What is Language?

What is Language?

What is language? We all know it’s what we use to communicate with others, what we use to inform, how to build a rapport and to entertain others. But what exactly is language? What are the different parts that make up the language that we know? As we may already know, language is built up of Phonology, Morphology, Lexicology and Semantics.

Phonology is the study of sounds. The sounds that we produce are by the speech organs that only belong to humans. The actual sounds that come out of our mouths are called ‘phones’. This can be either vowels or consonants. No language makes use of all the many sounds that the speech organ can produce and no two languages use the same set of sounds. Did you know that American English only uses 38 sounds? Also did you know that because no two languages use the same set of sounds, different speakers of the same language differ, this is because they are using different patterns, this creates ‘accents’.

Morphology is simply the word structure we use in our language. It is the study of how we put together words or the building blocks to our sentences. Lexicology is the collection of words in a language for e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives etc.

Semantics is the study of how meaning is constructed, interpreted and clarified. It focuses on the relationships between words, phrases, signs and symbols and what they stand for. It is quite important to understand language in social contexts.

We now know the basic information as to how the language is formed and its different parts, but why do we use language, what is it for? We use it in social situations, to communicate our thoughts, tell a story or a joke with friends. We use it to inform others, to give instructions. Language itself is also used to culturally shape us. It is such a fascinating and engaging gift that we often take for granted.