WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

The components of language are phonology, semantics, syntax or grammar, and pragmatics. Thanks to these four aspects, it is possible to better study and understand the mechanisms that make language useful and the best method for human communication.

Language in humans is defined as the ability that people have to communicate using a series of signs and capture them through the senses of the body.

These signs range from gestures and mimicry to oral ones. Likewise, writing is considered language, composed of graphic signs. Everyone's main goal is to be able to interact and express ideas.

General aspects of language

Throughout the centuries there have been various theories about language, as well as different approaches to studying it. Today there are a number of characteristics that all experts agree on.

Among them we can name the ability that human beings have to acquire a language from a very young age, even without anyone to teach them directly. According to Noam Chomsky, children learn a new word every hour they are awake.

Another aspect that all scholars agree on is the great importance of the spoken language. What is learned naturally in childhood is called the mother tongue.

In the same community, each member will have the same linguistic competences, although later the education and the environment differ in the way of expressing themselves.

Language components

The latest theories have developed a series of language components, ranging from the phonological component to the pragmatic one, each with the characteristics explained below.

Phonology

The phonological component deals with the sound aspect of language, both the rules of its structure and the sequence of sounds. Already in the first year of life, children begin to develop this phonological component, babbling until they form words.

The simplest particle that studies phonology is the phoneme, which can be a single sound. In Spanish, for example, there are 22 different phonemes.

Semantics

Semantics goes one step further and deals with the meaning acquired by different sound combinations, that is, words. These are the fundamental units of language.

As with phonology, semantics also begins to develop very early. At the age of one, the child knows that words are used to communicate and, little by little until he is 6 years old, he acquires the ability to repeat them.

For these words to mean something, the human mind associates them with mental representations of their meaning.

Grammar: morphology and syntax

This component of language is essential for effective communication, as it includes two very important parts.

On the one hand, syntax is defined as the set of rules for forming sentences. It will help to correctly place the words to form sentences that make sense and express what we want to communicate.

On the other hand, the morphology is closely related to the previous one, which is why its union is known as grammar. The morpheme is the simplest unit of the word, which cannot be divided further.

With morphology you can build new words using that root and adding components to it. For example, to the root “niñ” you can add the gender marker and create “boy” and “girl”.

Pragmatics

The last of the components of language is the one that adapts the language of each one to the society in which they live to make it understandable. It is usually divided into three different skills:

• First: the correct use of language to make it useful
• Second: it serves to talk with each interlocutor adapting to their personality. We do not speak the same to an older person than to a little brother
• Third: they are the rules of education when talking, like waiting for the other person to finish or not going around the bush

References

1. Unifor psychopedagogical office. Components of language. Obtained from psicopedagos.wordpress.com
2. Design of the Instruction. What are the components of language? Retrieved from 2-learn.net
3. Language Acquisition - The Basic Components of Human Language, Methods for Studying Language Acquisition, Phases in Language Development. Retrieved from education.stateuniversity.com
4. Child Health. Language Development in Children

   Components, Requirements and Milestones. Retrieved from childhealth-explanation.com

5. Chomsky, Noam. Knowledge of language. Recovered from scholar.google.es