar and syntax of the human language and explains the uniqueness and evolution of language over time. He claims humans have humans have six symbols system: “two that evolved- the genetic code and spoken language- and four that we invented: written language, Arabic numerals, music notation, and lab notation (a system for coding choreography)”. One word that he puts emphasis time over time is Recursion (“makes it possible for the words in a sentence to be widely separated and yet dependent on one another”); claiming that humans have learned both recursive and non-recursive grammar, while tamarin monkeys failed to learn a recursive grammar. This experiment he states may help to explain why language in animals hasn’t evolved over a period of time. Premack also examined other factors...
The word language originated from a vulgar word in Latin “Linguaticum” which meant “tongue” back in the 12th Century. From there, the word can be traced to Old French in the late 13th Century where it had the spelling “Langage”. The form that we know today “language” rose from c.1300 and was used in Anglo-French and Middle English dialects. From there language has taken on the meaning of “the system of words or signs that people use to express thoughts and feelings to each other”. Language however, has a deeper affect than one might think on thoughts and more importantly, human feelings and emotions.
Language is used every day in life whether it’s written, through sign language, or spoken, and without the language concept it would be very hard to communicate with one another. Language is a key part in communication, and has been the main topic debated by many theorist and researchers. Over time there have been many theories developed about where language comes from and how it is developed. There have been many questions concerning language development, but the two main question are whether language is a natural born occurrence or if it is learned through reinforcement and teachings. One of these theories comes from a man named Noam Chomsky. Chomsky believed humans are biologically born being able to understand and learn language at a certain
Communication between humans would not be possible without the development of language. Gee and Hayes (2011), states that Language is a physically present set of rules that are established cognitively and socially that guides groups of humans to communicate with each other (p. 6). Language can take the form of many types of communication. Language that is seen, also known as non-verbal communication can be described as written language, body language, gestures and Auslan (Grellier & Goerke, 2014, p. 220). Language that is heard, also known as oral language is the ability to communicate through speech (Gee & Hayes, 2011. p. 6). Oral language has been present amoung all humanity since the beginning of time, starting from one original language.
The only way that humans can communicate with each other is through words and signs. In his book entitled, Literary Theory, A Very Short Introduction, Jonathan Culler shows how large a part signs play in who we are by stating that "instead of thinking of life as something to which signs and texts are added to represent it, we should conceive of life itself as suffused with signs, made what it is by processes of signification.
The prehistoric times stand evidence to the power of language as a tool for communication and growth. Language has proven to be an effective medium and factor surrounding the evolution of man. Language has played a big role in the development of individuals and societies. What is spoken and/or written, help in the initiation of imagination, expression of feelings, and conveyance of thoughts and ideas.
In the first paper we established the influence that culture has on language and the subsequent influence that dominant cultures have on lesser cultures through intimate interaction. We used two historical examples of France and its cultural influence on both Russia (an invited influence from the Russian monarchy) and England (an uninvited influence as a result of the Norman invasion). Now we examine the consequences of language as a social institution utilizing the same subjects (France, Russia, and England). We begin with the definitions of key terms:
Of the many aspects distinguishing humans from other animals, language is probably the most fundamental; not only does it enable communication of ideas, opinions and emotions, it also provides us with many of the sophisticated cognitive faculties we associate with our superiority as a species. In examining the origins of language rather than attempting to determine how it functions, a more fundamental question arises of why language evolved. To investigate this question we must endeavour to find the original beneficial function of language that caused it to be naturally selected and further adapted. Conventionally, language was thought to have evolved as a faculty for exchanging information about the environment, such as planning hunts or giving instruction on how to fashion tools. This theory has since been refuted, largely by drawing on the lack of correlation between early human brain size (upon which language is contingent) and tool complexity (Wynn, 1988). Over the last decade, an alternate explanation for the advent of language has been proposed: its social function. Nonetheless, there remains much discussion as to precisely which of the many social functions was responsible for the evolution of language. I will here discuss: Dunbar’s (1993, 1996a) ‘linguistic grooming’ and ‘social gossip’ theory; Deacon’s (1997) ‘social contract’ theory; a criticism of the social function hypothesis regarding its presupposition of advanced cognition; and finally, an alternative approach based on Gould’s (1996) theory of non-adaptive spandrels.
Gestural theory is one of the most important theories in the origin of language because it can explain why infants and the early human being can create their own language. The early human or cavemen communicated by hitting sticks on walls, and experimenting with the sound and the vibration of the stick. They also drew pictures and symbols on the sand or rocks and they would do signs with their hand like a sign language to represent different animals while they were hunting. Thus, it gave ideas that primitive people also have their own language to communicate with each other; one of them is the sign language. From a grammatical standpoint, sign language is just as sophisticated as spoken language because sign language placed on the same “language areas” in the left hemisphere as spoken languages do and in particular the Broca’s area, which lies very close to the motor areas that control the arms and hands. According to Helen J. Neville and her colleagues of the University of Oregon, both Broca's and Wernicke's areas, the two main language-mediating areas in the left side of the brain, are activated in deaf signers while they watch sentences in American Sign Language (ASL) and the result is similar to the hearing people when they listened to spoken sentences. This study shows that sign
Language is a part of our everyday lives, and we can describe the meaning of language in many ways. As suggested in Gee and Hayes (2011, p.6 ) people can view language as something in our minds or something existing in our world in the form of speech, audio recordings, and writings or we can view language as a way of communicating with a group of people. Language can be used to express our emotions, make sense of our mental and abstract thoughts and assists us in communicating with others around us. Language is of vital importance for children to enable them to succeed in school and everyday life. Everyone uses both oral and written language. Language developed as a common ability amongst human beings with the change
Language is the basis of human communication. It is a cultural and social interaction, and the way language is used is influenced by the circumstances in which it takes place (Emmitt, 2010, p. 49; Green, 2006, p. 2). Children become aware that there are different types of language, including languages used at home, at childcare and at school, as they observe and participate in various language situations (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014, p. 39). Some of these languages may be unfamiliar, and children will need to learn the different roles and uses of language. The different roles of language in a child’s life are, therefore, part of their growing understanding of how to behave in society and in a particular context. As they experience different types and uses of language, children develop an understanding of how to use language appropriately for any given situation.
Language is nothing but a media which expresses feelings, ideas, experiences and even pains properly to others. Cultural background is the origin of language. Language is one of the channels which promote human relations and human affections. Language always unites the people and sometimes language itself diverse the people. Without the language we cannot imagine the existence of human beings on the earth. Language is a system of words that people used to express thoughts, feelings each other. The word ‘language’ derived from Latin “lingua” which means ‘tongue, speech’. The word sometimes used to refer to codes, ciphers and other kind of communication systems. For example computer programming.