2. GENERAL LINGUISTICS
ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE
Presented to:
Mr Riaz Hussain
Presented by:
Zahida Parveen, Saima Asghar, Shazia Faiz, Iqbal
Khan, Sher Alam Jan
3. WHAT IS A LANGUAGE?
Wayne Weiten:
"A language consists of symbols that convey meanings plus
rules for combining those symbols, that can be used to
generate an infinite variety of messages.“
Any means of conveying or communicating ideas;
specifically, human speech; the expression of ideas by the
voice; sounds, expressive of thought, articulated by the
organs of the throat and mouth.
The expression of ideas by writing, or any other
instrumentality.
The forms of speech, or the methods of expressing ideas,
peculiar to a particular nation.
4. Definitions of Language:
The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to
man express their feelings or their wants.
The suggestion, by objects, actions, or conditions, of
ideas associated therewith; as, the language of flowers.
The vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art
or department of knowledge; as, medical language; the
language of chemistry or theology.
The characteristic mode of arranging words, peculiar
to an individual speaker or writer; manner of
expression; style.
http://www.brainyquote.com
5. HOW LANGUAGE CAME INTO
BEING?
It can't be proven that language is as old as humans,
but it is definitely true that language and human
society are inseparable. Wherever humans exist,
language exists. Every stone age tribe ever encountered
has a language equal to English, Latin, or Greek in
terms of its expressive potential and grammatical
complexity. Technologies may be complex or simple,
but language is always complex.
7. A CHANLLENGE
Quentin D. Atkinson, a biologist at the
University of Auckland in New Zealand,
challenges a long-held belief by linguistics
that the origin of spoken language only
dates back some 10,000 years. Atkinson
hints that if African populations began
their dispersal from Africa to Asia and
Europe 60,000 years ago, perhaps the
spoken language had to exist around that
time and, as Atkinson hints at, may have
been the catalyst for their dispersion and
subsequent migration.
8. How does a new human learn to speak
First recorded language
experiment conducted by a
Pharaoh named
Psammetichus I. Human
ability to communicate
through speech sets him
apart from other
animals, language experts,
historians and scientists can
only hypothesize how, where
and when it all began.
10. Belief in divine creation.
Many societies believed that
language is the gift of the gods to
humans.
11. Continued……
Judeo-Christian: The most familiar is found in
Genesis2:2, which tells us that Adam gave names to all
living creatures. This belief predicates that humans
were created from the start with an innate capacity to
use language.
This belief predicates that humans were created from
the start with an innate capacity to use language.
12. The Judeo-Christian tradition:
An explanation on why there are so many
different languages in the world. Genesis
11 tells the story of the Tower of Babel.
According to the Old Testament (Genesis
11:1 - 9), the tower was erected on the plain
of Shinar in Babylonia by descendants of
Noah. The builders intended the tower to
reach heaven. Their arrogance and
presumption, however, angered Yahweh,
who interrupted construction by causing
among them a previously unknown
confusion of languages. He then scattered
those people, speaking different languages,
over the face of the earth.
13. Ancient Egypt:
The god Thoth of ancient Egypt was a
moon god as well as the inventor of
writing and scribe to the gods. As both
the ibis bird and ape were considered
sacred to him, he has also been depicted
as a baboon. When the dead were tried
in the Hall of Judgment, it was Thoth
who wrote down the details. It was also
believed that Thoth inscribed the
number of years a pharaoh had allotted
to him for his reign. Arguably the most
learned of the gods, Thoth was believed
to have a book containing all the wisdom
of the world within it.
Thoth, Creator of Speech, The Great Scribe
14. According to Islam:
Words of God in his word:
“We never sent a prophet, but with
the language of his people, so that
he can explain clearly to them. So
God astray whom He pleases, and
gives guidance to whom He will. and
He is God Almighty, the Wise.” (QS.
Ibrahim, 4)
15. The language issue has been confirmed of
God in the Qur’an, that one proof of his
power is the existence of differences in
language and skin color.
