Introduction Paragraph

Do you remember speaking your first word or your first phrase? Do you remember how you obtained the knowledge to speak it and how you knew exactly what to say? As infants, we are not equipped with the proper verbal grammar skills to communicate efficiently, but that does not mean we will obtain them. We are, in fact, equipped with listening, observant, and comprehensive skills that aid in our efforts of learning a way of effective and productive communication. Whether or not we learn the majority of the language in the biological or cultural or is up to our personal backgrounds, although we are capable of learning by both methods. Language is both biological and cultural, as the way that human beings learn language can show us.

introduction jack dowdell

Communication at its root is an intense biological drive. Point blank, without the ability to communicate simple things such as getting fed or cared for when we are sick become an impossibility. From the time children are young they begin making noises and trying to form words. This is evidence to a huge internal drive we all posses.

Having said this, the way language is formed is intensely cultural. Evidence to support this claim is that we speak as people our own age speak for the most part. The slang and way I format my sentences are in no way similar to the way my father does. This is a reflection of the culture i grew up in just as the way my father speaks is a reflection of the culture he grew up in. 

Culture and Biology contribute a major portion of how we learn to talk. Without the biological drive to lean we simply wouldn’t. Without culture to copy we also simply would not learn. It is the combination of both that allows language to form as it does.

Introdution

Ryan Carr
Composition 1101
Professor Hughes
Blog 6
Introduction
The duality of human language when compared to the single fixed form of animals’ communication or language is paramount as a means of communication simply because of the limitation that is inherently present in the latter. (adapted from Yule, pg 12) Animal language cannot convey to the listener a past experience or a future desire. How intriguing it would be however if animals could do so! They can not and therefore are limited in their effectiveness of communication that was born with them. Instinctively animals’ language has a set of specific signals that become an automatic response conversely to human language acquired by cultural transmission. (adaped from Yule, pg 11) Human’s can convey their thoughts and intents about the past, present, and the future with the use of displacement complimented by an infinite vocabulary

Introduction to my paper

The second we are born into the world language is spoken from the tip of our tongue. Even though we can't say words for a while we are surrounded daily by the languages and speech of others. Being around this daily, we as baby geniuses tend to learn and comprehend certain things. The question is: "Do we get this from our genetics or from a certain person or is it by the culture we were born into, or maybe is it both?"

Can language express our emotion?

My eyes were re-opened to a world of innocence as I started mentoring at an afterschool program for elementary students. I began to analyze and observe each student’s interaction and behavior among one another. One particular boy not only seized my attention, but he also seized my heart. Erin was unique due to the fact his left arm had only developed just beyond his elbow. Compassion overwhelmed me to the point of tears as I began to think of how his overall happiness must suffer because of his abnormality. My initial conclusions were proved otherwise as I spent more time with the children. Surprisingly, I began to realize... Erin was just as happy as any of the children. I had judged Erin’s happiness incorrectly. Whether it is describing our experience or someone else’s experience, it seems that we all have those moments in life where we are unable to place our emotions into words. Even when we are able to place our emotions into language, are we accurately describing our feelings? One might object and claim to be confident in expressing oneself but language does not accurately describe emotion. Therefore it makes it difficult to express our self or understand the experience of others. 

English Authorities: A Threat to America as We Know It

The United States of America is known to the world as a melting pot of cultures. The ancestors of most of today’s citizens immigrated to this nation for many reasons, be it to escape famine, persecution, or just in hope of a better life. Regardless of the reason, they brought with them all of the traditions and languages of their culture. France has had an authority on language for many years, a group who decide what is correct and incorrect in the French language, and recently it has been suggested that America should as well. The US should not have an authoritative group overseeing language, because it poses a threat to the diversity that this nation is built on.

Animals CAN'T have language!...Can they?

