| 释义 |
▪ I. language, n.1|ˈlæŋgwɪdʒ|
Forms: 3–6 langage, (3 langag, 4 longage, langwag, 5 langwache, langegage), 3, 5– language.
[a. F. langage (recorded from 12th c.) = Pr. leng(u)atge, lengage, Sp. lenguaje, Pg. linguage(m, It. linguaggio:—pop.L. type *linguāticum, f. lingua tongue, language (F. langue: see langue).
The form with u, due to assimilation with the F. langue, occurs in AF. writings of the 12th c., and in Eng. from about 1300.]
1. a. The whole body of words and of methods of combination of words used by a nation, people, or race; a ‘tongue’. dead language: a language no longer in vernacular use. first language: one's native language. second language: a language spoken in addition to one's native language; the first foreign language one learns.
c1290S.E. Leg. I. 108/55 With men þat onder-stoden hire langage. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 1569 Vor in þe langage of rome rane a frogge is. a1300Cursor M. 247 (Gött.) Seldom was for ani chance Englis tong preched in france, Gif we þaim ilkan þair language [MS. Cott. langage], And þan do we na vtetrage. Ibid., 6384 (Gött.) Þis mete..Þai called it in þair langag man. 1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls) II. 157 Walsche men and Scottes, þat beeþ nouȝt i-medled wiþ oþer nacions, holdeþ wel nyh hir firste longage and speche. c1400Apol. Loll. 32 In a langwag vnknowun ilk man and womman mai rede. c1449Pecock Repr. i. xii. 66 Thei..han vsid the hool Bible..in her modris langage. c1450Mirour Saluacioun 3650 Wymmen spak these diuerse langegages. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. i. 40 They haue beene at a great feast of Languages, and stolne the scraps. 1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. iv. (Arb.) 156 After a speach is fully fashioned to the common vnderstanding, and accepted by consent of a whole countrey and nation, it is called a language. 1699Bentley Phal. xiii. 392 Every living Language..is in perpetual motion and alteration. 1769De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 7) IV. 303 It is called in the Irish Language, I-colm-kill; some call it Iona. 1779–81Johnson L.P., Addison Wks. III. 44 A dead language, in which nothing is mean because nothing is familiar. 1823De Quincey Lett. Yng. Man Wks. 1860 XIV. 37 On this Babel of an earth..there are said to be about three thousand languages and jargons. 1845M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 13 In fact, Bede is writing in a dead language, Gregory in a living. 1875Stubbs Const. Hist. II. 414 The use of the English language in the Courts of law was ordered in 1362. 1875W. D. Whitney Life & Growth of Language ii. 25 We realize better in the case of a second or ‘foreign’, than in that of a first or ‘native’ language, that the process of acquisition is a never-ending one. 1876C. M. Yonge Womankind vi. 40 The second language has been really and grammatically learnt. 1943I. A. Richards Basic Eng. & its Uses 14 The history of the nationalist movement in India is an instructive instance. Its leaders and its chief supporters are speakers of English and sometimes use it rather as their first than as their second language. 1962R. Quirk Use of English i. 6 Something like 250 million people for whom English is the mother-tongue or ‘first language’. 1971Guardian 23 June 7/3 Indians and Pakistanis..using a second language at school and their first language for many home activities.
fig.1720Gay Prol. Dione 4 Love, devoid of art, Spoke the consenting language of the heart. 1812W. C. Bryant Thanatopsis 3 To him who in the love of Nature holds Communion with her visible forms, she speaks A various language.
b. transf. Applied to methods of expressing the thoughts, feelings, wants, etc., otherwise than by words. finger language = dactylology. language of flowers: a method of expressing sentiments by means of flowers.
