One half is the multiplicative inverse of 2 . It is an irreducible fraction with a numerator of 1 and a denominator of 2. It often appears in mathematical equations , recipes and measurements .
158-415: One half is one of the few fractions which are commonly expressed in natural languages by suppletion rather than regular derivation. In English , for example, compare the compound "one half" with other regular formations like "one-sixth". A half can also be said to be one part of something divided into two equal parts. It is acceptable to write one half as a hyphenated word, one-half . One half
316-421: A bonobo named Kanzi learned to express itself using a set of symbolic lexigrams . Similarly, many species of birds and whales learn their songs by imitating other members of their species. However, while some animals may acquire large numbers of words and symbols, none have been able to learn as many different signs as are generally known by an average 4 year old human, nor have any acquired anything resembling
474-476: A code , i.e. a sign system that is able to express the idea, for instance, through visual or auditory signs. The message is sent to a destination, who has to decode and interpret it to understand it. In response, they formulate their own idea, encode it into a message, and send it back as a form of feedback. Another innovation of Schramm's model is that previous experience is necessary to be able to encode and decode messages. For communication to be successful,
632-562: A fuzzy concept that manifests in degrees. In this view, an exchange varies in how interpersonal it is based on several factors. It depends on how many people are present, and whether it happens face-to-face rather than through telephone or email. A further factor concerns the relation between the communicators: group communication and mass communication are less typical forms of interpersonal communication and some theorists treat them as distinct types. Interpersonal communication can be synchronous or asynchronous. For asynchronous communication,
790-440: A military salute . Proxemics studies how personal space is used in communication. The distance between the speakers reflects their degree of familiarity and intimacy with each other as well as their social status. Haptics examines how information is conveyed using touching behavior, like handshakes, holding hands, kissing, or slapping. Meanings linked to haptics include care, concern, anger, and violence. For instance, handshaking
948-487: A precomposed character in the Number Forms block of Unicode , rendering as ½ . The reduced size of this symbol may make it illegible to readers with relatively mild visual impairment ; consequently the decomposed forms 1 ⁄ 2 or 1 / 2 may be more appropriate. Language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary . It
1106-504: A 2017 study on Ardipithecus ramidus challenges this belief. Scholarly opinions vary as to the developments since the appearance of the genus Homo some 2.5 million years ago. Some scholars assume the development of primitive language-like systems (proto-language) as early as Homo habilis (2.3 million years ago) while others place the development of primitive symbolic communication only with Homo erectus (1.8 million years ago) or Homo heidelbergensis (0.6 million years ago), and
1264-498: A central contrast is between verbal and non-verbal communication . Verbal communication involves the exchange of messages in linguistic form, including spoken and written messages as well as sign language . Non-verbal communication happens without the use of a linguistic system , for example, using body language , touch, and facial expressions. Another distinction is between interpersonal communication , which happens between distinct persons, and intrapersonal communication , which
1422-551: A channel have an impact on the code and cues that can be used to express information. For example, typical telephone calls are restricted to the use of verbal language and paralanguage but exclude facial expressions. It is often possible to translate messages from one code into another to make them available to a different channel. An example is writing down a spoken message or expressing it using sign language. The transmission of information can occur through multiple channels at once. For example, face-to-face communication often combines
1580-411: A clause can contain another clause (as in "[I see [the dog is running]]"). Human language is the only known natural communication system whose adaptability may be referred to as modality independent . This means that it can be used not only for communication through one channel or medium, but through several. For example, spoken language uses the auditive modality, whereas sign languages and writing use
1738-493: A combination of segmental and suprasegmental elements. The segmental elements are those that follow each other in sequences, which are usually represented by distinct letters in alphabetic scripts, such as the Roman script. In free flowing speech, there are no clear boundaries between one segment and the next, nor usually are there any audible pauses between them. Segments therefore are distinguished by their distinct sounds which are
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#17327756935851896-405: A conversation, where the listener may respond to a speaker by expressing their opinion or by asking for clarification. Interaction models represent the process as a form of two-way communication in which the communicators take turns sending and receiving messages. Transaction models further refine this picture by allowing representations of sending and responding at the same time. This modification
2054-421: A different medium, include writing (including braille ), sign (in manually coded language ), whistling and drumming . Tertiary modes – such as semaphore , Morse code and spelling alphabets – convey the secondary mode of writing in a different medium. For some extinct languages that are maintained for ritual or liturgical purposes, writing may be the primary mode, with speech secondary. When described as
2212-473: A different sense, the term communication refers to the message that is being communicated or to the field of inquiry studying communicational phenomena . The precise characterization of communication is disputed. Many scholars have raised doubts that any single definition can capture the term accurately. These difficulties come from the fact that the term is applied to diverse phenomena in different contexts, often with slightly different meanings. The issue of
2370-606: A finite, usually very limited, number of possible ideas that can be expressed. In contrast, human language is open-ended and productive , meaning that it allows humans to produce a vast range of utterances from a finite set of elements, and to create new words and sentences. This is possible because human language is based on a dual code, in which a finite number of elements which are meaningless in themselves (e.g. sounds, letters or gestures) can be combined to form an infinite number of larger units of meaning (words and sentences). However, one study has demonstrated that an Australian bird,
2528-462: A given context". This means that the speaker is aware of the social and cultural context in order to adapt and express the message in a way that is considered acceptable in the given situation. For example, to bid farewell to their teacher, a student may use the expression "Goodbye, sir" but not the expression "I gotta split, man", which they may use when talking to a peer. To be both effective and appropriate means to achieve one's preferred outcomes in
2686-555: A language but rather non-verbal communication. It includes many forms, like gestures, postures, walking styles, and dance. Facial expressions, like laughing, smiling, and frowning, all belong to kinesics and are expressive and flexible forms of communication. Oculesics is another subcategory of kinesics in regard to the eyes. It covers questions like how eye contact, gaze, blink rate, and pupil dilation form part of communication. Some kinesic patterns are inborn and involuntary, like blinking, while others are learned and voluntary, like giving
2844-479: A long history and how people exchange information has changed over time. These changes were usually triggered by the development of new communication technologies. Examples are the invention of writing systems , the development of mass printing, the use of radio and television, and the invention of the internet. The technological advances also led to new forms of communication, such as the exchange of data between computers . The word communication has its root in
3002-685: A natural-sounding rhythm and a relatively normal sentence structure . The second area is Broca's area , in the posterior inferior frontal gyrus of the dominant hemisphere. People with a lesion to this area develop expressive aphasia , meaning that they know what they want to say, they just cannot get it out. They are typically able to understand what is being said to them, but unable to speak fluently. Other symptoms that may be present in expressive aphasia include problems with word repetition . The condition affects both spoken and written language. Those with this aphasia also exhibit ungrammatical speech and show inability to use syntactic information to determine
