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10 Main Features of Language You Should Know

Published - 2022-08-13

Today, language is an integral aspect of human society. The only thing that has allowed for human civilization is language. Only through the use of language has humanity emerged from the Stone Age and made significant advances in science, art, and technology. The most potent and prevalent form of communication is language. It is also a system of traditional, spoken, and written symbols that people use to communicate with one another across national boundaries or cultural divides. It is the most effective means of expressing feelings, thoughts, and desires.

What are the language features?

Briefly stated, language is arbitrary, productive, creative, symbolic, systematic, vocalic, social, non-instinctive, and conventional; it is a system of communication that is structurally complicated, adaptable, and based on human behavior. Usually, we employ descriptive language when someone is exceptionally good at communicating a point. Speech is prevalent in all communities, but writing is uncommon; there are only five hundred or so written languages, according to one estimate.

Humans use language, thus it differs from animal communication in a number of ways. The most significant characteristics of language are its arbitrary, productive, creative, systematic, vocalic, social, non-instinctive, and conventional characteristics. These aspects of language set human communication apart from those of animals. Although some of these traits may be present in animal communication, they do not entirely make it up. Let us look at some characteristics below -

1. One of the primary characteristics of language is that it is vocal and verbal.

Language is the organizing of vocal symbols or sounds made from the lips with assistance from various speech organs to express a meaningful message. Additionally, it implies that speech is prior to writing. Various languages exist because they are spoken. Vocal sounds are also used in singing and music but are not languages. Language is organized verbal symbolism; it uses verbal components like sounds, words, and phrases that are put together in specific ways to form sentences. Language is vocal in the sense that it is composed of sounds that the speech organs can make.

2. Language serves as a tool for communication

The most effective, practical, and lasting method of communication is language. Although there are other forms of communication besides languages, such as expressive gestures, different types of signals, flags, emblems, traffic lights, and many more, as well as shorthand, mores, and other codes, the braille, and deaf and dumb alphabets, mathematical and logical symbols, etc., they are not as adaptable, complete, and extensive as language. The best method of self-expression is through language. Humans communicate their ideas, wishes, emotions, and sentiments through language, and they also store knowledge and pass messages, knowledge, and experience from one generation to the next through it.

3. The Social Phenomena of Language

Language is a collection of common communication signs that people use to communicate with one another in social settings. In this definition, language is a social institution that belongs to a social group and consists of a necessary set of rules that allow its members to interact. A language is a tool used in society for fostering cultural growth and establishing interpersonal connections. Humans learn languages as part of being a part of society. The ability to learn a specific language, be it English, Hindi, Russian, Bengali, Chinese, Tamil, or French, is not something we are born with. When you want other people to accept your facts, believe your opinions and conclusions, or take a certain action, you can use persuasive language. We acquire a language either to become a part of the society that uses it, to better understand it, or to improve our ability to communicate in that society.

4. Language is arbitrary

When we say that language is arbitrary, we imply that there is no natural or logical connection between any particular characteristic of language and its meaning. That is completely arbitrary; there is no direct or essential relationship between the nature of the concepts or ideas that a language deals with and the linguistic combinations that are used to convey them. This statement may appear to be invalidated by certain words that mimic the sounds of their referents, such as buzz, hiss, hum, bang, and Kal-Kal in Hindi, but these words are relatively uncommon in different languages, and the accuracy of the limitation depends on the sounds that are available in that language.

5. Language is a traditional, non-intuitive medium

No mutually agreed upon formula by a group of humans produced any language in a day. Language is the result of convention and evolution. This custom is passed down from one generation to the next. Like all human institutions, languages evolve, decline, and increase. Since all languages are learned by humans, they are all conventional communities and are not instinctual. Nobody is born with the ability to learn a language. Humans do not inherit their communication systems from their parents as animals do.

6. Language utilizes symbols

The above-discussed characteristic of arbitrariness is a necessary consequence of the symbolism of language. A symbol is something that stands in for or symbolises another item. A system of arbitrary voice symbols makes up language. We use sounds and words as symbols for concepts, ideas, things, and objects, among other things. Words are used in the language primarily as symbols for the thoughts they signify rather than as signals.

7. Language is organized

Despite the language being symbolic, its symbols are organized according to a specific structure. Every language has its own organizational structure. Despite the fact that the symbols in any human language are limited, they can be ordered infinitely, allowing us to create an infinite number of sentences. The main components of formal language are syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. In other words, language is the systematic organization or construction of linguistics that tie words to their meanings. Therefore, each language can be thought of as a unique system, suited for communicating ideas within its own framework of structure and meaning and having very little physical connection to the ideas or actions it expresses. Keeping in mind that language has meaning is also important.

8. Language is distinct, inventive, intricate, and flexible

An extraordinary feature of the world is language. Although it appears that other worlds do not speak any languages, this conclusion may be challenged if we were to come across a talking generation on another planet. However, there isn't any proof yet that there is language on the moon. Every language is distinctive in its own way. This does not imply that language lacks universals or commonalities. Despite their shared traits and universals, every language has its own quirks and distinctive characteristics.

Creativity and productivity are found in language. Human language's structural components can be combined to create new utterances that neither the speaker nor his hearers may have uttered or heard before any listener, but that both parties can easily understand. Language evolves in response to societal demands. Modern English is distinct from old English.

9. Humans use a complicated structural language

No other creature has ever been equipped with language like humans. Animals are unable to learn human language due to both their physical limitations and their sophisticated structure. Animals don't have the same kind of brain that people do, and they also have quite distinct articulatory organs from us. Additionally, no animal communication system uses concurrent sound and meaning systems, which is a quality of features. Animal languages are not open-ended, extensible, or customizable like human languages are.

10. Language is Vocal

The majority of vocal sounds used in language are produced by the human body's physiological articulatory system. It initially simply seemed to be vocal noises. Writing was an intellectual attempt to express voice sounds that developed much later. Writing is merely a pictorial representation of language sounds. Thus, speech is considered to be the fundamental language.

Conclusion-

In order to conclude this blog, we can say that language contains additional traits like Duality, which refers to the two systems of sound and meaning. Displacement, the capacity to communicate across time and space, Humanness, the inability of animals to learn it, Universality, the linguistic equilibrium among all human beings, Competence and Performance, the notion that language is innate, produced by society, and furthermore, that it is culturally transmitted.