CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The possession of language is one of the most important attribute that distinguishes humans from other lower animals. Therefore, the need to understand the nature of language that makes humans human can not be over emphasized. In the philosophy expressed in the myths and religions of many people, language is the source of human life and power. The Human society is characterized by various ways of communication such as signs and symbols.The Human language is the most important method or vehicle of communication through which humans express themselves. Sapir (1921) affirms that language is ―purely human, non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols‖ To the Tiv in Nigeria, words hold the power to deliver humans from ill-luck and foretell evil and even death. This illustrates that humans live in a world of language.
Fromkin et al (2011) is of the view that much is still unknown about the nature of human languages, their grammar and use and that the science of linguistics is chiefly concerned with exploring human language, hence investigations by linguists and the analyses of spoken languages date back to at least 1600 BCE in Mesopotamia. Fromkin op. cit. further posit that wherever humans exist, language exists; this is so because, the importance of language is essential to every aspect and interaction in our everyday lives. We use language to inform the people around us of what we feel, what we desire, and question/understand the world around us. We communicate effectively with our words, gestures, and tone of voice in a multitude of situation. Through language, people can connect with other people and make sense of our experiences, this means that there are no ―primitive‖ languages; all languages are equally complex and capable of
expressing an idea in the universe.The importance of language among people is not different, no matter what one‘s nationality is. A close look at other languages reveals that most languages are actually pretty similar, their differences are mainly in alphabet, pronunciation and grammar with the syntax generally staying the same. Language is used to show our understanding of the culture and lives of our fellow men in other lands. Similarly, there are grammatical categories such as nouns and verbs that are found in all languages. This work therefore seeks to examine the linguistic properties of a language within a language (ishor i kpehen and wuhe kuran) with the view to upholding and strengthening the credibility of the facts above and extending their potency to the analysis of cult language. Language studies reveal that one of its basic features is that of communication which Adler and Rodman (2006) refer to as the process of human beings responding to the symbolic behaviour of other persons. Thus, Yule (2011) observes that humans are clearly able to reflect on language and its uses; he further asserts that the property of reflexivity accounts for the fact that we can use language to think and talk about language itself, making it one of the distinguishing features of human language. Boas as cited by Danesi (2004) discovers many things that suggested to him that languages serve people, above all else, as classificatory devices for coming to grips with their particular environmental and social realities. An example is the various terms the Eskimos had devised for the ‗Seal.‘ Danesi op.cit notes that specialized vocabularies serve classificatory functions across the world, encoding realities that are perceived to be critical within particular cultures. This brings to mind the Whorfian Hypothesis (WH) henceforth which posits that language structures predispose native speakers to attend to certain concepts as being necessary. He further asserts that people cannot understand each other except a language is used to convey several expressions and meanings. There are ways in which the resources of any language can be used to communicate cross-culturally.