3160-439: A person may verbally agree with a statement but press their lips together, thereby indicating disagreement non-verbally. There are many forms of non-verbal communication. They include kinesics , proxemics , haptics , paralanguage , chronemics , and physical appearance. Kinesics studies the role of bodily behavior in conveying information. It is commonly referred to as body language , even though it is, strictly speaking, not
3318-522: A person or an object looks like and can also convey other ideas and emotions. In some cases, this type of non-verbal communication is used in combination with verbal communication, for example, when diagrams or maps employ labels to include additional linguistic information. Traditionally, most research focused on verbal communication. However, this paradigm began to shift in the 1950s when research interest in non-verbal communication increased and emphasized its influence. For example, many judgments about
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#17327756935853476-416: A result of their different articulations, and can be either vowels or consonants. Suprasegmental phenomena encompass such elements as stress , phonation type, voice timbre , and prosody or intonation , all of which may have effects across multiple segments. Consonants and vowel segments combine to form syllables , which in turn combine to form utterances; these can be distinguished phonetically as
3634-411: A rich set of case suffixes that provide details about the instrument used to perform an action. Others lack such grammatical precision in the oral mode, but supplement it with gesture to convey that information in the sign mode. In Iwaidja , for example, 'he went out for fish using a torch' is spoken as simply "he-hunted fish torch", but the word for 'torch' is accompanied by a gesture indicating that it
3792-641: A science since the first grammatical descriptions of particular languages in India more than 2000 years ago, after the development of the Brahmi script . Modern linguistics is a science that concerns itself with all aspects of language, examining it from all of the theoretical viewpoints described above. The academic study of language is conducted within many different disciplinary areas and from different theoretical angles, all of which inform modern approaches to linguistics. For example, descriptive linguistics examines
3950-464: A shopping list. Another use is to unravel difficult problems, as when solving a complex mathematical equation line by line. New knowledge can also be internalized this way, like when repeating new vocabulary to oneself. Because of these functions, intrapersonal communication can be understood as "an exceptionally powerful and pervasive tool for thinking." Based on its role in self-regulation , some theorists have suggested that intrapersonal communication
4108-536: A sign is encoded and transmitted by a sender through a channel to a receiver who decodes it. Some of the properties that define human language as opposed to other communication systems are: the arbitrariness of the linguistic sign, meaning that there is no predictable connection between a linguistic sign and its meaning; the duality of the linguistic system, meaning that linguistic structures are built by combining elements into larger structures that can be seen as layered, e.g. how sounds build words and words build phrases;
4266-426: A specific instance of a language system, and parole for the concrete use of speech in a particular language. When speaking of language as a general concept, definitions can be used which stress different aspects of the phenomenon. These definitions also entail different approaches and understandings of language, and they also inform different and often incompatible schools of linguistic theory . Debates about
4424-521: A system of symbolic communication , language is traditionally seen as consisting of three parts: signs , meanings , and a code connecting signs with their meanings. The study of the process of semiosis , how signs and meanings are combined, used, and interpreted is called semiotics . Signs can be composed of sounds, gestures, letters, or symbols, depending on whether the language is spoken, signed, or written, and they can be combined into complex signs, such as words and phrases. When used in communication,
4582-650: A system that is largely cultural, learned through social interaction. Continuity-based theories are held by a majority of scholars, but they vary in how they envision this development. Those who see language as being mostly innate, such as psychologist Steven Pinker , hold the precedents to be animal cognition , whereas those who see language as a socially learned tool of communication, such as psychologist Michael Tomasello , see it as having developed from animal communication in primates: either gestural or vocal communication to assist in cooperation. Other continuity-based models see language as having developed from music ,
4740-439: A teacher may decide to present some information orally and other information visually, depending on the content and the student's preferred learning style. This underlines the role of a media-adequate approach. Communicative competence is the ability to communicate effectively or to choose the appropriate communicative behavior in a given situation. It concerns what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. It further includes
4898-488: A theory is Noam Chomsky , the originator of the generative theory of grammar , who has defined language as the construction of sentences that can be generated using transformational grammars. Chomsky considers these rules to be an innate feature of the human mind and to constitute the rudiments of what language is. By way of contrast, such transformational grammars are also commonly used in formal logic , in formal linguistics , and in applied computational linguistics . In
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5056-477: A thumb . It often happens simultaneously with verbal communication and helps optimize the exchange through emphasis and illustration or by adding additional information. Non-verbal cues can clarify the intent behind a verbal message. Using multiple modalities of communication in this way usually makes communication more effective if the messages of each modality are consistent. However, in some cases different modalities can contain conflicting messages. For example,
5214-435: A transmission of information brought about by the interaction of several components, such as a source, a message, an encoder, a channel, a decoder, and a receiver. The transmission view is rejected by transactional and constitutive views, which hold that communication is not just about the transmission of information but also about the creation of meaning. Transactional and constitutive perspectives hold that communication shapes
5372-543: A view already espoused by Rousseau , Herder , Humboldt , and Charles Darwin . A prominent proponent of this view is archaeologist Steven Mithen . Stephen Anderson states that the age of spoken languages is estimated at 60,000 to 100,000 years and that: Researchers on the evolutionary origin of language generally find it plausible to suggest that language was invented only once, and that all modern spoken languages are thus in some way related, even if that relation can no longer be recovered ... because of limitations on
5530-419: A way that follows social standards and expectations. Some definitions of communicative competence put their main emphasis on either effectiveness or appropriateness while others combine both features. Many additional components of communicative competence have been suggested, such as empathy , control, flexibility, sensitivity, and knowledge. It is often discussed in terms of the individual skills employed in
5688-498: A wider sense, encompassing any form of linguistic communication, whether through speech, writing, or gestures. Some of the challenges in distinguishing verbal from non-verbal communication come from the difficulties in defining what exactly language means. Language is usually understood as a conventional system of symbols and rules used for communication. Such systems are based on a set of simple units of meaning that can be combined to express more complex ideas. The rules for combining
5846-415: Is modality -independent, but written or signed language is the way to inscribe or encode the natural human speech or gestures. Depending on philosophical perspectives regarding the definition of language and meaning, when used as a general concept, "language" may refer to the cognitive ability to learn and use systems of complex communication, or to describe the set of rules that makes up these systems, or
6004-439: Is a key factor regarding whether a person is able to reach their goals in social life, like having a successful career and finding a suitable spouse. Because of this, it can have a large impact on the individual's well-being . The lack of communicative competence can cause problems both on the individual and the societal level, including professional, academic, and health problems. Barriers to effective communication can distort
6162-472: Is a longitudinal wave propagated through the air at a frequency capable of vibrating the ear drum . This ability depends on the physiology of the human speech organs. These organs consist of the lungs, the voice box ( larynx ), and the upper vocal tract – the throat, the mouth, and the nose. By controlling the different parts of the speech apparatus, the airstream can be manipulated to produce different speech sounds. The sound of speech can be analyzed into
