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4.2: Language as a Mental Capacity

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    Language as a Mental Capacity

    To understand the nature of human language, one needs to approach the concept as a complex system of communication. An important distinction should be considered when using the term language. It can be viewed as an internal mental capacity (language) as well as an external manifestation through speech (parole). As human beings, we are able to produce and understand countless number of utterances which are characterized by the use of grammatical elements such as words, phrases and sentences.

    With a limited number of language forms, we can produce numerous utterances that can be easily understood by other members of the speech community who share a similar cultural background and language knowledge. This underlying mental capacity is embodied in the concept that language is rule-governed creativity, operating at different grammatical levels in the formation of utterances or sentences.

    To illustrate, many examples of utterances or sentences can be derived using a limited set lexical and grammatical words as listed below.

    Lexical Words

    Nouns (book, class, pencil, student/s, teacher)

    Verbs (forms of “to be”, have, want, write)

    Adjectives (big, good, red, green)

    Adverbs (far, near, where, very, no/not)

    Grammatical Words

    Prepositions (on, of, for, from, with)

    Conjunctions (and, but, which)

    Determinants (a/an/the, her/their, my, this/that)

    Pronouns (I, he/she/it, you, mine/yours)

    Some possible grammatical sentences based on the list of lexical and grammatical words are noted here:

    The pencil is near the book. / The student is near the teacher. / The teacher writes with a pencil. / T

    The green pencil is not far from the book. / I want to be a teacher. / The red pencil is mine. /

    She wants to write a good book for her students. / This is my book, but I want you to have it. /

    No, the red pencil is not mine. / The teacher wants her students to have a good class./ Where is the teacher? / The book is where? / My class has many students. /

    Language as a Means of Communication

    A salient aspect of language involves the use of the communication system to perform a broad range of conversational acts/functions in “face-to-face” situations. Four major types of conversational acts have been proposed:

    • assertives (speaker informs/answers/agrees/confirms/rejects/suggests)

    • directives (speaker directs/ invites/ questions/orders someone else to do something),

    • commissives (speaker makes an offer/promise involving some future action),

    • expressives (speaker apologizes/evaluates/greets/thanks/expresses opinion/reacts).

    Minor secondary acts consist of language use that serves to emphasize (repetition of words/phrases), expand (add additional information) and comment on on-going talk. Complementary acts can function as conversational fillers (“you know”), starters (“well”), stallers (“uh”), and hedges (“I mean”).

    Participants in a conversation tend to follow culturally specific norms. Speaker A (greets, gives an order, asks a question, apologizes, bids farewell) and Listener B (responds accordingly, and uses appropriate conversational language, necessary to maintain the dialogue). Cultural norms specify “What to say /not say in a particular conversational situation?” “How to initiate/end the conversation?” “With whom to talk/not talk during a conversational encounter?” “What locations are appropriate/not appropriate for the use of certain language forms?

    Language use is joint action carried out usually by two people. Its use may vary due to such factors as the personal characteristics of the participants (friends, strangers, native/non-native speakers, family members, age/sex differences). The conversation may also be influenced by the location (home, school, work, shopping center, political meeting) and the topic of conversation (advice, complaint, news about the family, plans for the weekend).


    4.2: Language as a Mental Capacity is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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