1. LANGUAGE SYSTEM OF
COMMUNICATION
BY: DAISY ABASTAS and ANGELICA
BACAMANTE

2. Language is the most powerful and dominant system of
communication. In addition, language is the system of conventional,
spoken and written symbols by means of which human beings
communicate with each other, from one country to another country or
one culture to another culture. It is the best ways to express emotions,
thoughts, feeling and desires.
Language is a system of symbols and rules that is used for meaningful
communication.

3. A system of communication has to meet certain
criteria in order to be considered a language:
• A language uses symbols, which are sounds, gestures, or written
characters that represent objects, actions, events, and ideas. Symbols
enable people to refer to objects that are in another place or events
that occurred at a different time.
• A language is meaningful and therefore can be understood by other
users of that language.
• A language is generative, which means that the symbols of a
language can be combined to produce an infinite number of
messages.
• A language has rules that govern how symbols can be arranged.
These rules allow people to understand messages in that language
even if they have never encountered those messages before.

4. BELL’S 7 CRITERIA

5. Standardization
Refers to the process by which a language has been codified in some
way. That process usually involves the development of such things as
grammars, spelling books, and dictionaries, and possibly a literature.
We can often associate specific items or events with standardization.
Standardization also requires that a measure of agreement be achieved
about what is in the language and what is not. Once we have such a
codification of the language we tend to see it as almost inevitable, the
result of some process come to fruition, one that has also reached a
fixed end point. Change, therefore, should be resisted since it can only
undo what

6. Vitality
The second of Bell’s seven criteria, refers to the existence of a living
community of speakers. This criterion can be used to distinguish
languages that are ‘alive’ from those that are ‘dead.’ Many of the
aboriginal languages of the Americas are also dead. Latin is dead in this
sense too for no one speaks it as a native language; it exists only in a
written form frozen in time, pronounced rather than spoken, and
studied rather than used.

7. Historicity
Refers to the fact that a particular group of people finds a sense of
identity through using a particular language: it belongs to them. Social,
political, religious, or ethnic ties may also be important for the group,
but the bond providedby a common language may prove to be the
strongest tie of all.
Historicity can be long-standing: speakers of the different varieties of
colloquial Arabic make much of a common linguistic ancestry, as
obviously do speakers of Chinese. It can also, as with Hebrew, be
appealed to as a unifying force among a threatened people.

8. Autonomy
Is an interesting concept because it is really one of feeling. A language
must be felt by its speakers to be different from other languages.
However, this is a very subjective criterion. Some speakers of African
American Vernacular English maintain that their language is not a
variety of English but is a separate language in its own right and refer
to it.

9. Ebonics
In contrast, speakers of Cantonese and Mandarin deny that they speak
different languages: they maintain that Cantonese and Mandarin are not
autonomous languages but are just two dialects of Chinese. Creole and
pidgin languages cause us not a few problems when we try to apply this
criterion: how autonomous are such languages?

10. Reduction
Refers to the fact that a particular variety may be regarded as a sub-
variety rather than as an independent entity. Speakers of Cockney will
almost certainly say that they speak a variety of English, admit that
they are not
Representative speakers of English, and recognize the existence of
other varieties with equivalent subordinate status. Sometimes the
reduction is in the kinds of opportunities afforded to users of the
variety. For example, there may be a reduction of resources; that is, the
variety may lack a writing system. Or there may be considerable
restrictions in use; e.g., pidgin languages are very much reduced in the
functions they serve in society in contrast to standardized languages.

11. Mixture
Refers to feelings speakers have about the ‘purity’ of the variety they speak.
This criterion appears to be more important to speakers of some languages
than of others.. However, it partly explains why speakers of pidgins and
creoles have difficulty in classifying what they speak as full languages: these
varieties are, in certain respects, quite obviously ‘mixed,’ and the people who
speak them often feel that the varieties are neither one thing nor another, but
rather are debased, deficient, degenerate, or marginal varieties of some other
standard.
Refers to the feeling that many speakers have that there are both ‘good’
speakers and ‘poor’ speakers and that the good speakers represent the norms of
proper usage. Standards must not only be established (by the first criterion
above), they must also be observed. When all the speakers of a language feel
that it is badly spoken or badly written almost everywhere, that language may
have considerable difficulty in surviving; in fact, such a feeling is often
associated with a language that is dying.

12. CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGUAGE

13. 1. Language is arbitrary
Language is undoubtedly arbitrary as there is no inherent connection
between the nature of things or concepts the language deals with,
however by which those things and concepts are expressed.
The decision of a word chose to mean a specific thing or thought is
absolutely subjective, however, once a word is chosen for a specific
referent, it comes to remain in that capacity. It might be noticed that
had language not been arbitrary, there would have been just a single
language on the planet.

14. 2. Language is a social Phenomenon
In a sense, language should be considered as a social phenomenon.
Language is social that exists in our human society; it is as a means of
nourishing and developing culture and establishing human relations. As
a member of a particular social group, we human beings interact with
each other, which allows us to identify with one another, to connect
with one another and to coordinate with one another. This is how
language is the part and parcel of our society.
Language exists in the public arena, is a method for feeding and
creating a society, and sets up human relations. As a member of society,
we acquire a language permanently.