6320-438: Is an accepted version of this page Communication is commonly defined as the transmission of information . Its precise definition is disputed and there are disagreements about whether unintentional or failed transmissions are included and whether communication not only transmits meaning but also creates it. Models of communication are simplified overviews of its main components and their interactions. Many models include
6478-415: Is another influential linear transmission model. It is based on the idea that a source creates a message, which is then translated into a signal by a transmitter. Noise may interfere with and distort the signal. Once the signal reaches the receiver, it is translated back into a message and made available to the destination. For a landline telephone call, the person calling is the source and their telephone
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6636-401: Is another negative factor. It concerns influences that interfere with the message on its way to the receiver and distort it. Crackling sounds during a telephone call are one form of noise. Ambiguous expressions can also inhibit effective communication and make it necessary to disambiguate between possible interpretations to discern the sender's intention. These interpretations depend also on
6794-520: Is at its core non-verbal and that words can only acquire meaning because of non-verbal communication. The earliest forms of human communication, such as crying and babbling, are non-verbal. Some basic forms of communication happen even before birth between mother and embryo and include information about nutrition and emotions. Non-verbal communication is studied in various fields besides communication studies, like linguistics, semiotics , anthropology , and social psychology . Interpersonal communication
6952-617: Is based on five fundamental questions: "Who?", "Says what?", "In which channel?", "To whom?", and "With what effect?". The goal of these questions is to identify the basic components involved in the communicative process: the sender, the message, the channel , the receiver , and the effect. Lasswell's model was initially only conceived as a model of mass communication, but it has been applied to other fields as well. Some communication theorists, like Richard Braddock, have expanded it by including additional questions, like "Under what circumstances?" and "For what purpose?". The Shannon–Weaver model
7110-624: Is between natural and artificial or constructed languages . Natural languages, like English , Spanish , and Japanese , developed naturally and for the most part unplanned in the course of history. Artificial languages, like Esperanto , Quenya , C++ , and the language of first-order logic , are purposefully designed from the ground up. Most everyday verbal communication happens using natural languages. Central forms of verbal communication are speech and writing together with their counterparts of listening and reading. Spoken languages use sounds to produce signs and transmit meaning while for writing,
7268-588: Is called linguistics . Critical examinations of languages, such as philosophy of language, the relationships between language and thought , how words represent experience, etc., have been debated at least since Gorgias and Plato in ancient Greek civilization . Thinkers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778) have argued that language originated from emotions, while others like Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) have argued that languages originated from rational and logical thought. Twentieth century philosophers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) argued that philosophy
7426-563: Is called a language isolate . There are also many unclassified languages whose relationships have not been established, and spurious languages may have not existed at all. Academic consensus holds that between 50% and 90% of languages spoken at the beginning of the 21st century will probably have become extinct by the year 2100. The English word language derives ultimately from Proto-Indo-European * dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s "tongue, speech, language" through Latin lingua , "language; tongue", and Old French language . The word
7584-423: Is closely related to efficiency , the difference being that effectiveness is about achieving goals while efficiency is about using few resources (such as time, effort, and money) in the process. Appropriateness means that the communicative behavior meets social standards and expectations. Communication theorist Brian H. Spitzberg defines it as "the perceived legitimacy or acceptability of behavior or enactments in
7742-534: Is common for oral language to be accompanied by gesture, and for sign language to be accompanied by mouthing . In addition, some language communities use both modes to convey lexical or grammatical meaning, each mode complementing the other. Such bimodal use of language is especially common in genres such as story-telling (with Plains Indian Sign Language and Australian Aboriginal sign languages used alongside oral language, for example), but also occurs in mundane conversation. For instance, many Australian languages have
7900-410: Is communication between distinct people. Its typical form is dyadic communication , i.e. between two people, but it can also refer to communication within groups . It can be planned or unplanned and occurs in many forms, like when greeting someone, during salary negotiations, or when making a phone call. Some communication theorists, like Virginia M. McDermott, understand interpersonal communication as
8058-664: Is communication that takes place within an organism below the personal level, such as exchange of information between organs or cells. Intrapersonal communication can be triggered by internal and external stimuli. It may happen in the form of articulating a phrase before expressing it externally. Other forms are to make plans for the future and to attempt to process emotions to calm oneself down in stressful situations. It can help regulate one's own mental activity and outward behavior as well as internalize cultural norms and ways of thinking. External forms of intrapersonal communication can aid one's memory. This happens, for example, when making
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#17327756935858216-400: Is communication with oneself. Communicative competence is the ability to communicate well and applies to the skills of formulating messages and understanding them. Non-human forms of communication include animal and plant communication . Researchers in this field often refine their definition of communicative behavior by including the criteria that observable responses are present and that
8374-835: Is especially relevant for parent-young relations, courtship, social greetings, and defense. Olfactory and gustatory communication happen chemically through smells and tastes, respectively. There are large differences between species concerning what functions communication plays, how much it is realized, and the behavior used to communicate. Common functions include the fields of courtship and mating, parent-offspring relations, social relations, navigation, self-defense, and territoriality . One part of courtship and mating consists in identifying and attracting potential mates. This can happen through various means. Grasshoppers and crickets communicate acoustically by using songs, moths rely on chemical means by releasing pheromones , and fireflies send visual messages by flashing light. For some species,
8532-428: Is less intuitive and often does not result in the same level of linguistic competence . The academic discipline studying language is called linguistics . Its subfields include semantics (the study of meaning), morphology (the study of word formation), syntax (the study of sentence structure), pragmatics (the study of language use), and phonetics (the study of basic sounds). A central contrast among languages
8690-459: Is more basic than interpersonal communication. Young children sometimes use egocentric speech while playing in an attempt to direct their own behavior. In this view, interpersonal communication only develops later when the child moves from their early egocentric perspective to a more social perspective. A different explanation holds that interpersonal communication is more basic since it is first used by parents to regulate what their child does. Once
8848-575: Is more difficult to judge whether tactile or chemical changes should be understood as communicative signals rather than as other biological processes. For this reason, researchers often use slightly altered definitions of communication to facilitate their work. A common assumption in this regard comes from evolutionary biology and holds that communication should somehow benefit the communicators in terms of natural selection . The biologists Rumsaïs Blatrix and Veronika Mayer define communication as "the exchange of information between individuals, wherein both