1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. iv. v. 55 Ther's a language in her eye, her cheeke, her lip. 1697Collier Ess. Mor. Subj. ii. 120 As the language of the Face is universal so 'tis very comprehensive. 1711Steele Spect. No. 66 ⁋2 She is utterly a Foreigner to the Language of Looks and Glances. 1827Whately Logic (1850) Introd. §6 A Deaf-mute, before he has been taught a Language, either the Finger-language, or Reading, cannot carry on a train of Reasoning. 1834tr. C. de la Tour's Lang. Flowers 95 It is more especially by..modifications that the Language of Flowers becomes the interpretation of our thoughts. 1837Penny Cycl. VIII. 282/2 Dactylology must not be confounded with the natural language of the deaf and dumb, which is purely a language of mimic signs. 1847Thackeray Van. Fair (1848) iv. 31 Perhaps she just looked first into the bouquet, to see whether there was a billet-doux hidden... ‘Do they talk the language of flowers at Boggley Wollah, Sedley?’ asked Osborne, laughing. 1876Mozley Univ. Serm. vi. 134 All action is..besides being action, language. 1880Times 23 June 9/5 Teaching the deaf by signs and by finger language. 1894H. Drummond Ascent Man 212 A sign Language is of no use when one savage is at one end of a wood and his wife at the other. 1949Enquire within upon Everything (ed. 122) 462 Language of Flowers. The symbolism of flowers has always possessed a certain fascination, especially for the young person of either sex.
c. transf. Applied to the inarticulate sounds used by the lower animals, birds, etc.
1601Shakes. All's Well iv. i. 22 Choughs language, gabble enough, and good enough. 1667Milton P.L. viii. 373 Is not the Earth With various living creatures, and the Aire Replenisht,..know'st thou not Thir language and thir wayes? 1797T. Bewick Brit. Birds (1847) I. p. xxvii, The notes, or as it may with more propriety be called, the language of birds.
d. Computers. Any of numerous systems of precisely defined symbols and rules for using them that have been devised for writing programs or representing instructions and data.
1949E. C. Berkeley Giant Brains iii. 29 We must translate into machine language, in this case punched holes in the program tape. 1956Jrnl. Assoc. Computing Machinery III. 272 In the development of an automatic coding system, two major problems arise. The first is to develop a coding language which permits a programmer to specify the computation he wants the machine to perform. Once this has been done, there remains the task of coding a compiler for a particular high speed calculator which will translate the language into actual machine instructions... The language described here is the one translated by the PACT I Compiling Routine into instructions for the IBM Type 701. 1959E. M. Grabbe et al. Handbk. Automation, Computation, & Control II. ii. 186 The purpose of these activities has been to..set up a class of languages that will be easily translatable by machine from one to another, and also easily recognizable to the ordinary human user... Such languages form the input to a class of automatic computer programs called translators, which perform a translation..into a second or target language. The latter may be either (1) an assembly language such as SOAP, SAP, or MAGIC.., or (2) a straight machine language, in pure decimal, binary (or in some cases such as the Univac I and II), alphanumeric. 1961Leeds & Weinberg Computer Programming Fund. ii. 46 The best way of writing down operations is to write them in alphabetical format. A format used for writing down these alphabetical instructions is called the programming language or paper language, to distinguish it from the machine language..acceptable to the machine circuitry. 1964F. L. Westwater Electronic Computers ix. 145 As the benefits of these codes were realised, each manufacturer produced different ‘languages’. 1966A. Battersby Math. in Managem. viii. 206 If each manufacturer prepares a compiler routine which will translate instructions in some universal ‘language’ into a program in his own code, then programs written in the universal language can be run on any machine. 1967A. Hassitt Computer Programming i. 1 An efficient way of learning to use a computing machine utilizes one of the problem oriented languages such as Fortran, Algol, or PL/1. 1970A. Cameron et al. Computers & Old Eng. Concordances 27 If we program in so-called higher-languages, like Fortran, conceivably pli,..I myself will be very surprised if the next generation of machines will not accept Fortran programming and probably Cobol, Algol, and pli programming.
2. a. In generalized sense: Words and the methods of combining them for the expression of thought.
