Nature of Language - Linguistics

Introduction to Nature of Language

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Language, in the eyes of linguists, is signs and symbols. This means that language, written or spoken, consists not of words but of signs. What? That's strange. I was told by my school teachers that you pronounce words to speak and draw letters to write.

Well, that's true only to the superficial level of language. The question beneath this truth is "What are Words?". 

One answer is - a meaningful combination of morphemes and phonemes. Well, that's again a superficial approach as it does not really define what are words. That's an incomplete definition. A definition is considered complete only if it covers three questions:

1. Why the object (say object A) is needed at the first place? (from which emerges the second question)
2. What are the functions of the object A?
3. How the object A is made?

If a definition covers these three criteria, it means the definition is complete. Now, coming back to our definition of "words". I said, words are combinations of morphemes and phonemes. This definition is incomplete because it answers only the third question. So, let's complete it in three parts.

A. Words are morphemes + phonemes
B. To transfer thoughts from one brain to another (means to communicate)
C. To socialize, to manoeuvre, to hypnotize, to dictate, to control, to symbolize

That's a comprehensive definition, isn't it? That's how many linguists define words (and language of course). But that does not solve our problem, because when we ask ourselves, by what rule morphemes and phonemes combine to become an established word - we are left blank. When we ask, what makes words capable of holding thoughts in them - we are blank. We we will remain blank if rely only on this definition.

Icon & Index

There are explanations for the first part of the definition, and discussing them will be out of the scope of this article. I will discuss in this article the second part (part B): how words hold meanings?

Actually, words do not hold meanings, had they been holding some meaning everyone would have understood this word "jyunkilio". As a matter of fact, no one can understand this word, since it is not a word of any language. This word represents nothing. Compare this word with chair. When you read or hear this word you instantly have an image of a chair in your mind, and those who understand English language know what does the chair mean. The things are not as they seem to be. Words do not mean anything, we give meanings to the word. If I tell you jyunkilio Zulu language means cat, and I make sentences with jyunkilio in my routine conversation like this:

I saw a cute white jyunkilio sitting under a bench. Her voice was a soft "meow". I like white jyunkilios.

So, now you are understanding the word a little bit. Because I told you that the word is used to represent cat. That was just an example, jyunkilio  is not a recognized word of any known language.

Whenever, a word stands to indicate/represent something, it is called an index word. Index means to indicate the presence of something. Words are difficult categorize between Index and its big brother Icon, because they appear to be the same.

Generally, any object that is created to resemble the original one is called Icon. Images/pictures are often categorized as Icons. Icons share physical features or intrinsic features of the original object. For instance, you see your pictures in facebook DP; these pictures are icons of you. They resemble your appearance. 

On the other hand, we have Indeces (plural of Index). Any object that shares no features no physicality to the original object, but still forces you to think of the other object is called Index. Like smoke. Smoke has is black cloud like thing, yet upon seeing smoke you think of fire, which makes smoke an index of fire. It is the smoke that makes you think of the fire, though they do not share any physical resemblance of any kind.

Sometimes, we find objects that force us to think of an abstract idea. Now, Ideas have no shape or appearance, yet the object indicates towards an idea. This indication is either self-constructed or internationally recognized. Or in other words, this indication is either subjective or objective. For instance, in Christianity a Cross is considered to be an Index of Crucifixion. Crucifixion is an activity, an abstract idea, an incident that occurred many years ago - it is nowhere in the present times, yet a cross for Christians all over the world is an Index. Interestingly, a cross is also an Icon; as it represents the physical appearance of the original cross.

What are words then? Index or Icon? Are the words physical representation of something or just an indication of an idea,activity or object? I think the word chair neither has four legs nor a back, so it can definitely not be an Icon; nevertheless, this word is an Index. And so do all the other words of a language. Therefore, all the languages are indexical in nature. Language stands for ideas. Language itself is not an idea; it is a ball with a layer of paint - a ball of morphemes & phonemes painted with a layer of idea. It is not a traditional empty box which keeps the meaning in itself. It cannot hold meaning - meaning is given to the language. It is therefore a common disposition of the foreigners to jeer and laugh at the Chinese language, because they cannot comprehend it and for them it is just "shin shuan". People who cannot understand Chinese is just because they cannot give any meaning to those sounds and letters. For them Chinese is an Index to nothing at all.

Posted by : Hassan Malik +