9006-455: Is needed to describe how the listener can give feedback in a face-to-face conversation while the other person is talking. Examples are non-verbal feedback through body posture and facial expression . Transaction models also hold that meaning is produced during communication and does not exist independently of it. All the early models, developed in the middle of the 20th century, are linear transmission models. Lasswell's model , for example,
9164-503: Is obstructed, commonly at the lips, teeth, alveolar ridge , palate , velum , uvula , or glottis . Each place of articulation produces a different set of consonant sounds, which are further distinguished by manner of articulation , or the kind of friction, whether full closure, in which case the consonant is called occlusive or stop , or different degrees of aperture creating fricatives and approximants . Consonants can also be either voiced or unvoiced , depending on whether
9322-412: Is often seen as a symbol of equality and fairness, while refusing to shake hands can indicate aggressiveness. Kissing is another form often used to show affection and erotic closeness. Paralanguage, also known as vocalics, encompasses non-verbal elements in speech that convey information. Paralanguage is often used to express the feelings and emotions that the speaker has but does not explicitly stated in
9480-407: Is quite limited, though it has advanced considerably with the use of modern imaging techniques. The discipline of linguistics dedicated to studying the neurological aspects of language is called neurolinguistics . Early work in neurolinguistics involved the study of language in people with brain lesions, to see how lesions in specific areas affect language and speech. In this way, neuroscientists in
9638-454: Is really the study of language itself. Major figures in contemporary linguistics of these times include Ferdinand de Saussure and Noam Chomsky . Language is thought to have gradually diverged from earlier primate communication systems when early hominins acquired the ability to form a theory of mind and shared intentionality . This development is sometimes thought to have coincided with an increase in brain volume, and many linguists see
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#17327756935859796-415: Is sometimes used to refer to codes , ciphers , and other kinds of artificially constructed communication systems such as formally defined computer languages used for computer programming . Unlike conventional human languages, a formal language in this sense is a system of signs for encoding and decoding information . This article specifically concerns the properties of natural human language as it
9954-435: Is specific to the ability to use language, not to the physiology used for speech production. With technological advances in the late 20th century, neurolinguists have also incorporated non-invasive techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electrophysiology to study language processing in individuals without impairments. Spoken language relies on human physical ability to produce sound , which
10112-465: Is studied in the discipline of linguistics . As an object of linguistic study, "language" has two primary meanings: an abstract concept, and a specific linguistic system, e.g. " French ". The Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure , who defined the modern discipline of linguistics, first explicitly formulated the distinction using the French word langage for language as a concept, langue as
10270-437: Is supported by the fact that all cognitively normal children raised in an environment where language is accessible will acquire language without formal instruction. Languages may even develop spontaneously in environments where people live or grow up together without a common language; for example, creole languages and spontaneously developed sign languages such as Nicaraguan Sign Language . This view, which can be traced back to
10428-499: Is that human communication is frequently linked to the conscious intention to send information, which is often not discernable for animal communication. Despite these differences, some theorists use the term " animal language " to refer to certain communicative patterns in animal behavior that have similarities with human language. Animal communication can take a variety of forms, including visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory , and gustatory communication. Visual communication happens in
10586-408: Is that humans and many animals express sympathy by synchronizing their movements and postures. Nonetheless, there are also significant differences, like the fact that humans also engage in verbal communication, which uses language, while animal communication is restricted to non-verbal (i.e. non-linguistic) communication. Some theorists have tried to distinguish human from animal communication based on
10744-474: Is that it is often difficult to assess the impact of such behavior on natural selection. Another common pragmatic constraint is to hold that it is necessary to observe a response by the receiver following the signal when judging whether communication has occurred. Animal communication is the process of giving and taking information among animals. The field studying animal communication is called zoosemiotics . There are many parallels to human communication. One
10902-469: Is that language is such a unique human trait that it cannot be compared to anything found among non-humans and that it must therefore have appeared suddenly in the transition from pre-hominids to early man. These theories can be defined as discontinuity-based. Similarly, theories based on the generative view of language pioneered by Noam Chomsky see language mostly as an innate faculty that is largely genetically encoded, whereas functionalist theories see it as
11060-446: Is the rational number that lies midway between 0 and 1 on the number line . Multiplication by one half is equivalent to division by two , or "halving"; conversely, division by one half is equivalent to multiplication by two, or "doubling". A number raised to the power of one half is equal to its square root . The area of a triangle is one half its base and altitude (or height). The gamma function evaluated at one half
11218-404: Is the default modality for language in all cultures. The production of spoken language depends on sophisticated capacities for controlling the lips, tongue and other components of the vocal apparatus, the ability to acoustically decode speech sounds, and the neurological apparatus required for acquiring and producing language. The study of the genetic bases for human language is at an early stage:
11376-503: Is the degree to which the speaker achieves their desired outcomes or the degree to which preferred alternatives are realized. This means that whether a communicative behavior is effective does not just depend on the actual outcome but also on the speaker's intention, i.e. whether this outcome was what they intended to achieve. Because of this, some theorists additionally require that the speaker be able to give an explanation of why they engaged in one behavior rather than another. Effectiveness
11534-422: Is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing . Human language is characterized by its cultural and historical diversity, with significant variations observed between cultures and across time. Human languages possess the properties of productivity and displacement , which enable the creation of an infinite number of sentences, and
11692-514: Is the process of ascribing meaning to them and encoding consists in producing new behavioral cues as a response. There are many forms of human communication . A central distinction is whether language is used, as in the contrast between verbal and non-verbal communication. A further distinction concerns whether one communicates with others or with oneself, as in the contrast between interpersonal and intrapersonal communication . Forms of human communication are also categorized by their channel or
11850-479: Is the square root of pi . It has two different decimal representations in base ten , the familiar 0.5 {\displaystyle 0.5} and the recurring 0.4 9 ¯ {\displaystyle 0.4{\overline {9}}} , with a similar pair of expansions in any even base ; while in odd bases, one half has no terminating representation. The Bernoulli number B 1 {\displaystyle B_{1}} has
12008-409: Is the transmitter. The transmitter translates the message into an electrical signal that travels through the wire, which acts as the channel. The person taking the call is the destination and their telephone is the receiver. The Shannon–Weaver model includes an in-depth discussion of how noise can distort the signal and how successful communication can be achieved despite noise. This can happen by making
12166-403: Is to distinguish between linear transmission, interaction, and transaction models. Linear transmission models focus on how a sender transmits information to a receiver. They are linear because this flow of information only goes in a single direction. This view is rejected by interaction models, which include a feedback loop. Feedback is needed to describe many forms of communication, such as
12324-488: The Enlightenment and its debates about human origins, it became fashionable to speculate about the origin of language. Thinkers such as Rousseau and Johann Gottfried Herder argued that language had originated in the instinctive expression of emotions, and that it was originally closer to music and poetry than to the logical expression of rational thought. Rationalist philosophers such as Kant and René Descartes held