1599Shakes. Much Ado iv. i. 98 There is not chastitie enough in language, Without offence to vtter them. 1644Milton Educ. Wks. (1847) 98/2 Language is but the instrument conveying to us things useful to be known. 1781Cowper Conversat. 15 So language in the mouths of the adult,..Too often proves an implement of play. 1841Trench Parables ii. (1877) 25 Language is ever needing to be recalled, minted and issued anew. 1862J. Martineau Ess. (1891) IV. 104 Language, that wonderful crystallization of the very flow and spray of thought. 1892Westcott Gospel of Life 186 Language must be to the last inadequate to express the results of perfect observation.
b. Power or faculty of speech; ability to speak a foreign tongue. Now rare.
1526Wolsey Let. to Tayler in Strype Eccl. Mem. I. v. 66 A gentleman..who had knowledge of the country and good language to pass. 1601Shakes. All's Well iv. i. 77, I shall loose my life for want of language. If there be heere German or Dane, Low Dutch, Italian, or French, let him speake to me. 1610― Temp. ii. ii. 86 Here is that which will giue language to you Cat; open your mouth. 1790Cowper Receipt Mother's Pict. 1 Oh that those lips had language!
3. a. The form of words in which a person expresses himself; manner or style of expression. bad language: coarse or vulgar expressions. strong language: expressions indicative of violent or excited feeling.
a1300Cursor M. 3743 Iacob..Þat es to sai wit right langage, Supplanter als of heritage. c1384Chaucer H. Fame ii. 353 With-outen any subtilite Of speche..For harde langage and hard matere Is encombrouse for to here Attones. c1425Lydg. Assembly Gods 368 In eloquence of langage he passyd all the pak. 1430–40― Bochas ii. xiii. (1554) 53 a, Though some folke wer large of their langage Amisse to expoune by report. c1489Caxton Blanchardyn i. 14 For it is sayde in comyn langage, that the good byrde affeyteth hirself. a1533Ld. Berners Huon lxix. 236 Come to y⊇ poynt, and vse no more such langage nor suche serymonyes. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iv. ix. 45 Be not to rough in termes, For he is fierce, and cannot brooke hard Language. 1611Bible Ecclus. vi. 5 Sweet language will multiply friends. 1643Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. i. §5 By his sentence I stand excommunicated: Heretick is the best language he affords me. 1694Penn Pref. to G. Fox's Jrnl. (1827) I. 15 They also used the plain language of Thou and Thee. [1759Burke Philos. Enquiry Sublime & Beautiful (ed. 2) v. vii. 338 We do not sufficiently distinguish, in our observations upon language, between a clear expression, and a strong expression.] 1770Junius Lett. 187 They suggest to him a language full of severity and reproach. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 135 These pretended constitutionalists recurred to the language of insult. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vi. II. 118 He lived and died, in the significant language of one of his countrymen, a bad Christian, but a good Protestant. 1855Motley Dutch Rep. ii. ii. (1856) 155 In all these interviews he had uniformly used one language: his future wife was to ‘live as a Catholic’. c1863T. Taylor in M. R. Booth Eng. Plays of 19th Cent. (1969) II. 109 Come, cheeky! Don't you use bad language. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) V. 348 The language used to a servant ought always to be that of a command. a1910‘Mark Twain’ Autobiogr. (1924) II. 88 She made a guarded remark which censured strong language. 1934R. Macaulay Milton vi. 100 Milton's familiarity with the tradition [of scurrility] may account for much of his strong language, even when reviling in English.
b. The phraseology or terms of a science, art, profession, etc., or of a class of persons.
1502Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W. 1506) Prol. 4 The swete and fayre langage of theyr phylosophy. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 21, I can drinke with any Tinker in his owne Language. 1611― Cymb. iii. iii. 74 This is not Hunters Language. 1651Hobbes Leviath. iii. xxxiv. 207 The words Body, and Spirit, which in the language of the Schools are termed Substances, Corporeall and Incorporeall. 1747Spence Polymetis viii. xv. 243 Those attributes of the Sword, Victory, and Globe, say very plainly (in the language of the statuaries) that [etc.]. 1841J. R. Young Math. Dissert. i. 10 Thus can be expressed in the language of algebra, not only distance but position. 1891Speaker 2 May 532/1 In it metaphysics have again condescended to speak the language of polite letters.
c. The style (of a literary composition); also, the wording (of a document, statute, etc.).
