Linguists have proposed various definitions to help language. The definitions emphasize the ability to produce and understand both spoken and written words (Owens, 2016). However, these explanations do not suffice as most aspects of language are not covered. Therefore, language is a form of communication using words and hand gestures following the grammatical structure. To fully understand and define a language, aspects such as semantics, pragmatics, morphology, and phonology of the language are essential. These considerations apply not only in spoken language but also in signed language.
Semantics is generally concerned with the relationship between words and how the words make meaningful sentences. Understanding the semantics of both spoken language and signed language is essential. Semantics determine how a person understands others and the reading comprehension of a spoken language (Brentari, Fenlon & Cormier, 2018). Similarly, semantics contribute to how one interprets the signs in signed language. Semantics is essential as it involves building meaning, and how the meaning of words and symbols of a language change over time.
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Pragmatics is another crucial feature of the language to consider when defining language. Pragmatics is concerned with cues in language. Pragmatic skills are essential to help in expressing our thoughts, ideas, and feelings to others (Leech, 2016). People use pragmatic skills to communicate verbally in case of spoken language. Furthermore, pragmatic skills are applied in signed language to express non-verbally through movement and handshapes. Concerning the definition of language, pragmatics is a crucial aspect of understanding a language and responding appropriately. In the absence of pragmatics, both spoken and signed languages would be incomplete as pragmatics give context to language.
Language relies on morphology to a great extent. Morphology is the study of the internal construction of the smallest meaningful units in a language. Through understanding morphemes, a person can comprehend and produce written or spoken words and signs. If two morphemes are combined to form a new word, the many new words form a language. The similarities between sign language and spoken language in terms of morphology are that words and signs come from fundamental units of a language, for example, hand positions and syllables.
It is impossible to talk about language without mentioning the patterns of sounds in a language. The study of the organization of sound in a language is called phonology. Phonology plays a vital role in organizing sounds and specifying how sounds interact with each other. Good mastery of phonology ensures that one is only able to speak and convey a message correctly. Phonology mostly applies to spoken or oral language. However, sign language also includes phonology as an equivalent component of its grammar, though not extensively (Brentari, Fenlon & Cormier, 2018). The difference in terms of sound patterns between spoken and signed language is that in sign language, the gestures are not spoken or heard.
In conclusion, many approaches may apply when defining language. Language is extensive in scope with very many components to base the definition. Both spoken and signed languages have similar aspects in that they both have the same grammatical characteristics such as pragmatics, morphology, and phonology. Moreover, both involve producing and understanding of signs and words. Differences also exist based on the significant aspects of language, but the similarities are more.
References
Brentari, D., Fenlon, J., & Cormier, K. (2018). Sign language phonology. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics.
Leech, G. N. (2016). Principles of pragmatics. Routledge.
Owens, R. E. (2016). Language Development: An Introduction 9e.
