Language is a multifaceted and complex cognitive function

Imagine a situation where one is in a foreign country and cannot utter a word in the local tongue. Further, imagine that gesturing in that country would follow a peculiar logic of its own that one could not comprehend. Under such circumstances one quickly comes to realize the importance of being able to communicate with others, through speaking, gesturing, reading, and/or writing. Indeed, the seeming ease at which one normally commands one’s mother tongue is highly misleading. In reality, language is one of the most complex and amazing of human cognitive functions.


Difficulties in developing computer programs that would be able to command language well enough to carry a conversation with a human is one example of the complexity of the task that the brain faces when listening and speaking. Further, out of all species, mankind is the only one capable of the kind of highly sophisticated and abstract form of communication that language represents. To some extent it has been debated whether language is unique to humans (i.e., whether ”speech is special”) and there are language-like communicative calls and gesturing in other animals. The most striking manifestation of language ability in other species have been obtained in studies where sign language was taught to non-human primates (Gardner and Gardner, 1969), however, even the best of these examples fail to compare with the richness of human language.


Human language is a multifaceted skill. In order to communicate effectively, one has to know the meanings of different words (semantic knowledge) and have sufficient command of grammar to organize the words in an appropriate manner to be understood. Further, in order to read and write, one also has to have command of the orthographic (how words are written) and phonological (how words are pronounced) knowledge. With respect to this, there is variability between different languages, with prominent ambiguity in English (as there is no one-to-one correspondence between the written form and pronunciation) and non-ambiguous pronunciation in some other languages such as Italian and Finnish, where there is one-to-one correspondence between the written form and pronunciation.

Posted Date: 7/7/2012 6:37:10 AM | Location : United States

Ask an Expert

Related Discussions:- Speech and Language, Assignment Help, Ask Question on Speech and Language, Get Answer, Expert's Help, Speech and Language Discussions

Write discussion on Speech and Language
Your posts are moderated

Write your message here..

Related Questions

Ageing and health, Ageing and Health: Ageing, irreversible biological chan... Ageing and Health: Ageing, irreversible biological changes that occur in all living things with the passage of time eventually result in death. Although all organisms age, rates o

Instant messaging, what is instant messaging used for? what is instant messaging used for?

Explain stages of moral development, Question 1: (a) (i) Briefly descr... Question 1: (a) (i) Briefly describe the six stages of moral development as elaborated by Lawrence Kohlberg. (ii) Highlight some criticisms leveled against Kohlberg's theo

Monitor network entities, Monitor network entities: Name         ... Monitor network entities: Name                    : Net-Guard Reporter for LNMS. Environment           : Apache Server, Oracle, HTML, JavaScript, and PHP. N

B.ed, What is pragmatism and what should be the role of teacher according t... What is pragmatism and what should be the role of teacher according ti it.

History of new media, History of New media: The term has actually been use... History of New media: The term has actually been used since the 1970s by researchers conducting social, psychological, economic, political and cultural studies of information and

Three broad model of electronic bill presentment and payment, Three broad m... Three broad models of EBPP have emerged. These are 1.   Consolidation, wherever many bills for any one receiver are made accessible at one Web site, most usually the recipient'

Linear Convolution in DSP sums, how to slove linear convolution when limits... how to slove linear convolution when limits are negative to positive .provide with example

Education and society, i) Mention the Aims of Education in present scenario... i) Mention the Aims of Education in present scenario. (250 words)

Describe language development in deaf children, Describe language developme... Describe language development in deaf children. How is it similar, in the early stages, to language development in hearing children? What is "homesign" and what does it suggest abo