12482-596: The Latin verb communicare , which means ' to share ' or ' to make common ' . Communication is usually understood as the transmission of information: a message is conveyed from a sender to a receiver using some medium, such as sound, written signs, bodily movements, or electricity. Sender and receiver are often distinct individuals but it is also possible for an individual to communicate with themselves. In some cases, sender and receiver are not individuals but groups like organizations, social classes, or nations. In
12640-494: The chestnut-crowned babbler , is capable of using the same acoustic elements in different arrangements to create two functionally distinct vocalizations. Additionally, pied babblers have demonstrated the ability to generate two functionally distinct vocalisations composed of the same sound type, which can only be distinguished by the number of repeated elements. Several species of animals have proved to be able to acquire forms of communication through social learning: for instance
12798-425: The comparative method . The formal study of language is often considered to have started in India with Pāṇini , the 5th century BC grammarian who formulated 3,959 rules of Sanskrit morphology . However, Sumerian scribes already studied the differences between Sumerian and Akkadian grammar around 1900 BC. Subsequent grammatical traditions developed in all of the ancient cultures that adopted writing. In
12956-561: The cultural background of the participants . Significant cultural differences constitute an additional obstacle and make it more likely that messages are misinterpreted. Besides human communication, there are many other forms of communication found in the animal kingdom and among plants. They are studied in fields like biocommunication and biosemiotics . There are additional obstacles in this area for judging whether communication has taken place between two individuals. Acoustic signals are often easy to notice and analyze for scientists, but it
13114-423: The mental faculty that allows humans to undertake linguistic behaviour: to learn languages and to produce and understand utterances. This definition stresses the universality of language to all humans, and it emphasizes the biological basis for the human capacity for language as a unique development of the human brain . Proponents of the view that the drive to language acquisition is innate in humans argue that this
13272-462: The senses used to perceive the message, i.e. hearing, seeing, smelling, touching, and tasting. But in the widest sense, channels encompass any form of transmission, including technological means like books, cables, radio waves, telephones, or television. Naturally transmitted messages usually fade rapidly whereas some messages using artificial channels have a much longer lifespan, as in the case of books or sculptures. The physical characteristics of
13430-503: The 17th century AD, the French Port-Royal Grammarians developed the idea that the grammars of all languages were a reflection of the universal basics of thought, and therefore that grammar was universal. In the 18th century, the first use of the comparative method by British philologist and expert on ancient India William Jones sparked the rise of comparative linguistics . The scientific study of language
13588-418: The 19th century discovered that two areas in the brain are crucially implicated in language processing. The first area is Wernicke's area , which is in the posterior section of the superior temporal gyrus in the dominant cerebral hemisphere. People with a lesion in this area of the brain develop receptive aphasia , a condition in which there is a major impairment of language comprehension, while speech retains
13746-503: The ability to receive and understand messages. Competence is often contrasted with performance since competence can be present even if it is not exercised, while performance consists in the realization of this competence. However, some theorists reject a stark contrast and hold that performance is the observable part and is used to infer competence in relation to future performances. Two central components of communicative competence are effectiveness and appropriateness. Effectiveness
13904-641: The ability to refer to objects, events, and ideas that are not immediately present in the discourse. The use of human language relies on social convention and is acquired through learning. Estimates of the number of human languages in the world vary between 5,000 and 7,000. Precise estimates depend on an arbitrary distinction (dichotomy) established between languages and dialects . Natural languages are spoken , signed, or both; however, any language can be encoded into secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli – for example, writing, whistling, signing, or braille . In other words, human language
14062-471: The actual message from what was originally intended. A closely related problem is whether acts of deliberate deception constitute communication. According to a broad definition by literary critic I. A. Richards , communication happens when one mind acts upon its environment to transmit its own experience to another mind. Another interpretation is given by communication theorists Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver , who characterize communication as
14220-507: The audience aware of something, usually of an external event. But language can also be used to express the speaker's feelings and attitudes. A closely related role is to establish and maintain social relations with other people. Verbal communication is also utilized to coordinate one's behavior with others and influence them. In some cases, language is not employed for an external purpose but only for entertainment or personal enjoyment. Verbal communication further helps individuals conceptualize
14378-421: The auditory channel to convey verbal information with the visual channel to transmit non-verbal information using gestures and facial expressions. Employing multiple channels can enhance the effectiveness of communication by helping the receiver better understand the subject matter. The choice of channels often matters since the receiver's ability to understand may vary depending on the chosen channel. For instance,
14536-407: The behavior of others. On a practical level, interpersonal communication is used to coordinate one's actions with the actions of others to get things done. Research on interpersonal communication includes topics like how people build, maintain, and dissolve relationships through communication. Other questions are why people choose one message rather than another and what effects these messages have on
14694-447: The brain, implanting a language organ in an otherwise primate brain." Though cautioning against taking this story literally, Chomsky insists that "it may be closer to reality than many other fairy tales that are told about evolutionary processes, including language." In March 2024, researchers reported that the beginnings of human language began about 1.6 million years ago. The study of language, linguistics , has been developing into
14852-426: The child has learned this, they can apply the same technique to themselves to get more control over their own behavior. For communication to be successful, the message has to travel from the sender to the receiver. The channel is the way this is accomplished. It is not concerned with the meaning of the message but only with the technical means of how the meaning is conveyed. Channels are often understood in terms of
15010-650: The claim that animal communication lacks a referential function and is thus not able to refer to external phenomena. However, various observations seem to contradict this view, such as the warning signals in response to different types of predators used by vervet monkeys , Gunnison's prairie dogs , and red squirrels . A further approach is to draw the distinction based on the complexity of human language , especially its almost limitless ability to combine basic units of meaning into more complex meaning structures. One view states that recursion sets human language apart from all non-human communicative systems. Another difference
15168-608: The communication of bees that can communicate the location of sources of nectar that are out of sight), the degree to which it is used in human language is also considered unique. Theories about the origin of language differ in regard to their basic assumptions about what language is. Some theories are based on the idea that language is so complex that one cannot imagine it simply appearing from nothing in its final form, but that it must have evolved from earlier pre-linguistic systems among our pre-human ancestors. These theories can be called continuity-based theories. The opposite viewpoint
15326-503: The communicator, such as height, weight, hair, skin color, gender, clothing, tattooing, and piercing, also carries information. Appearance is an important factor for first impressions but is more limited as a mode of communication since it is less changeable. Some forms of non-verbal communication happen using such artifacts as drums, smoke, batons, traffic lights, and flags. Non-verbal communication can also happen through visual media like paintings and drawings . They can express what
