LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:1 January 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001




BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!


REFERENCE MATERIAL

BACK ISSUES


  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.
  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.
  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2012
M. S. Thirumalai


Custom Search

Critical Period Hypothesis

Talal Musaed Alghizzi, Ph.D. Candidate


Introduction

The general term language, used to refer to “a system of communication” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 2010, p. 834), is a common feature in all creatures: human beings, animals and plants species. However, in its more specific meaning - “the method of communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words, their pronunciation, and the method of combining them used and understood by a human community” (Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 2008, p. 654) - it is one of the capabilities that differentiate humans from nonhumans.

Linguistically speaking, human language is unique. First, because it is learned and learnable. Construction and usages abide by certain rules of morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, rather than being biologically inherited as is the case for animal and plant species in the general meaning of the word. In addition, some of its elements are of an infinitely-flexible nature, constantly changing. This second characteristic is evidenced by observing the evolution of words, for example. Words - “single units of language” (Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, p. 1712) - are flexible, in the sense that native speakers of any language have the ability to invent new lexicons or simply give an old word a new meaning. The English word “nice” now means “pleasing, agreeable, polite, and kind”, whereas in the 14th century, it meant “wanton, and dissolute” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 2011).

Vital and Intriguing Investigation

For linguists, the investigation of human languages, which are estimated to be “over 6,909 known living” (Ethnologue Languages of the World, 2011), is vital and intriguing. This is not only because of the aforementioned characteristics but also because of the crucial role they play in everyday communication. Thanks in large measure to technology, the world is becoming an ever smaller village but one that uses different languages.


This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.


Talal Musaed Alghizzi
(Ph.D. Candidate at University College Cork, Ireland)
Al Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU)
College of Languages and Translation
Riyadh
Saudi Arabia
t-alghizzi-ie@hotmail.com

Custom Search


  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.