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Defining Language

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Submitted By mekaboo1300
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Pages 5
Defining Language
Dameka Towner
PSY/360
10/14/13
Steve Weiss

Languages are spoken all over the world by different cultures people. Some individuals may speak Spanish, English, Laos, Chinese, or other languages depending on their nationality or culture and what language they were raised to speak. Language starts as early as infancy. Babies tend to cry if they are hungry, wet, or something is hurting them, yet the cry has its own distinction. For example, a cry when a baby is wet may be softer than a cry from a baby being hungry. This form a communication from the baby is considered as “baby language,” but it is la questionable if this really a form of Language? According Willingham, (2007), Communication must be communicative, arbitrary, structured, generative and dynamic to be deemed language. Although a baby cry is a form of communication, and it is arbitrary, it is not structured it only composes a single sound, and it is not generative. Because the baby’s cry lacks those two components it is not considered a reasonable form of communication. Furthermore, human cognitive functions and language assimilation is the mental dictionary that contains all stored representation of words. This is called the lexicon. When people speak about the lexicon they are literally talking about someone’s vocabulary. According to Oxford dictionary lexicon is the vocabulary of a person language, or branch of knowledge. Lexicon is more along the lines of what speech sounds, or written symbols mean in a language. If the individual does not know that lexicon he or she cannot possibly know the language.
Key Features of Language Because of the linguistics of language, it is more difficult to define. Before an individual can understand language, he or she must evaluate the key features of language. The key futures hold the precise parts of language. First is the

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