Most human beings use at least one and some times two or more languages. So language is a very important part of everyday life for every human being. Everyone should be denied the pain or even the horror of the inability to speak at least one language their mother tougue or native language. It is difficult to imagine what the world of a person would be like without being able to use at least one language. It would obviously be a very odd world indeed!
Yet, there are thousands of thousands, or even millions,of people who cannot make use of spoken language. Most people in this category are referred to as deaf and dumb. Nowadays there are specialist who are able to communicate with deaf and dumb people by using signs, symbols and gestures,a kind of unspoken language. We see them on television and cable networks.
Does the speakers of a language understand it and use it fully?it is very doubtful that the speaker of any language does. That is because all languages are very complex. They are also very dynamic, constantly adapting and changing,at a slower or faster rate. It is no wonder that no one fully understand a language.
Language is also, perhaps more than any other concept, very difficult to define. That might sound odd considering that we use language everday. Those who understand language very well, though not fully are call language specialists. They spend all their lives studying language and how it works in great depth. That's precisely the primary duty of a language scholar.
Some people say that the study of language brings us closer to understanding the 'human essence,' the distinctive qualities of mind that are unique to human beings. Because we use language everday of our lives,this definition is relevant to ordinary users of language as well. If through language, we approach what is 'human essence', we can use language to define Man in his nature, characteristics, life and all that he stands for.
In a simple way, this appears to mean that language is Man and Man is language.