15484-543: The communicators and their relation. A further topic is how to predict whether two people would like each other. Intrapersonal communication is communication with oneself. In some cases this manifests externally, like when engaged in a monologue , taking notes, highlighting a passage, and writing a diary or a shopping list. But many forms of intrapersonal communication happen internally in the form of an inner exchange with oneself, like when thinking about something or daydreaming . Closely related to intrapersonal communication
15642-410: The complex grammar of human language. Human languages differ from animal communication systems in that they employ grammatical and semantic categories , such as noun and verb, present and past, which may be used to express exceedingly complex meanings. It is distinguished by the property of recursivity : for example, a noun phrase can contain another noun phrase (as in "[[the chimpanzee]'s lips]") or
15800-461: The degree of lip aperture and the placement of the tongue within the oral cavity. Vowels are called close when the lips are relatively closed, as in the pronunciation of the vowel [i] (English "ee"), or open when the lips are relatively open, as in the vowel [a] (English "ah"). If the tongue is located towards the back of the mouth, the quality changes, creating vowels such as [u] (English "oo"). The quality also changes depending on whether
15958-541: The development of language proper with anatomically modern Homo sapiens with the Upper Paleolithic revolution less than 100,000 years ago. Chomsky is one prominent proponent of a discontinuity-based theory of human language origins. He suggests that for scholars interested in the nature of language, "talk about the evolution of the language capacity is beside the point." Chomsky proposes that perhaps "some random mutation took place [...] and it reorganized
16116-443: The discreteness of the elements of language, meaning that the elements out of which linguistic signs are constructed are discrete units, e.g. sounds and words, that can be distinguished from each other and rearranged in different patterns; and the productivity of the linguistic system, meaning that the finite number of linguistic elements can be combined into a theoretically infinite number of combinations. Communication This
16274-495: The distinctions between syntagm and paradigm , and the Langue-parole distinction , distinguishing language as an abstract system ( langue ), from language as a concrete manifestation of this system ( parole ). In the 1960s, Noam Chomsky formulated the generative theory of language . According to this theory, the most basic form of language is a set of syntactic rules that is universal for all humans and which underlies
16432-465: The existence of a socially shared coding system that is used to interpret the meaning of non-verbal behavior. Non-verbal communication has many functions. It frequently contains information about emotions, attitudes, personality, interpersonal relations, and private thoughts. Non-verbal communication often happens unintentionally and unconsciously, like sweating or blushing , but there are also conscious intentional forms, like shaking hands or raising
16590-413: The fact that humans use it to express themselves and to manipulate objects in their environment. Functional theories of grammar explain grammatical structures by their communicative functions, and understand the grammatical structures of language to be the result of an adaptive process by which grammar was "tailored" to serve the communicative needs of its users. This view of language is associated with
16748-409: The fields of experience of source and destination have to overlap. The first transactional model was proposed by communication theorist Dean Barnlund in 1970. He understands communication as "the production of meaning, rather than the production of messages". Its goal is to decrease uncertainty and arrive at a shared understanding . This happens in response to external and internal cues. Decoding
16906-434: The form of diagrams showing the basic components and their interaction. Models of communication are often categorized based on their intended applications and how they conceptualize communication. Some models are general in the sense that they are intended for all forms of communication. Specialized models aim to describe specific forms, such as models of mass communication . One influential way to classify communication
17064-806: The form of movements, gestures, facial expressions, and colors. Examples are movements seen during mating rituals , the colors of birds, and the rhythmic light of fireflies . Auditory communication takes place through vocalizations by species like birds, primates , and dogs. Auditory signals are frequently used to alert and warn. Lower-order living systems often have simple response patterns to auditory messages, reacting either by approach or avoidance. More complex response patterns are observed for higher animals, which may use different signals for different types of predators and responses. For example, some primates use one set of signals for airborne predators and another for land predators. Tactile communication occurs through touch, vibration , stroking, rubbing, and pressure. It
17222-422: The formal theories of the generative school, functional theories of language propose that since language is fundamentally a tool, its structures are best analyzed and understood by reference to their functions. Formal theories of grammar seek to define the different elements of language and describe the way they relate to each other as systems of formal rules or operations, while functional theories seek to define
17380-408: The functions performed by language and then relate them to the linguistic elements that carry them out. The framework of cognitive linguistics interprets language in terms of the concepts (which are sometimes universal, and sometimes specific to a particular language) which underlie its forms. Cognitive linguistics is primarily concerned with how the mind creates meaning through language. Speaking
17538-413: The grammar of single languages, theoretical linguistics develops theories on how best to conceptualize and define the nature of language based on data from the various extant human languages, sociolinguistics studies how languages are used for social purposes informing in turn the study of the social functions of language and grammatical description, neurolinguistics studies how language is processed in
17696-420: The grammars of all human languages. This set of rules is called Universal Grammar ; for Chomsky, describing it is the primary objective of the discipline of linguistics. Thus, he considered that the grammars of individual languages are only of importance to linguistics insofar as they allow us to deduce the universal underlying rules from which the observable linguistic variability is generated. In opposition to
17854-420: The history of their evolution can be reconstructed by comparing modern languages to determine which traits their ancestral languages must have had in order for the later developmental stages to occur. A group of languages that descend from a common ancestor is known as a language family ; in contrast, a language that has been demonstrated not to have any living or non-living relationship with another language
18012-445: The human brain and allows the experimental testing of theories, computational linguistics builds on theoretical and descriptive linguistics to construct computational models of language often aimed at processing natural language or at testing linguistic hypotheses, and historical linguistics relies on grammatical and lexical descriptions of languages to trace their individual histories and reconstruct trees of language families by using
18170-465: The idea that a source uses a coding system to express information in the form of a message. The message is sent through a channel to a receiver who has to decode it to understand it. The main field of inquiry investigating communication is called communication studies . A common way to classify communication is by whether information is exchanged between humans, members of other species, or non-living entities such as computers. For human communication,
18328-408: The lips are rounded as opposed to unrounded, creating distinctions such as that between [i] (unrounded front vowel such as English "ee") and [y] ( rounded front vowel such as German "ü"). Consonants are those sounds that have audible friction or closure at some point within the upper vocal tract. Consonant sounds vary by place of articulation, i.e. the place in the vocal tract where the airflow
18486-415: The location of nectar to bees through their colors and shapes. Other definitions restrict communication to conscious interactions among human beings. Some approaches focus on the use of symbols and signs while others stress the role of understanding, interaction, power, or transmission of ideas. Various characterizations see the communicator's intent to send a message as a central component. In this view,
18644-403: The meaning of sentences. Both expressive and receptive aphasia also affect the use of sign language, in analogous ways to how they affect speech, with expressive aphasia causing signers to sign slowly and with incorrect grammar, whereas a signer with receptive aphasia will sign fluently, but make little sense to others and have difficulties comprehending others' signs. This shows that the impairment