15. 3. Language is a symbolic system
Language signifies as a symbolic system. It consists of different types
of sound symbols and their graphological partners that are utilized to
give a few objects, occurrences or significance.
These symbols are discretionarily picked and routinely acknowledged
and utilized. The words in a language are not just patterns or images
but symbols that denote meaning. The language uses words essentially
as symbols and not as signs for the concept represented by them. The
core value of a language sometimes relies on the true explanation of
these symbols.

16. 4. Language is systematic
In spite of the fact that language is symbolic, its symbols are arranged
in specific systems. All languages have their arrangement of plans.
Each language is an arrangement of systems. Furthermore, all
languages have phonological and syntactic systems and within a
system, there are also several sub-systems.
For instance, inside the linguistic system, we have the morphological
and syntactic system, and inside these two sub-systems, we have
systems, for example, those of plural, of mindset, or perspective, of
tense, etc.

17. 5. Language is vocal, verbal and sound
Language is a system of vocal and verbal symbolism. It is essentially
comprised of vocal sounds just created by a physiological articulatory
component in the human body. First and foremost, it shows up as vocal
sounds only. Language takes verbal elements such as sounds, words
and phrases which are fixed up in certain ways to make several
sentences.
Language is vocal and sound which is produced by different speech
organs. Writing can be considered as an intelligent platform to
represent vocal sounds. It is the graphic representation of the speech
sounds of the language.

18. 6. Language is non-instinctive, conventional
No language was made in multi-day out of a commonly settled upon
the recipe by a gathering of people. Language is the result of
advancement and tradition. Every age transmits this tradition on to the
following.
Like every single human organization, languages may also change and
pass on, develop and extend. Each language has a circulation in a
particular community around the globe. However, we can consider
language as non-instinctive because naturally it is acquired by us.

19. 7. Language is productive and creative
Language has efficiency and innovativeness. The auxiliary components
of human language joined to created new expressions, which neither
the speaker nor his/her listeners may ever have made or heard
previously.
Truly, the two sides comprehend without trouble. Language changes as
indicated by the necessities of society. After all, language has the power
of productivity and creativity.

20. 8. Language is a system of communication
Language is strong, convenient and the best form of communication. It
is the best ways to express everything. It is through language that we
human express our thoughts, desires, emotions and feelings. Further,
we can interact with each other easily through the welfare of language.
After all, we may say that language is the best system of
communication around the world.

21. 9. Language is human and structurally complex
Human language is open-minded, extendable and modifiable on the
other hand animal language is not. Language should be modifiable
through time to time. No species other than humans have been
endowed with language. So we can say that language is naturally
human and in some cases, structurally complex and modifiable.

22. 10. Language is unique, complex and modifiable
Language is a unique phenomenon in the world. It has its own
creativity and productivity. Despite their common features and
language universals, each language has its peculiarities and distinctive
features. And this is how language has its own potentiality to be unique,
complex and modifiable by the change of time and culture.

23. BUILDING BLOCKS OF LANGUAGE

24. Phonemes
This are the smallest distinguishable units in a language. In the English
language, many consonants, such as t, p, and m, correspond to single
phonemes, while other consonants, such as c and g, can correspond to
more than one phoneme. Vowels typically correspond to more than one
phoneme.
For example, o corresponds to different phonemes depending on
whether it is pronounced as in bone or woman. Some phonemes
correspond to combinations of consonants, such as ch, sh, and th.

25. Morphemes
This are the smallest meaningful units in a language. In the English
language, only a few single letters, such as I and a, are morphemes.
Morphemes are usually whole words or meaningful parts of words,
such as prefixes, suffixes, and word stems.
Example: The word “disliked” has three morphemes: “dis,” “lik,”
and “ed.”

26. Grammar
This rules of the language that specify how phonemes, morphemes,
words and phrases should be combined. Grammar also governs how to
use various classes of words and their inflections. Grammar is made up
of syntax and semantics.
Syntax is the grammatical rules that specify in what order the words
and phrases should be arranged in a sentence to convey meaning. By
the time one is able to read, his or her syntactical sense is highly
developed. This makes it sound like even sentences composed of unfit
words makes sense because it follows proper syntax. Syntax is different
in every language.
For example, English speaking people say adjective before noun and
many other languages say adjective after noun.

27. Language is a foundation or building blocks of thinking. Language is
organized hierarchically, from phonemes to morphemes to phrases and
sentences that communicate meaning.
Those building blocks provide structure to produce language. To
produce language, one, must build words using phonemes and
morphemes and then string those words into sentences using the rules
of grammar; syntax and semantics

28. References:
https://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/psych101/languageandcogniti
on/section1/
https://www.academia.edu/23681977/Bells_7_criteria
https://englishfinders.com/characteristics-of-language/amp/
https://www.academia.edu/34202254/Building_Blocks_of_Language