Study Of Linguistics Essay Research Paper Language

Study Of Linguistics Essay, Research Paper

Language changes with history and time. Our perception of words changes. Everything changes, from cooking with a fire to cooking with a microwave. Some examples of the ways language changes are through accents, books, slang, influential people, and historical events.

Accents show development of culture over time, maybe through a historical event, such as a new country being found. The people living there might adopt the culture of the founders. Language also changes, from using different sounds in words, which are called phonemes or “segments that differentiate words” (Fromkin and Brace 303). The English language has about 43 different phonemes, such as OH, EE, etc, which make up our language. Different cultures, such as some Indian Tribes, may have more or less phonemes in their language, showing either a lower form of language with less words and sounds, or a higher form with only the necessary sounds and words.

Accents also have different languages linked to them. Different letters phrases and even a whole new language may be created in the process of learning the language, over time. It’s like a metamorphosis to keep up with the changing world.

Letters are called graphemes (Lamb 59)(Friend 128) meaning the 26 letters of the alphabet. There may be more or less in different languages. Different symbols can also be associated with different cultures. The cross is associated with our religion, although it might not be in some other country for example.

Also the syntax or “the phase of grammar which deals with the relationship of words in sentences and the grammar and the manner in which words are put together” (Lamb 141) has an effect on the society. There is no “proper” way to write a book, for example, but just a standard way everyone uses. This may be thought of as the “proper” way but some rebels will use no periods and have one long paragraph in a 400-page book. Maybe their culture says it is mandatory to have everything in one long continuos sentence, while others more advanced may follow the rules to the very letter.

How can language have meaning. Through time it may lose and gain new meaning, for example through things such as historical occurrences. Imagine during the war, a whole new kind of lingo spreading like wild fire through fighting countries. “The study of how language contains meaning is called semantics” (Friend 145), and through this we can see what has occurred and what will occur, kind of like a time machine right before our eyes which we have to constantly study to use correctly.

There are many different influential people who have a major effect on our lives. Family, friends, and even those in our political system or government may affect our lives in both positive and negative ways. Influential people also play a part in our evolution of language. Influential people can coin words and do many other things that will affect our language. They may use one word that has become a habit to them, but do they know they might make it a habit for a million people. Ten million. The whole world. This example is shown in speeches of important people, books of all kinds, and especially through television and movies. In my life I know that my friends and I make up sayings all the time that are used by many people. It is our own dialect or slang

The change made by historical events might not be obvious but there is change whether we notice it or not. The change is usually obvious in historical events, which affect the entire world such as the “meeting” in the Gulf, which has stirred up an entire planet. This meeting may one day start a war that will devastate the earth. As gas prices rise, everything needing fuel does. Also the means of communication between two people change, from ignorance to shouting, to whispering, to nothing between the two our view of the concept must be clear before we can actually communicate efficiently. Language itself must be totally understood for it to be used fully. Changing with history and time means a whole new environment to live in where we must constantly adapt to our surroundings to survive. Car insurance, for example, was considered a luxury 70 years ago, now its life and death and is even against the law to drive without. The change can be so subtle over time that it hits us so hard we do not expect it, with horrendous results sometimes the outcome.

Different cultures have different perceptions of their language, the languages of others, their beliefs about God and their religion, etc. It is much easier to communicate if both parties understand where the other is coming from. Here is where I would like to talk about slang for a while. For hundreds of years, English has been continuously changing. Words that were unacceptable hundreds of years ago are now common. English has always been known as a comfortable language. Change in the grammar of a language is natural, and English is always confronted with changes. Among them are the use of slang, clipped word endings, and new dialects. Some conservative types do not like changes because they claim that Standard English is a perfect language and they do not want to corrupt it. Others simply do not like change. Slang worries conservatives the most because it affects the vocabulary of English. American English, especially, is always adding new words to its vocabulary for