Have you ever wondered about the variety in languages spoken across the world? According to Wikipedia - In the philosophy of language, a natural language (or ordinary language) is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written. Natural language is distinguished from constructed languages and formal languages such as computer-programming languages or the "languages" used in the study of formal logic, especially mathematical logic.
In Computer Science students study formal languages and automata theory where they study the classification of languages given by American linguist Noam Chomsky as Type 1 , 2 , 3 etc. If the students are to benefit and gain insight they should be exposed to international literature on the subject. An interested reader might like to read on the programming language classifications here.
Why is the study of natural language interesting? Although there are a variety of natural languages, any cognitively normal human infant is able to learn any natural language. By comparing the different natural languages, scholars hope to learn something about the nature of human intelligence and the innate biases and constraints that shape natural language, which are sometimes called universal grammar.
In a sense, written language should be distinguished from natural language. Until recently in the developed world, it was common for many people to be fluent in spoken and yet remain illiterate; this is still the case in poor countries today. Furthermore, natural language acquisition during childhood is largely spontaneous, while literacy must usually be intentionally acquired. What difference exists in the thought patterns of an illiterate from that of a literate person? It is an area of research that holds huge scope. Path breaking work has been done in understanding how human babies learn language skills. Brain activity is being monitored to find regions where language processing happens. You might have come across news clippings announcing that in the near future it would be possible to connect a wire to the human brain and send or receive information directly. It is not science fiction and is very much a possibility.
Why is the study of natural language interesting? Although there are a variety of natural languages, any cognitively normal human infant is able to learn any natural language. By comparing the different natural languages, scholars hope to learn something about the nature of human intelligence and the innate biases and constraints that shape natural language, which are sometimes called universal grammar.
In a sense, written language should be distinguished from natural language. Until recently in the developed world, it was common for many people to be fluent in spoken and yet remain illiterate; this is still the case in poor countries today. Furthermore, natural language acquisition during childhood is largely spontaneous, while literacy must usually be intentionally acquired. What difference exists in the thought patterns of an illiterate from that of a literate person? It is an area of research that holds huge scope. Path breaking work has been done in understanding how human babies learn language skills. Brain activity is being monitored to find regions where language processing happens. You might have come across news clippings announcing that in the near future it would be possible to connect a wire to the human brain and send or receive information directly. It is not science fiction and is very much a possibility.
(Source: Wikipedia, Category: Curated Content)
