Natural language
In the
Defining natural language
Though the exact definition is debatable, natural language is often contrasted with artificial or
Linguists have an incomplete understanding of all aspects of the rules underlying natural languages, and these rules are therefore objects of study. The understanding of natural languages reveals much about not only how language works (in terms of
The theory of
While
Native language learning
The
There are approximately 7,000 current human languages, and many, if not most seem to share certain properties, leading to the belief in the existence of
Origins of natural language
There is disagreement among anthropologists on when language was first used by humans (or their ancestors). Estimates range from about two million (2,000,000) years ago, during the time of "
Linguistic diversity
As of early 2007, there are 6,912 known living human languages. [ [http://www.ethnologue.com/ "Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Fifteenth edition"] , accessed
There is no clear distinction between a language and a
It is probably impossible to accurately enumerate the living languages because our worldwide knowledge is incomplete, and it is a "moving target", as explained in greater detail by the
Although widely considered an
Beginning with the 14th edition (2000), an attempt was made to include all known living languages. SIL used an internal 3-letter code fashioned after
Of the catalogued languages, 497 have been flagged as "nearly extinct" due to trends in their usage.
Per the 15th edition, 6,912 living languages are shared by over 5.7 billion speakers. (p. 15)
Taxonomy
The classification of natural languages can be performed on the basis of different underlying principles (different closeness notions, respecting different properties and relations between languages); important directions of present classifications are:
* paying attention to the historical evolution of languages results in a genetic classification of languages—which is based on genetic relatedness of languages,
* paying attention to the internal structure of languages (
* and respecting geographical closeness and contacts between language-speaking communities results in areal groupings of languages.
The different classifications do not match each other and are not expected to, but the correlation between them is an important point for many linguistic research works. (There is a parallel to the classification of
The task of genetic classification belongs to the field of
See also
Genetic classification
The world's languages have been grouped into families of languages that are believed to have common ancestors. Some of the major families are the
The shared features of languages from one family can be due to shared ancestry. (Compare with homology in biology.)
Typological classification
An example of a typological classification is the classification of languages on the basis of the basic order of the
The shared features of languages of one type (= from one typological class) may have arisen completely independently. (Compare with analogy in biology.) Their cooccurence might be due to the universal laws governing the structure of natural languages—
Areal classification
The following language groupings can serve as some linguistically significant examples of areal linguistic units, or "
One should be careful about the underlying classification principle for groups of languages which have apparently a geographical name: besides areal linguistic units, the
Controlled languages
Controlled natural languages are subsets of natural languages whose grammars and dictionaries have been restricted in order to reduce or eliminate both ambiguity and complexity (for instance, by cutting down on rarely used superlative or adverbial forms or
Constructed languages and international auxiliary languages
Constructed
Natural Language Processing
Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics. It studies the problems of automated generation and understanding of natural human languages.
Natural-language-generation systems convert information from computer databases into normal-sounding human language. Natural-language-understanding systems convert samples of human language into more formal representations that are easier for computer programs to manipulate.
Modalities
Natural language manifests itself in modalities other than speech.
Sign and Signed languages
Ever since humans began to speak, there has been a need for humans to continue to utilize the communication form of gestural communication after age 3, when speech is difficult or impossible. Humans with normal hearing ability from birth to age 6 and thereafter, who become deaf in both ears later in their lives can still speak understandably, and therefore do not require a substantial reliance on a signed form of communication.
However, individuals who become profoundly deaf in both ears during the critical period of formation of the "speech-sound (phonemic) filter structure," in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus of their brain cannot build that structure after age 3, and definitely not normally after age 6. There was a false premise that these persons still have "natural" language in regard to gestural communication for many years. However, with the use of the most modern neuroscientific brain scanning procedure, known as the fMRI (functional MRI), where the brain's operation can now be seen directly in real-time, this premise is now known to be completely false, since these early-deafened individuals do have a significant developmental disability and lack of normal brain development in this specific area that processes natural language phonemes. This developmental disability is now known as left posterior superior temporal gyrus hypoplasia (Lpstgh), or, more commonly, as "Speech Processing Center Hypoplasia" ("SPCH"). See: Shibata, D.K. (2007) "Differences in Brain Structure in [Early] Deaf Persons on MR Imaging Studies with Voxel-Based Morphometry." American Journal of Neuroradiology, 28:243-249, February 2007 . [NOTE: RESEARCHERS AND SCHOLARS ARE CAUTIONED NOT TO ATTEND TO ANY PREVIOUS "RESEARCH" PRIOR TO THIS DATE OF FEBRUARY, 2007 OR ANY PERSONS DESIGNATING THEMSELVES AS "EXPERTS" ON THIS TOPIC WHO DO NOT QUOTE THIS ARTICLE OR THE OTHER SUBSEQUENT RESEARCH SUPPORTING THIS ARTICLE'S CONCLUSIONS AND FINDINGS] .
The SPCH-deaf (early deafened) individuals do have normal vocal functions and can learn to speak. With the advent of the modern cochlear implant technologies, and if these are utilized immediately after deafness has been diagnosed (which can now be done right after birth), and with the total immersion of the individual with the cochlear implant into a completely auditory-verbal program of education, both at home and at school, the Lpstgh developmental disability and resulting speech disability can be remediated to a large extent. Such individuals are able to build a substantially normal structure in their left brain, and thus are able to produce very clear and understandable speech. Such individuals are commonly educated in Oral Schools for deaf and hard of hearing students -- See http://www.oraldeafed.org .
Others have families that utilize the Cued Speech (one-handed gestures to visually supplement the lipreading (speechreading) of phonetic sounds of natural languages -- See http://www.cuedspeech.org .
Others utilize Signed English or "Pidgin" Signed English, which uses the "sign" gestures to back-channel code the information being lipread, but this is visual-pictorial, not phonemic, and is often utilized when the individual has been through a program of oral-aural-vibrotactile training and when the person has already learned the phonemic sounds of human speech through these alternative methods. This is known properly as "Signed (Natural) Language," since the individual is thinking in the phonemic sounds of human speech, and has made the phonocentric shift to left-brain primary thought -- which can easily be determined by asking the individual to write in phonemic language. This is quite effective, since there is no spoken or written form of the non-phonemic gestural form of communication known as "(native) sign language ."
Persons with normal hearing ability, including adults, are able to learn and use the form of non-English, non-phonetic purely gestural communication known as "American Sign Language" in the USA, and as "natural sign languages" in other areas of the world. These normally take the form of copying the standard gestures used by persons with normal hearing in various societies, groups, and the shared created gestures utilized by the SPCH-deaf who did not have the opportunity to obtain and use cochlear implant technologies between birth to age 3, with full auditory-verbal immersive education.
A more minor, but still significant, form of Lpstgh is caused to the children with normal hearing ability whose parents, particularly the mothers, are part of the "silent, signing, nonspeaking" Lpstgh community (i.e. Edward Miner Gallaudet). This problem does not usually occur to the children with normal hearing whose parents, especially the mothers, are part of the "Oral-Aural" early-deafened community who were and still are trained in Oral Schools for deaf and hard of hearing students (i.e. Alexander Graham Bell).
Written languages
In a sense, written language should be distinguished from natural language. Until recently in the developed world, it was common for many people to be fluent in spoken and yet remain illiterate; this is still the case in poor countries today. Furthermore, natural
See also
*
*
*
*
Notes
References
*ter Meulen, Alice, 2001, "Logic and Natural Language," in Goble, Lou, ed., "The Blackwell Guide to Philosophical Logic". Blackwell.