Language - Translation, Grammar, Communication

language

Table of Contents

Introduction
Characteristics of language
- Definitions of language
- Historical attitudes toward language
- Ways of studying language
  - Phonetics and phonology
  - Grammar
  - Semantics
Language variants
- Dialects
- Jargon
- Pidgins and creoles
- Nonverbal language
  - Sign language
  - Paralinguistics
  - Symbolic and computer language
Physiological and physical basis of speech
- Speech production
- Language acquisition
Meaning and style in language
- Types of meaning
  - Structural, or grammatical, meaning
  - Lexical meaning
- Semantic flexibility
  - General and specific designations
  - Neologisms
- Language and conceptualization
- Style
Language and culture
- Transmission of language and culture
- Language and social differentiation and assimilation
- The control of language for cultural ends
  - Second-language learning
  - Nationalistic influences on language
  - Translation
  - Messages and codes
- Language learning
  - Bilingualism
  - Literacy
- Written language
  - Evolution of writing systems
  - Spelling
  - Written versus spoken languages
Linguistic change
- Diversification of languages
  - Changes through time
  - Changes through geographical movement
  - Tendencies against change
- Language typology

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So far, some of the relatively large-scale effects of culture contacts on languages and on dialects within languages have been surveyed. A continuous concomitant of contact between two mutually incomprehensible languages and one that does not lead either to suppression or extension of either is translation. As soon as two users of different languages need to converse, translation is necessary, either through a third party or directly. Before the invention and diffusion of writing, translation was instantaneous and oral; persons professionally specializing in such work were called interpreters. In predominantly or wholly literate communities, translation is usually thought of as ...(100 of 25352 words)

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