The Study Of Linguistics Essays - Fusional Languages,

The Study of Linguistics Language changes with history and time. Our perception of words changes. Everything changes, from cooking with fire to cooking with a microwave. Even language changes, examples are accents and books, influential people, and historical occurrences. Accents shows development of culture over time, maybe over a historical occurrence, 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. 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. Also the syntax, also known as grammar, have 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 rebels will use no periods and have one long paragraph in a 400 page book. Maybe the culture says it is mandatory to have everything in one continuous sentence, while others more civilized or advanced will follow the rules to the very letter. 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 and a metamorphosis to keep up with the changing world. Letters are called graphemes, meaning the 26 letters of the alphabet, more or less in different languages. In inuit for example, every grapheme follows a very obvious pattern of a prefix followed by a certain suffix, a combination of vowels and consonants. For example, there might be a set of the letters r, t, and h, and with the suffixes oo, ot, etc. Different symbols can also be associated with different cultures. The cross is associated with our religion, although it might not be in Tasmania, for example. The newer addition of these symbols helps to understand the concept more clearly, as in television, which is like a talking and showing book. How can language have meaning? Through time it may lose and gain new meaning, through historical occurrences, for example. During the war, a whole new kind of lingo spread like wildfire through the battling nations. The study of how language contains meaning is called semantics, and through this we can see what has occurred and what will occur, like a time machine right before our eyes which we must study to use efficiently. The influence of different people has a major effect on our lives. Our political system, family, friends, this all may adversely affect our lives in ways we might regret. Influential people coining words, for example might 'nuke' a country. George Bush set a world record by saying the most metaphors in his presidential speech after winning. Language might not change obviously with historical occurrences, but it does. The change is obvious in historical occurrences which affect the whole world. The 'meeting' in the Gulf has stirred up an entire planet, maybe starting a war which will devastate the earth. As gas prices rise, everything needing fuel does. The means of communication between two people change, from ignorance to shouting, to whispering, to nothing between the two. Our perception of the concept must be clear before we can actually communicate efficiently, language itself must be understood fully 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 it is life and death. 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. Communication is better if we know more about the second party, the lesser known the better sometimes, as one may not want to communicate with a bunch of motorcycle bandits, for example. Slang may also be considered a different belief, as different cultures have different languages, and slang may be the key that holds them together as their central language with which to communicate. This is not always bad, but sometimes another party has no idea of what they are saying, which