The English language English is one of the most important languages in the world. It can even be regarded as the single most important language. Though other languages are important too‚ they are not the same as the English language is. English is important because it is probably the only language that truly links the whole world together. If not for English‚ the whole world may not be as united as it is today. The other languages may be important for their local values and culture.Considering
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Is language an instinct? Before discussing this question‚ the definition or area of language should be considered first. Many introductions to the study of language‚ linguistics‚ avoid giving a definition‚ or consider it to be so obvious that it does not need to be defined (Harley‚ 1995). According to Gleason and Ratner (1998)‚ one of the properties attributed to language is that it is a uniquely human behaviour. Pinker (1994:334) points out that: nonhuman communication systems are based
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Language and Thought No one would disagree with the claim that language and thought interact in many significant ways. There is great disagreement‚ however‚ about the proposition that each specific language has its own influence on the thought and action of its speakers. On the one hand‚ anyone who has learned more than one language is struck by the many ways in which languages differ from one another. But on the other hand‚ we expect human beings everywhere to have similar ways of experiencing
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The language is the most important means of communication. It is necessary to be able to communicate not only in your own language but also in a foreign language. That is why people learn languages. The most important language of all is our mother tongue. We learn it from very young and it stay with us until we die. When we want to learn a new language‚ we must know our own very well. There are many different people and everyone learns a foreign language in his own way. For some people to learn
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Refer the theories of language acquisition (Behaviorist theories‚ nativist theories and interactionist theories) and write an evaluation of them.Consider the stages of language acquisition in the evaluation of these theories. Human language development is a huge debate between Nature Vs Nurture within theorists of various fields in psychology.There are three major schools of thought that will be mainly focused on; behaviourist‚ nativist (rationalist)
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To what extent can the language and literature of a nation or a race reflect the history and culture of this nation or race? To what extent can the soul of a nation and the universal values in the innermost recesses of the minds of humanity be revealed in the language and literature of a given country? To those questions‚ only the person who is long engaged in the study of this field can find distinctive answers and develop unique perceptions. I believe that the perception of the historical and cultural
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First Year Seminar: What are Heritage Languages? 13 September 2014 The Importance of Language Maintenance at Home. Immigrant families come from numerous parts of the world to settle in the United States for a variety of reasons. Whether they come for economic prosperity or to escape persecution‚ and whether the stay is intended to be permanent or temporary‚ as long as they are speakers of a language other than English‚ they will face the dilemma of language maintenance. Parents have to make the decision
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Can language be used as a political instrument? Language is a system of signs and meanings that usually shared by a community of people. There is no doubt that language is very important and necessary in the society. Language offers people the means for interaction and to depict ‘people‚ places and things’. (Butt and David‚ 1986) Edward Sapir (1884–1939)‚an American linguist and anthropologist‚ was the first one who proposed the idea that the power of language can influence culture and thinkings
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could turn to are dying off of the face of the earth. Thus the global trend of language loss is an issue incredibly worthy of long overdue attention; it may in fact be our last meaningful alternative to rescue the plight of humanity’s survival. As a repository of knowledge‚ an expression of culture‚ and a symbolic embodiment of a way of life‚ the loss of a language speaks for itself. Although some Aboriginal languages are on the brink of extinction in Canada‚ regrettably‚ not many people are listening
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Figurative and literal language is different methods used in conveying and analyzing language. Literal language refers to words that do not differ from their original definition. Figurative language refers to words or groups of words that exaggerate the meanings of the words. Figurative language is not used literally but instead involves similarities to concepts or other contexts; which results in a figure of speech. For example‚ “it’s raining hard outside” is literal and “it’s raining cats and
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