The term language universal refers to those features or properties of language that are common to all languages. The notion that languages might share universal features creates a tension of sorts with conceptions of language, as developed by Boas and other early linguistic anthropologists, that held that languages (along with their respective cultures) were infinitely
Social psychology is conventionally defined as the scientific study of how the actual or imagined presence of others influences an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior. The social psychology of language (SPL) concentrates on the role of language in the dynamics between individuals and their social world; language use is argued to affect and be affected
The term “language varieties” covers “language” and “dialect.” A variety may be characteristic of a particular social group, or associated with a particular speaking style across groups of speakers in a community. “Variety” makes no direct or indirect assertions about the relative status of the linguistic system being described (“dialect” often refers with negative overtones
Attempts by linguists and anthropologists to understand humankind have always focused on two areas: culture and society and language and communication. It is somewhat unnatural, however, to separate the study of language from the study of culture, as doing so can limit attempts to characterize the development of peoples and how they create communities and
Many disciplines in the social sciences and humanities systematically study language, each having its own theoretical foundations, goals, and research traditions. The resulting landscape is a maze of paths that start and then split off either to reemerge as hybrids combined with other specialties or to reach a dead end. For instance, psychology and anthropology
Work in animal behavior, and in particular cognitive ethology, has shown that most of the differences in kind once thought to distinguish humans from other animals are actually differences in degree. The one behavior where a huge gap still seems to exist is language. Language is best defined as a communication system that employs arbitrary
To classify the languages of the world, it is of foremost importance to first decide what constitutes a “language.” Most classification schemata involve spoken languages—alive, endangered, and extinct. The estimated number of spoken languages varies from 3,000 to 10,000, and there are languages spoken by a few societies that are still unidentified. There are some
Language represents a fundamental character of modern humans, Homo sapiens. All animals engage in some form of communication. For example, single-cell organisms may relate to individuals around them via chemicals, whereas birds prefer more vocal communication. Researchers who study communication in nonhuman animals, such as Sue Savage-Rumbaugh (in bonobos) and Irene Pepperberg (in parrots), may
Language types and language typology refer to characterizing languages of the world by similarities and differences in their structural forms and in their functional uses. They also refer to characterizing them according to language families where there is evidence that the languages have common structural relationships that are consistent with some “parent” language (i.e., genetic
Language, like culture, is something that is easier to discuss than to define, and no unitary definition is offered here. Instead, what anthropologists and linguists mean by language is better understood by trying to be clear about what does and does not count as language. In some cases, this involves disentangling folk uses of the
Both the biologist and the linguist are interested in how language evolved in the natural history of the human species. This process was embedded in the evolution of life from the first self-replicating macro-molecules to the wealth of species living today on Earth. The evolutionary thinker hits, therefore, on a more fundamental question: Is human
Although there is no consensus as to what precisely an attitude is, language attitudes may be defined as embodied dispositions toward various and wide-ranging language behaviors (e.g., intensity, politeness, rate, accent, dialect). Correspondingly, language attitude research represents a broad-scale, multidisciplinary effort to assess diverse reactions to language behaviors (Cargile & Bradac 2001). Within intergroup contexts
Language and (or “on”) the Internet refers to human language (or language intended to be human-like, such as the linguistic output of artificial intelligence agents) produced and displayed through computer-mediated communication (CMC) systems that are mostly text based and mostly reciprocally interactive, such as email, listserv lists, newsgroups, chat, instant messaging, text messaging via mobile
Language acquisition starts before babies utter their first words. Even in the womb, they jump in response to noises, such as fireworks and loud bands; they eavesdrop on their mother’s conversations. Within just hours of birth, newborns recognize their mother’s voice, along with stories and songs they’ve heard in the womb. They can even distinguish
“Language is itself the collective art of expression, a summary of thousands upon thousands of individual intuitions” (Sapir 1921, 246). When exploring rhetoric in relation to language we usually have in mind the nature and functions of the communication systems used by humans in different times and in different parts of the world. Some of
Sign language interpreters help people who use sign language communicate with people who can hear and speak. They translate a message from spoken words to signs, and from signs to spoken words. They are fluent in American Sign Language, and/or sign systems based on English (such as Seeing Essential English, Signing Exact English, and Linguistics
Language is a collection of symbols that represents objects, actions, and thoughts. It is representational, allowing for the transmission and relocation of information between minds. It can be written, spoken, gestured, and/or signed for purposes of communication. It is often debated whether or not humans are the only animal possessing language capabilities. In particular, some
Political language has been studied by sociolinguists, communication scholars, political scientists, historians, sociologists, anthropologists, psychologists, and marketing professionals. Shared assumptions across these fields are that (1) citizens come to know their political worlds through messages and symbols, and (2) political words do not have meaning in themselves; rather their meanings are a function of contexts
Language and social interaction (LSI) refers to the area of communication research that studies how language, gesture, voice, and other features of talk and written texts shape meaning-making. LSI includes a loosely bounded set of topics and intellectual commitments. In contrast to the domain-of-life approach (e.g., political, interpersonal, or organizational communication) that is the typical
The terms language, speech, and communication are used interchangeably by most people. When children or adults are seen by a speech-language pathologist (SLP), however, each of these terms refers to specific behaviors that are assessed and treated differently. Language is a symbolic code organized by rule-governed combinations that are socially shared. Children learn to use
Written language assessment plays a pivotal role in school psychology, offering a comprehensive understanding of students’ literacy development and facilitating tailored interventions. This article explores the multifaceted landscape of written language assessment within educational settings. Beginning with an examination of the theoretical foundations, it delves into emergent literacy theories, psycholinguistic models, and socio-cultural perspectives that
The language acquisition device (LAD) was proposed by Noam Chomsky to explain how children, when exposed to any human language, are able to learn it within only a few years following birth. Chomsky argued that all humans are born with the knowledge of what makes a human language. Included in this innate knowledge must be
American Sign Language (ASL) is the principal language of the signing deaf community in the United States. There are estimated to be as many as 500,000 ASL signers, making it one of the most frequently used languages in North America. ASL, however, is only one of many sign languages used by deaf people around the