18802-406: The medium used to transmit messages. The field studying human communication is known as anthroposemiotics. Verbal communication is the exchange of messages in linguistic form, i.e., by means of language . In colloquial usage, verbal communication is sometimes restricted to oral communication and may exclude writing and sign language. However, in academic discourse, the term is usually used in
18960-418: The message partially redundant so that decoding is possible nonetheless. Other influential linear transmission models include Gerbner's model and Berlo's model . The earliest interaction model was developed by communication theorist Wilbur Schramm . He states that communication starts when a source has an idea and expresses it in the form of a message. This process is called encoding and happens using
19118-414: The message. They may result in failed communication and cause undesirable effects. This can happen if the message is poorly expressed because it uses terms with which the receiver is not familiar, or because it is not relevant to the receiver's needs, or because it contains too little or too much information. Distraction, selective perception , and lack of attention to feedback may also be responsible. Noise
19276-595: The methods available for reconstruction. Because language emerged in the early prehistory of man, before the existence of any written records, its early development has left no historical traces, and it is believed that no comparable processes can be observed today. Theories that stress continuity often look at animals to see if, for example, primates display any traits that can be seen as analogous to what pre-human language must have been like. Early human fossils can be inspected for traces of physical adaptation to language use or pre-linguistic forms of symbolic behaviour. Among
19434-572: The mouth such as the l-sounds (called laterals , because the air flows along both sides of the tongue), and the r-sounds (called rhotics ). By using these speech organs, humans can produce hundreds of distinct sounds: some appear very often in the world's languages, whereas others are much more common in certain language families, language areas, or even specific to a single language. Human languages display considerable plasticity in their deployment of two fundamental modes: oral (speech and mouthing ) and manual (sign and gesture). For example, it
19592-411: The nature and behavior of other people are based on non-verbal cues. It is further present in almost every communicative act to some extent and certain parts of it are universally understood. These considerations have prompted some communication theorists, like Ray Birdwhistell , to claim that the majority of ideas and information is conveyed this way. It has also been suggested that human communication
19750-488: The nature and origin of language go back to the ancient world. Greek philosophers such as Gorgias and Plato debated the relation between words, concepts and reality. Gorgias argued that language could represent neither the objective experience nor human experience, and that communication and truth were therefore impossible. Plato maintained that communication is possible because language represents ideas and concepts that exist independently of, and prior to, language. During
19908-414: The only gene that has definitely been implicated in language production is FOXP2 , which may cause a kind of congenital language disorder if affected by mutations . The brain is the coordinating center of all linguistic activity; it controls both the production of linguistic cognition and of meaning and the mechanics of speech production. Nonetheless, our knowledge of the neurological bases for language
20066-452: The opposite view. Around the turn of the 20th century, thinkers began to wonder about the role of language in shaping our experiences of the world – asking whether language simply reflects the objective structure of the world, or whether it creates concepts that in turn impose structure on our experience of the objective world. This led to the question of whether philosophical problems are really firstly linguistic problems. The resurgence of
20224-431: The participant's experience by conceptualizing the world and making sense of their environment and themselves. Researchers studying animal and plant communication focus less on meaning-making. Instead, they often define communicative behavior as having other features, such as playing a beneficial role in survival and reproduction, or having an observable response. Models of communication are conceptual representations of
20382-445: The participants benefit from the exchange. Animal communication is used in areas like courtship and mating, parent–offspring relations, navigation, and self-defense. Communication through chemicals is particularly important for the relatively immobile plants. For example, maple trees release so-called volatile organic compounds into the air to warn other plants of a herbivore attack. Most communication takes place between members of
20540-493: The parties take turns in sending and receiving messages. This occurs when exchanging letters or emails. For synchronous communication, both parties send messages at the same time. This happens when one person is talking while the other person sends non-verbal messages in response signaling whether they agree with what is being said. Some communication theorists, like Sarah Trenholm and Arthur Jensen, distinguish between content messages and relational messages. Content messages express
20698-735: The philosophers Kant and Descartes, understands language to be largely innate , for example, in Chomsky 's theory of universal grammar , or American philosopher Jerry Fodor 's extreme innatist theory. These kinds of definitions are often applied in studies of language within a cognitive science framework and in neurolinguistics . Another definition sees language as a formal system of signs governed by grammatical rules of combination to communicate meaning. This definition stresses that human languages can be described as closed structural systems consisting of rules that relate particular signs to particular meanings. This structuralist view of language
20856-426: The philosophy of language, the view of linguistic meaning as residing in the logical relations between propositions and reality was developed by philosophers such as Alfred Tarski , Bertrand Russell , and other formal logicians . Yet another definition sees language as a system of communication that enables humans to exchange verbal or symbolic utterances. This definition stresses the social functions of language and
21014-540: The philosophy of language, the view of pragmatics as being central to language and meaning is often associated with Wittgenstein's later works and with ordinary language philosophers such as J. L. Austin , Paul Grice , John Searle , and W.O. Quine . A number of features, many of which were described by Charles Hockett and called design features set human language apart from communication used by non-human animals . Communication systems used by other animals such as bees or apes are closed systems that consist of
21172-451: The process of communication. Their goal is to provide a simplified overview of its main components. This makes it easier for researchers to formulate hypotheses, apply communication-related concepts to real-world cases, and test predictions . Due to their simplified presentation, they may lack the conceptual complexity needed for a comprehensive understanding of all the essential aspects of communication. They are usually presented visually in
21330-624: The process, i.e. the specific behavioral components that make up communicative competence. Message production skills include reading and writing. They are correlated with the reception skills of listening and reading. There are both verbal and non-verbal communication skills. For example, verbal communication skills involve the proper understanding of a language, including its phonology , orthography , syntax, lexicon , and semantics. Many aspects of human life depend on successful communication, from ensuring basic necessities of survival to building and maintaining relationships. Communicative competence
21488-471: The right definition affects the research process on many levels. This includes issues like which empirical phenomena are observed, how they are categorized, which hypotheses and laws are formulated as well as how systematic theories based on these steps are articulated. Some definitions are broad and encompass unconscious and non-human behavior . Under a broad definition, many animals communicate within their own species and flowers communicate by signaling
21646-461: The same species. The reason is that its purpose is usually some form of cooperation, which is not as common between different species. Interspecies communication happens mainly in cases of symbiotic relationships. For instance, many flowers use symmetrical shapes and distinctive colors to signal to insects where nectar is located. Humans engage in interspecies communication when interacting with pets and working animals . Human communication has