“And among the signs of His power is the
creation of the heavens and the earth and
diverse language and skin color. Surely,
with that situation actually there are signs
for people who know” (Surat ar-Rum, 22).
“THE ORIGINS OF HUMAN LANGUAGE: Islamic
Perspective and Science”
by Abd. Ghofur
16. Natural evolution hypothesis
At some point in their
evolutionary development
humans acquired a more
sophisticated brain which
made language invention
and learning possible. In
other words, at some point
in time humans evolved a
language acquisition
device, whatever this may
be in real physical terms.
18. MAJOR THEORIES:
Five of the oldest and most common theories of how
language began:
The Bow-Wow Theory
The Ding-Dong Theory
The La-La Theory
The Pooh-Pooh Theory
The Yo-He-Ho Theory
19. The Bow-Wow Theory
Language began when our
ancestors started imitating
the natural sounds around
them. The first speech was
onomatopoeic --marked by
echoic words such as moo,
meow, splash, cuckoo, and
bang.
20. Limitations:
Few words are
onomatopoeic.
Vary from one language to
another. A dog's bark is
heard as au au in Brazil, ham
ham in Albania, and wang,
wang in China.
Many onomatopoeic words
are of recent origin,
not all are derived from
natural sounds.
21. The Ding-Dong Theory
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.
22. Limitations:
Apart from some rare instances of sound symbolism,
there's no persuasive evidence, in any language, of an
innate connection between sound and meaning.
23. The La-La Theory
The Danish linguist Otto
Jespersen suggested that
language may have
developed from sounds
associated with love,
play, and (especially)
song.
24. Limitations:
This theory still fails to account for
"the gap between the emotional and
the rational aspects of speech
expression”.
25. The Pooh-Pooh Theory
This theory holds that
speech began with
interjections
spontaneous cries of
pain ("Ouch!"), surprise
("Oh!"), and other
emotions ("Yabba dabba
do!").
26. Limitations:
No language contains very many interjections, "the
clicks, intakes of breath, and other noises which are
used in this way bear little relationship to the vowels
and consonants found in phonology."
27. The Yo-He-Ho Theory
According to this theory,
language evolved from
the grunts, groans, and
snorts evoked by heavy
physical labor.
28. Limitations:
Though this notion may account for some of the
rhythmic features of language, it doesn't go very far in
explaining where words come from.
29. Peter Farb:
says in Word Play: What Happens When People Talk
(Vintage, 1993), "All these speculations have serious
flaws, and none can withstand the close scrutiny of
present knowledge about the structure of language
and about the evolution of our species."
30. According to Edward Vajda
Four imitation hypotheses
The "ding-dong" hypothesis
The "pooh-pooh" hypothesis
The "bow-wow" hypothesis
The "ta-ta" hypothesis.
31. The Ta-Ta Hypothesis:
A somewhat different hypothesis is the "ta-ta"
hypothesis. Charles Darwin hypothesized that
speech may have developed as a sort of mouth
pantomime: the organs of speech were used to imitate
the gestures of the hand. In other words, language
developed from gestures that began to be imitated by
the organs of speech--the first words were lip icons of
hand gestures.
33. Warning hypothesis.
Language may have evolved
from warning signals such as
those used by animals. Perhaps
language started with a
warning to others, such as Look
out, Run, or Help to alert
members of the tribe when
some lumbering beast was
approaching. Other first words
could have been hunting
instructions or instructions
connected with other work.
34. The lying hypothesis.
E. H. Sturtevant argued that,
since all real intentions or
emotions get involuntarily
expressed by gesture, look or
sound, voluntary
communication must have
been invented for the purpose
of lying or deceiving. The
need to deceive and was the
social prompting that got
language started.
35. In Short:
How language developed a complex grammar remains a
complete mystery. This means that how language
developed is equally a mystery. We simply don't know
how language may have actually evolved from simple
animal systems of sounds and gestures.