People know that animals have been communicating forever because animals have friends, relatives, and other creatures in which they express what they want or need and they received what they “requested”. Animals have words for many things but if they do not have a word for it, they are not able to create one. Different animals are able to communicate in ways through dance and symbols. Some animals are able to communicate better than some humans. Animal communication, while not the same as human language, does deserve to be classified.

Intro

Within Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is Freedom of speech, which is the freedom to speak freely without censorship or limitation. The fact that the United States does not currently have an official language or language authority displays accordance to this law. If the United States were to standardize one particular language it would be showing a preference of one language or culture over many others.

Introduction for first formal paper

No one language is superior to any other language. This actuality has been confirmed by the fact that the United States of America has no official language, and that the people who live there are able to coexist in harmony. In fact, Americans not only get along harmoniously, but they also prosper in the mix of cultures that a multilingual society provides. There have been occurrences during the course of history where someone wanted to create a standard in America, but those attempts were futile. The United States does not have the authority to force its inhabitants to adopt one single language or language type because it would reinforce the idea that one language is superior to all others.

Animal Communication, Not Language

Most children grow up learning sounds of animals like dogs, cats, cows, chickens and many other common animals. The children are taught dogs bark, cats meow, cows moo, and chickens cluck. This is a simple, yet extremely true fact. Each of the animals mentioned make these noises as their form of communication with other animals of the same species. Also, according to Yule, "Animal communication seems to be designed exclusively for this moment, here and now."(2) This statement and observation supports the fact that animals have ways to communicate, but there are certain biological limits for each animal that restrict their ability to have an official language.

"Oinkers Oink and Talkers Talk, Talkers Don't Talk"----Introduction

Yule states "Humans are continually creating new expressions and novel utterances by manipulating their linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations. This property is described as productivity and it is linked to the fact that the potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite"(10). You might ask yourself what exactly does this mean? Well, this quote supports the theory of humans and animals not being able to communicate due to the fact that humans have a far more complex language that animals cannot understand. Animals communicate with one another by motions and noises such as grunts, growls, and purrs. These ways of communication are simply just not advanced enough to communicate with humans as humans use emotion, expression, and complex verbal skills to communicate. Humans and animals both have languages and ways of communication but these languages are completely different as animals are not able to communicate with humans.

Animal Communication does it exist?

Yule states that "there are a lot of stories about creatures that can talk. We usually assume that they are fantasy or fiction or that they involve birds or animals simply imitating something they have heard humans say."(1) Do we as humans really believe that animals are capable of communicating because they imitate us? Or do we believe that they have their own way of communicating? I believe that animals may seem to have language based on sound. However, these sounds are not language because they lack displacement, arbitrariness and productivity.

Introduction

Koko, a lowland gorilla, can use over a thousand signs to communicate and can understand up to two thousand words in English. When Koko’s IQ was tested on a scale of one hundred, she scored between seventy and ninety five. These facts beg the question, are animals capable of communication with species other than their own? Koko, unlike most animals, was raised in captivity, and was constantly around humans. Would Koko have been able to develop these same communication skills had she been raised in the wild? Animals have no ability to communicate with humans, unless they are conditioned by continued human contact. This tells us that animal communication is not on the same level as human language.

Once Upon A Time...In A Galaxy Far Far Away....There Was Language Contoversy!!!!

Introduction Paragraph for Formal Paper

Pinker wrote "language is so tightly woven into human experience that it is scarcely possible to imagine life without it"(17). Can you possibly say this is not true? Although we as humans can not remember exactly when we learned the language we speak today, it had to come from roots or traits, leading us to our different forms of verbal communication. When did it click? What made us speak the way we do today? These questions form the base of many arguments over language controversy. The processes to learn a language come from two very different contributors in a congenital sense. Cultural interactions determine language development whether derived from the learning from cultural influence, or our biological make-up as human beings as the "instinct to acquire an art"(20). Therefore, "a common language connects the members of a community into an information sharing network...." that further defines how we continue to live and communicate, as our own person, and who we are as a community of language speaking human beings(16).