Robin Burden answered
One way of looking at language would be to divide it into the following (intrinsically-linked) characteristics:
Every linguist will have his own interpretation on the characteristics that make up a language so, if you're looking for information to use when writing an essay or school report, I'd recommend you read up on the opinions of some well-regarded language specialists.
Henry Sweet is a great example - he was an English phonetician and language scholar who came up with the idea that language is the expression of concepts by means of oral sounds.
He also argued that these sounds can be combined to form words. Words, in turn, are used in conjunction with each other to form sentences, and these sentence and word constructions can be used to convey complex ideas and thoughts.
The different 'levels' or 'structures' that Sweet talks about are common to every language in the world, so I'd say they constitute the five characteristics of language.
- Phonology/Phonetics
- Morphology
- Syntax
- Semantics
- Pragmatics
Every linguist will have his own interpretation on the characteristics that make up a language so, if you're looking for information to use when writing an essay or school report, I'd recommend you read up on the opinions of some well-regarded language specialists.
Henry Sweet is a great example - he was an English phonetician and language scholar who came up with the idea that language is the expression of concepts by means of oral sounds.
He also argued that these sounds can be combined to form words. Words, in turn, are used in conjunction with each other to form sentences, and these sentence and word constructions can be used to convey complex ideas and thoughts.
The different 'levels' or 'structures' that Sweet talks about are common to every language in the world, so I'd say they constitute the five characteristics of language.
