Comprehensively explained Language

2. What is Language . .?

3. Everybody knows the answer to this
question but nobody has so far been able
to come out with any standard definition
that fully explains the term language. It is a
situation like trying to define the term life.
Everybody knows what life is but one
cannot present a satisfactory definition of
life.

4. In order to understand a terra like life , one
has to talk of the properties or
characteristics of living beings (e.g. motion,
reproduction, respiration, growth, power
of self-healing, excretion, nutrition,
mortality, etc.).

5. Similarly, the term ‘language’ can be
understood better in terms of its properties
or characteristics.
Some linguists, however, have been trying
to define language in their own ways even
though all these definitions are far from
satisfactory. Here are some of definitions of
some renowned personalities.

6. 1. Language is a symbol system based on
pure or arbitrary conventions... infinitely
extendable and modifiable according to
the changing needs and conditions of the
speakers.
Robins (1985)

7. 2. Language is a purely human and non-
instinctive method of communicating
ideas, emotions and desires by means of a
system of voluntarily produced symbols.
Sapir (1921)

8. 3. Language is the institution whereby
humans communicate and interact with
each other by means of habitually used
oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.
Hall (1969)

9. 4. A language is a set (finite or infinite) of
sentences, each finite in length and
constructed out of a finite set of elements.
Noam Chomsky (1957)

10. 5. A language is a system of arbitrary vocal
symbols used for human communication.
Wardaugh (1972)

11. 6. A language is a system of arbitrary vocal
symbols by means of which a social group
cooperates.
Bloch and Trager (1942)

12. 7. Language is undoubtedly a kind of means
of communication among human beings. It
consists primarily of vocal sounds. It is
articulatory, systematic, symbolic and
arbitrary.
Derbyshire (1967)

13. 8. Language is a system of conventional
spoken or written symbols by means of
which human beings, as members of a
social group and participants in its culture,
communicate.
Encyclopedia Britannica

14. 9. Languages are the principal systems of
communication used by particular groups of
human beings within the particular society
(linguistic community) of which they are
members.
Lyons (1970)

15. 10. The system of communication in speech
and writing that is used by people of a
particular country or area.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

16. 11. The system of words or signs that
people use to express thoughts and feelings
to each other.
Merriam Webster Dictionary

17. 12. A system of communication consisting
of sounds, words, and grammar, or the
system of communication used by people in
a particular country or type of work.
Cambridge Dictionary

18. 13. Language is a communication tool used
by everyone in their daily life as a means to
convey information and arguments to
others.

19. It is clearly evident from all these definitions,
none of which completely defines the term
‘language’, that it is not possible to have a
single definition that brings out all the
properties of language. On the basis of these
definitions, one can, however, list out the
various characteristics of language.

20. The world has about 7106 languages.
Pakistan 72