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Language

A language is a system of sign language , voice , graphics or sign language , which allows communication between individuals.

Summary

/ / Definition: language and language

A definition language of the language specifies that it is a doubly articulated system of signs, that is to say that the construction of meaning is done at two levels of articulation. Everything the first meaningful entities ( morphemes and lexemes or morphemes) forming the set then that of the distinctive units of meaning ( phonemes ) that form meaningful units. These two levels of articulation determine the initial levels of linguistic description: phonology , morphology and syntax. Andr Martinet was that the order of description is necessarily reverse the order of perception and use of language: the description begins by the second level of articulation (phonemes) to go to the first (the combinatorics of signifying units).

Language and Speech

It also differs from Ferdinand de Saussure , language and speech (that is to say, the actual use of the language system by the speakers).

Language and Language

One generally distinguishes the language system ( signs ) and language (human capacity through implementation of such a system). Doubly articulated language is a language among others, that nothing should focus on: the language faculty is also being implemented by other sign systems such as gesture, drawing, clothing, etc.. Linguistics as a science of language in the strict sense, is necessarily included within a larger discipline objects: the semiology or semiotics , general science of signs and significance.

Language and dialect

Perspective sociolinguistics (study of language in relation to their companies), the term "language" defines any idiom that meet two basic social functions: the " communication "(it is through language that social actors interact and bring into share ideas, feelings, thoughts, etc..) and " identification "(due to its dual aspect individually and collectively, the language serves as a marker of identity in the characteristics of the individual and his social affiliations). Therefore, the "languages" are living objects, subjected to multiple variations of phenomena and boundaries between languages are not considered tight since they are primarily social practices (eg how the statement "The meeting schdule for the weekend "would it not" French "?). Taking into account the value of representations of words in society, sociolinguists therefore replace the term "language" to those that can return to a derogatory or demeaning (eg " dialect "and" dialect ").

Natural language and artificial language

While the great majority of languages spoken in the world are natural languages , which are formed spontaneously from previous states of language, however, there are also artificial languages or constructed languages , like Esperanto , the Ido , the Volapk , the interlingua , the Lojban , or the Klingon , which was consciously created by individuals.

Language alive and dead language

A language is said to be alive when used orally by people whose mother tongue is, or by a community large enough - and sufficiently intensive - to allow a spontaneous evolution of language (in the case of Esperanto ).

Called dead language or a language extinct is no longer practiced as an oral language, but can be still used in some areas (such as religion). Knowledge of dead languages, allowing the study of ancient texts, is particularly useful in historical linguistics , as well as the history and related disciplines. The two dead languages, the most important of Western culture are the Latin and ancient Greek. That of Indian cultures or influenced by India is Sanskrit. The term "dead language" is disputed by many who practice them. He then prefers "old tongue." Sometimes the distinction language alive / dead language is a view of the mind always being used by a community of people (mostly religious in purpose), and Latin is considered a language dead, but it is still used by the Catholic Church, ditto for the Coptic.

It is possible to "resurrect" dead languages, as exemplified by the Hebrew.

A living language is rarely a uniform and rigid, it typically varies by geographic location ( dialects ), the social environment ( sociolects ) and individuals ( idiolect ), and of course, by time ( diachronically ), so that , considered at one point, a language is always evolving and contains more states. For example, the phonological system of language is constantly evolving, it studied by the historical phonetics. A living language is defined in a linguistic geography internationally recognized and defined by the language barrier. If the latter is crossed by a frontier is a border language.

Other

Called mother tongue of a person's language (s) that this person has learned (s) in his childhood during the learning of language.

History: Origin of Languages

The beginning of the enigmatic language, languages and origins of current rise of sometimes contradictory assumptions. Much research mainly anthropologists, archaeologists, geneticists and linguists suggest the hypothesis of a common language, others, many also refute it.

Classification

Main article: List of languages.

Number of languages

It is impossible to determine with precision the number of languages spoken in the world because of the difficulty of drawing precise boundaries between languages, especially to differentiate the languages of the dialects. According to estimates, there are now between 3,000 and 7,000 languages Number of speakers per language

The estimated number of speakers of a language (first and second language) can lead to significant differences in some languages. This is particularly true of French, according to Ethnologue , a source widely adopted in the Anglo-Saxon, estimates the number of French speakers to 128 million in 1999 , only 77 million in their first language.