21804-444: The set of utterances that can be produced from those rules. All languages rely on the process of semiosis to relate signs to particular meanings . Oral, manual and tactile languages contain a phonological system that governs how symbols are used to form sequences known as words or morphemes , and a syntactic system that governs how words and morphemes are combined to form phrases and utterances. The scientific study of language
21962-412: The signaller and receiver may expect to benefit from the exchange". According to this view, the sender benefits by influencing the receiver's behavior and the receiver benefits by responding to the signal. These benefits should exist on average but not necessarily in every single case. This way, deceptive signaling can also be understood as a form of communication. One problem with the evolutionary approach
22120-416: The signs are physically inscribed on a surface. Sign languages , like American Sign Language and Nicaraguan Sign Language , are another form of verbal communication. They rely on visual means, mostly by using gestures with hands and arms, to form sentences and convey meaning. Verbal communication serves various functions. One key function is to exchange information, i.e. an attempt by the speaker to make
22278-413: The signs in human fossils that may suggest linguistic abilities are: the size of the brain relative to body mass, the presence of a larynx capable of advanced sound production and the nature of tools and other manufactured artifacts. It was mostly undisputed that pre-human australopithecines did not have communication systems significantly different from those found in great apes in general. However,
22436-442: The space between two inhalations. Acoustically , these different segments are characterized by different formant structures, that are visible in a spectrogram of the recorded sound wave. Formants are the amplitude peaks in the frequency spectrum of a specific sound. Vowels are those sounds that have no audible friction caused by the narrowing or obstruction of some part of the upper vocal tract. They vary in quality according to
22594-422: The speaker's feelings toward the topic of discussion. Relational messages, on the other hand, demonstrate the speaker's feelings toward their relation with the other participants. Various theories of the function of interpersonal communication have been proposed. Some focus on how it helps people make sense of their world and create society. Others hold that its primary purpose is to understand why other people act
22752-710: The structures of language as having evolved to serve specific communicative and social functions. Language is processed in many different locations in the human brain , but especially in Broca's and Wernicke's areas . Humans acquire language through social interaction in early childhood, and children generally speak fluently by approximately three years old. Language and culture are codependent. Therefore, in addition to its strictly communicative uses, language has social uses such as signifying group identity , social stratification , as well as use for social grooming and entertainment . Languages evolve and diversify over time, and
22910-550: The study of language in pragmatic , cognitive , and interactive frameworks, as well as in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology . Functionalist theories tend to study grammar as dynamic phenomena, as structures that are always in the process of changing as they are employed by their speakers. This view places importance on the study of linguistic typology , or the classification of languages according to structural features, as processes of grammaticalization tend to follow trajectories that are partly dependent on typology. In
23068-451: The transmission of information is not sufficient for communication if it happens unintentionally. A version of this view is given by philosopher Paul Grice , who identifies communication with actions that aim to make the recipient aware of the communicator's intention. One question in this regard is whether only successful transmissions of information should be regarded as communication. For example, distortion may interfere with and change
23226-565: The units into compound expressions are called grammar . Words are combined to form sentences . One hallmark of human language, in contrast to animal communication, lies in its complexity and expressive power. Human language can be used to refer not just to concrete objects in the here-and-now but also to spatially and temporally distant objects and to abstract ideas . Humans have a natural tendency to acquire their native language in childhood . They are also able to learn other languages later in life as second languages . However, this process
23384-399: The use of colors and fonts as well as spatial arrangement in paragraphs and tables. Non-linguistic sounds may also convey information; crying indicates that an infant is distressed, and babbling conveys information about infant health and well-being. Chronemics concerns the use of time, such as what messages are sent by being on time versus late for a meeting. The physical appearance of
23542-472: The value ± 1 2 {\displaystyle \pm {\tfrac {1}{2}}} (its sign depending on competing conventions). The Riemann hypothesis is the conjecture that every nontrivial complex root of the Riemann zeta function has a real part equal to 1 2 {\displaystyle {\tfrac {1}{2}}} . The "one-half" symbol has its own code point as
23700-456: The verbal part of the message. It is not concerned with the words used but with how they are expressed. This includes elements like articulation, lip control, rhythm, intensity, pitch, fluency, and loudness. For example, saying something loudly and in a high pitch conveys a different meaning on the non-verbal level than whispering the same words. Paralanguage is mainly concerned with spoken language but also includes aspects of written language, like
23858-452: The view that language plays a significant role in the creation and circulation of concepts, and that the study of philosophy is essentially the study of language, is associated with what has been called the linguistic turn and philosophers such as Wittgenstein in 20th-century philosophy. These debates about language in relation to meaning and reference, cognition and consciousness remain active today. One definition sees language primarily as
24016-449: The visual modality, and braille writing uses the tactile modality. Human language is unusual in being able to refer to abstract concepts and to imagined or hypothetical events as well as events that took place in the past or may happen in the future. This ability to refer to events that are not at the same time or place as the speech event is called displacement , and while some animal communication systems can use displacement (such as
24174-418: The vocal cords are set in vibration by airflow during the production of the sound. Voicing is what separates English [s] in bus ( unvoiced sibilant ) from [z] in buzz ( voiced sibilant ). Some speech sounds, both vowels and consonants, involve release of air flow through the nasal cavity, and these are called nasals or nasalized sounds. Other sounds are defined by the way the tongue moves within
24332-410: The way they do and to adjust one's behavior accordingly. A closely related approach is to focus on information and see interpersonal communication as an attempt to reduce uncertainty about others and external events. Other explanations understand it in terms of the needs it satisfies. This includes the needs of belonging somewhere, being included, being liked, maintaining relationships, and influencing
24490-475: The world around them and themselves. This affects how perceptions of external events are interpreted, how things are categorized, and how ideas are organized and related to each other. Non-verbal communication is the exchange of information through non-linguistic modes, like facial expressions, gestures , and postures . However, not every form of non-verbal behavior constitutes non-verbal communication. Some theorists, like Judee Burgoon , hold that it depends on
24648-561: Was broadened from Indo-European to language in general by Wilhelm von Humboldt . Early in the 20th century, Ferdinand de Saussure introduced the idea of language as a static system of interconnected units, defined through the oppositions between them. By introducing a distinction between diachronic and synchronic analyses of language, he laid the foundation of the modern discipline of linguistics. Saussure also introduced several basic dimensions of linguistic analysis that are still fundamental in many contemporary linguistic theories, such as
24806-433: Was first introduced by Ferdinand de Saussure , and his structuralism remains foundational for many approaches to language. Some proponents of Saussure's view of language have advocated a formal approach which studies language structure by identifying its basic elements and then by presenting a formal account of the rules according to which the elements combine in order to form words and sentences. The main proponent of such
24964-403: Was held. In another example, the ritual language Damin had a heavily reduced oral vocabulary of only a few hundred words, each of which was very general in meaning, but which were supplemented by gesture for greater precision (e.g., the single word for fish, l*i , was accompanied by a gesture to indicate the kind of fish). Secondary modes of language, by which a fundamental mode is conveyed in
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