Understanding Human Language: An In-Depth Exploration of the Human Facility for Language

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By Kendra A. Palmer
2009, Vol. 1 No. 12 | Page 6 of 6 |
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Language: What Started it All

Even though human culture incorporates language, language is what started it all. As Kottak and Kozaitis conclude, “the use of language creates social institutions, practices, and the ideology that supports them” (Kottak and Kozaitis, 272). Through language and speech, other aspects of culture developed; language made possible the presentation of more abstract ideas, which led to cultural depth and differences. The innate language facility, therefore, produced derivatives such as writing and reading, incongruities in access to literacy, and accents and dialects, which are cultural archetypes. These constructs have been interpreted culturally and have had extensive consequences.

The mind is a treacherous thing. It is where language is processed, understood, and stored, which is in itself an astonishing capability. But it is also where the products of language are created in order to form opinions— where the decision to discriminate is made. Cultural factors are molded by mankind’s simple desire to express oneself, to be heard, to communicate.


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Kendra A. Palmer graduated in 2008 with a concentration in English & Anthropology from University Of Colorado At Denver in Denver, CO.

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