- Language is a structured system of communication. Languages evolve and diversify over time. Grammer provides a structured system within a language. A writing system usually accompanies languages. Language in humans is universal. Languages are transmitted between cultures and across time. Language and writing facilitate learning. Language is a unique development of our brains. The ability to speak and think allows humans to acquire and store knowledge.
- Human language and writing are open-ended. This allows humans to produce and create new words and sentences. This is possible because human language is based on a dual code (all things are triune, with binary interactives) in which a finite number of elements can be combined to form an infinite number of words and sentences. Only human language can comprehend abstract concepts and imagine hypothetical events. The brain is the coordinating center of all linguistic activity. The brain controls the production of linguistic cognition, meaning, and speech. The two components of grammar are syntax and morphology. The syntax is a collection of rules that allow us to form logical sentences. Morphology is the mechanism that explains the structure of words and how they are created. Linguistics involves primary and general studies in phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and sociolinguistics.
- Neurolinguistics studies neural mechanisms in the human brain. This involves comprehension, production, and acquisition of language. As an interdisciplinary field, neurolinguistics draws methods and theories from neuroscience, linguistics, cognitive science, communication disorders, and neuropsychology.
- We can also remember the past and the present. Another time, another place. Out of sight isn’t out of mind. Our repository of stored knowledge is the purpose of our existence.
- Language is a pillar of civilization on Earth. There are 7,097 living languages in the world today. History says spoken language appeared 10,000 years ago (best guess)—records of Sumerian written language date from 3500 BC. The Akkadian spoken language replaced it around 2000 BC. Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, classical Hindu philosophy, and historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. Sanskrit is an
ancient Indo-European language of India, from which the Hindu scriptures and classical Indian epic poems are written and from which many northern Indian languages are derived.
- Languages of antiquity include Sanskrit (3500 years old), Greek (3400 years old), Coptic Egyptian (2200 years old), Hebrew (3000 years old), Chinese (3200 years old), Aramaic (3100 years old), Arabic (2800 years old), Persian (Farsi) (2500 years old). Tamil (India) is the oldest surviving language in the world. Tamil’s age is estimated from 5320 BC to the 8th century AD. India developed the Tamil language and its rules of grammar.
- Babylon (Southern Mesopotamia) wrote the earliest linguistic texts ( in a cuneiform script) on clay tablets. This grammatical tradition lasted more than 2,500 years. Proving that we got here yesterday. Hebrew was spoken and written by the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews, and the Samaritans. Hebrew is the only Canaanite language still spoken today.
- The Greeks developed an alphabet by using symbols from the Phoenicians. They added signs for vowels and extra consonants appropriate for their idiom. Along with written speech, the Greeks developed grammatical and philosophical rules. Aristotle laid the foundation of Western linguistics as part of his study of rhetoric. Linguistics is the study of knowledge systems. It is the study of language, how it is put together and how it functions. How is the knowledge system structured, how is it acquired, and how is it used in producing and comprehending messages?
- The four branches of Linguistics are Phonetics, Semantics, Historical Linguistics, and Computational Linguistics.
- The three categories of language are directive, expressive, and informative.
- Phonetics (the study of how speech sounds are made).
- Phonology (how these sounds are organized).
- Morphology (how sounds are organized into units of meaning).
- Semantics (the study of meanings).
- Sociolinguistics (the interaction of language and people or collectives).
- Syntax (how units of meaning come together to create utterances).
- Because of its inherently cross-disciplinary nature, linguistics and linguists are often integrated into such disciplines as communications, sociology, history, literature, foreign languages, pedagogy, and psychology.
- The phenomenon of human language is an inherited function. Different family languages exist; for example, Germanic includes English, German, Dutch, and Scandinavian. Language is a central feature of being human. Language didn’t evolve by chance. The human creation software module generated the mechanism for our speech and thought capabilities. Language and known thought mechanisms were installed as innate functions of our consciousness. Linguistics has intellectual connections and overlaps with many other disciplines in the humanities. For example, the social sciences and the natural sciences. Some of the linguistics’s closest relationships are with Philosophy, Literature, Language Pedagogy, Psychology, Sociology, Physics (acoustics), and Biology/Neuroscience. The ability to speak and think allows humans to acquire and store knowledge.
- Our repository of stored knowledge is the purpose of our existence.