Last week, we discussed some of the features such as redundancy and structure dependency that characterize language. In today’s article, we will talk about some more features of language such as productivity semanticity and reflexivity. This will serve to broaden our knowledge and understanding of the nature and character of language.
Productivity
Language is a productive system in two perspectives. First, we can produce an infinite number of sentences and infinitely long sentences in a language. Second, we can create new words and sentences in a language which adds to the productivity in that language. We will discuss each of these in detail as in the following.
As we know, we have a limited number of words and grammar rules in a language to produce sentences. For instance, the English language has about half a million words. However, as we also know the number of sentences that one can produce in the English language is unlimited or infinite. Think about the number of sentences that you have spoken so far since your childhood and the number of sentences you will speak into your adulthood.
Think about the number of sentences that the speakers of the English language have spoken so far and will speak into the future. That is limitless. So, what is wonderful about language is that by means of a finite number of words and grammar rules, language serves to produce an infinite number of sentences. This productive capacity totally relies on the fact that language is a structure dependant phenomenon as we discussed in the last week’s article. That is, a finite number of sentence structures such as SVO (Subject Verb Object), etc. and PNp (Preposition Noun phrase), etc. are utilised to produce an unlimited number of sentences in a language. For instance, the SVO structure in English can be exploited to produce any number of sentences as shown in the following.
Mary ate a sandwich. (SVO)
Saman met Maala. (SVO)
Paul painted the house. (SVO)
Nimal brushed his teeth. (SVO), etc.
In the same way, the SOV structure in Sinhala is used to produce a limitless number of sentences as shown in the following.
Siri ambe kaewa. “Siri ate mangoes.” (SOV)
Gune wathura biwa. “Gune drank water.” (SOV)
Malli liuma yaewwa. “Brother sent the letter.” (SOV)
Miniha sinduwak kiwa. “The man sang a song.” (SOV), etc.
At the same time, the structure dependence also allows us to produce infinitely long sentences. For example, a sentence formed with the SVO pattern can be combined with another sentence as shown here to produce another sentence.
Tom knows that Mary ate a sandwich.
In the sentence above, the clause/sentence Mary ate a sandwich is combined with the clause/sentence Tom knows to produce the sentence Tom knows that Mary ate a sandwich. In turn, this sentence can be combined with another clause/sentence to produce a new sentence as in the following.
Saman thinks that Tom knows that Mary ate a sandwich.
In turn, this sentence can be combined with another clause/sentence to produce a new sentence as in the following.
Mala assumes that Saman thinks that Tom knows that Mary ate a sandwich.
And we can go on and on as there is no limit to the length of a sentence that we can produce.
At the same time, language can be and is used creatively. This creative aspect of language adds to productivity. Language has the capacity to produce new items (i.e., words/sentences) in creative ways. Language allows us to create new words and add them to it. For instance, the words such as laptop, software, did not exist in the English language 40 years ago and at least 10 words a day are said to be added to the English language. This is common to any language and some people even assume language to be a living thing that grows.
Thus, language is a productive system as we can produce infinitely long and an infinite number of sentences and we can be creative in the production of words and sentences.
Semanticity
Items produced in language at the word or sentence level are used to mean things. What this means is that language has semanticity. Words and sentences processed in our minds are used to refer to ideas, feelings, concepts, states, physical objects, events, etc. in the actual world which we refer to as the meaning of these words and sentences. For instance, the word tree in the English language or gasa in the Sinhala language refer to the physical object with the roots, trunk, branches, twigs, leaves etc, in the world. The word happiness in the English language or sathuta in the Sinhala language refer to the abstract feeling that we experience in the world. A sentence such as Saman ate an apple refers to an event in the world whether it is true or false. A sentence such as Saman loves Mala refers to a feeling experienced by two people in the world whether it is true or false. Thus, the thing that establishes a connection between a form (a combination of sounds/letters in the form of a word/sentence) and meaning (the things, ideas, feelings, events, etc. that the word/sentence refer to) is what we call language. Thus, language makes sense of the phenomena in our minds and the world.
Reflexivity
Language is also used to make sense of the language itself. For instance, I am making use of the tool called language right now to talk about language itself. This character is known as reflexivity. The particular language that one uses to talk about language/a language is known as metalanguage. For instance, I am using English as the metalanguage to talk about language in these articles. Thus, reflexivity is yet a significant feature of language.
In today’s and the last two articles, we talked about some features that characterize language such as spontaneity, arbitrariness, displacement, redundancy, structure dependency, productivity, semanticity and reflexivity. I hope that this discussion served to have a better understanding of what language is and does to form a sound foundation for the ideas discussed in the articles to come. Now, it is right time for us to start talking about the ideas associated with the process of acquiring a language by us at a very young age as children. In our next article, we will discuss this.
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(The writer is a Senior Lecturer, Department of English and Linguistics, University of Sri Jayewardenepura)