Charts: Disappearances and creations

Language loss

The linguist Colette Grinevald estimated 50% of languages will disappear by 2100. In some areas, it could be around 90% (as in Australia and America ) . Beginning 2008 , the NGO Survival International estimates that indigenous language disappears "every two weeks" .

Colette Grinevald estimated that in 2100, the majority languages will be :

The French is used as the language of international diplomacy, the " Non-Aligned Countries , international organizations, the Olympic games. La Francophonie should do well, particularly through its development within the community of French-speaking countries and its expansion in Africa and the Maghreb and the support of dynamic languages of French Canadian, Belgian and Swiss. Thus, according to the demographer and sociologist Richard Marcoux the French could 2050 have 600 million users .

A language is considered threatened if it would have no further speakers by the end of the XXI century. A language that appears solid, as used by several million people may be at risk. This is particularly the case of languages Quechua in South America , as very few young people learn.

Since the majority of humanity lives in urban areas, this loss is accelerating. One of the reasons is the rural exodus , which led to the absence of transmission of traditions and languages involved. Often, social pressure because the speakers of minority languages (such as Native Americans but also many so-called regional languages, as in France with the Britons in the 1950s or the Corsican language, declared 'endangered' by Unesco 2009 ) believe that speaking a language is a handicap for traditional integration into society and find work. The pressure exerted by certain States , who believe that language is a cement company, is also a factor in loss of diversity language.

The disappearance of these languages carries with it the disappearance of entire sections of the culture of traditional groups. The disappearance of a traditional language and bad language learning dominant cause discomfort in some people, for lack of integration, they can not identify with any culture.

The Internet plays an ambivalent role, he is on one side an accelerator for the disappearance of languages, the standardization of communications media. But it is also a way to preserve these languages, the establishment of communities speaking traditional languages.

Design languages

Some languages are disappearing but sometimes that languages are created, usually it occurs along three axes:

There is also a more marginal case with the so-called language of fiction ( smurf , kobaien , Quenya , Sindarin or Klingon , Na'vi ). This last category is more fun and entertaining than the real literary language feature (although the languages created in this category may be functional).

Law

Languages may have different status in international organizations, particularly the language and working language.

Languages and Computer

On the Web , the language is handled in markup languages that manipulate text in natural language in documents .

There are many needs, many legal provisions, many practices that seek to manage the language in some way:

There are two uses of language in languages HTML and XML :

  • primary language;
  • language processing.

See also: Language (metadata)

The arrival of new technologies such as computer , Internet and cell phones with SMS messages has led to the creation of a new way of writing languages, texting.

Notes and references

See also

Related articles

Multilingualism and Translation
Language teaching
Written language
Language games

Bibliography

  • (En) Cause toujours! Discovering the 6700 languages in the world, off-set the March-April-May 2003 issue of International Mail
  • (En) Colombat Bernard, Jean-Marie Fournier and Christian Puech, History of ideas about language and languages, Klincksieck, Paris, 2010, 277 p. ( ISBN 978-2-252-03599-3 )
  • (En) Georges Kersaudy , Languages without borders: exploring the languages of Europe: unknown facts, ideas, new aspects: problems and solutions, methods of learning: with parallel vocabularies of 39 languages of Europe, other, Paris, 2007 (rd.), 387 p. ( ISBN 978-2-7467-0983-6 )
  • (De) (en) Albrecht Klose, Sprachen der Welt: ein Index der weltweite Sprachfamilien, Einzelnsprachen Dialekt und, und mit Angabe der Synonyma fremdsprachigen Aequivalente / Languages of the world: a multi-lingual concordance of languages, dialects and language-families, KG Saur, Munich 2001 (2nd ed.), 556 p. ( ISBN 3-598-11404-4 )
  • (In) Larry Trask , Why Do Languages Change?, Cambridge University Press, 2010 (new ed. Revised), 210 p. ( ISBN 978-0521838023 )
  • (En) Henriette Walter , L'Aventure languages in the West. Their origin, history, geography, French general bookshop, Paris, 1996 (many subsequent draws), 595 p. ( ISBN 2-253-14000-7 )


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