BUSUNGU ACADEMY

LANGUAGE SUBSYSTEMS The components found in the definition of language should not be confused with components of language. The most popular components of language (language subsystems) are;      i.       Syntax The study of how individual words and their most basic meaningful units are combined to create sentences is known as syntax. As words are grouped together when we communicate, we must follow the rules of grammar for our language, in other words, its syntax.   It is the knowledge of syntax that allows us to recognize that the following two sentences, while containing different word order and levels of complexity, have the same meaning. a.     The boy hit the ball. b.     The ball was hit by the boy. Syntax also allows us to accept “ I went to the store ” as a meaningful (grammatical) sentence while “ To store went I ” would not be acceptable English.   ii.     ...

  INTRODUCTION TO language What is language? 1.     Edward Sapir (1921) defines language as a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols . These symbols are, in the first instance, auditory and they are produced by the so-called “organs of speech”. 2.     Sapir's definition focused on language rather than a language . The latter turns out to be difficult to define objectively, with the popular opposition between `a language' and `a dialect' particularly misleading. Such an opposition frequently associates `a language' with a written standard variety or the prestigious spoken form on which such a standard is based. Linguists, on the other hand, consider all dialects of a language to be `linguistically' equal, and hence conceive of a language as the sum total of its dialects. 3.     Generally, language can be defined as the system of a...