1712Addison Spect. No. 285 ⁋6 It is not therefore sufficient that the Language of an Epic Poem be Perspicuous, unless it be also Sublime. 1781Cowper Conversat. 236 A tale should be judicious, clear, succinct, The language plain. 1886Sir J. Stirling in Law Times Rep. LV. 283/2 There are two remarks which I desire to make on the language of the Act.
d. long language: † (a) verbosity (tr. Gr. µακρολογία; (b) language composed of words written in full, as opposed to cipher.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie iii. xxii. (Arb.) 264 Macrologia, or long language, when we vse large clauses or sentences more than is requisite to the matter. 1823J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 34 Those Greeks did not use cypher, but the long language of the country.
e. vulgar. Short for bad language (see above).
1860Dickens Uncomm. Trav. (1861) v. 65 Mr. Victualler's assurance that he ‘never allowed any language, and never suffered any disturbance’. 1865― Dr. Marigold's Prescriptions i, in All Year Round Extra Christmas No., 7 Dec. 4/1 But have a temper in the cart, flinging language and the hardest goods in stock at you, and where are you then? 1886Besant Childr. Gibeon ii. xxv, That rude eloquence which is known in Ivy Lane as ‘language’. 1893F. C. Selous Trav. S.E. Africa 3 The sailor..had never ceased to pour out a continuous flood of ‘language’ all the time. 1929C. C. Martindale Risen Sun 173, I have heard more ‘language’ in a ‘gentleman's’ club in ten minutes than in all that evening in the Melbourne Stadium. 1974‘M. Innes’ Mysterious Commission vii. 75 ‘You behave like bloody fools.’ ‘Language, now, Mr Honeybath, language.’
f. Phr. to speak (talk) someone's language, to speak (talk) the same language: to have an understanding with someone through similarity of outlook and expression, to get on well with someone; to speak a different language (from someone): to have little in common (with someone).
1893‘S. Grand’ Heavenly Twins I. ii. vi. 256 What could Evadne have in common with these flippant people..? They did not even speak the same language. (To their insidious slang she opposed a smooth current of perfect English.) 1904H. James Golden Bowl I. xvii. 297 They hung together, they passed each other the word, they spoke each other's language, they did each other ‘turns’. 1915Conrad Victory iv. xi. 391 You seem to be a morbid, senseless sort of bandit. We don't speak the same language. 1923H. Crane Let. 13 Apr. (1965) 131 The older poets and writers down here..don't talk the same language as we do. 1930A. Huxley Brief Candles viii. 284 You'll perceive that he speaks your language, that he inhabits your world of thought and feeling. 1938F. Scott Fitzgerald Let. 7 July (1964) 33, I want my energies and my earnings for people who talk my language. 1957J. Osborne Look Back in Anger ii. ii. 64 As for Jimmy—he just speaks a different language from any of us. 1961A. Wilson Old Men at Zoo i. 25 Bobby..had presumed that since he and I ‘spoke the same language’, I should naturally dislike the Director as much as he did. 1971R. Rendell No More Dying Then xix. 166 She really didn't understand him at all, his need to be respectable... They didn't speak the same language.
†4.
a. The act of speaking or talking; the use of speech. by language: so to speak. in language with: in conversation with. without language: not to make many words. Obs.
a1400Cov. Myst. iv. Noah's Flood ii, Afftyr Adam with⁓outyn langage, The secunde fadyr am I [Noe] in fay. a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 18 My fader sette me in langage with her. 1461Paston Lett. No. 393 II. 17, I said I dwelled uppon the cost of the see here, and be langage hit were more necessare to with hold men here than take from hit. 1477Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 57 One was surer in keping his tunge, than in moche speking, for in moche langage one may lightly erre. 1490Caxton Eneydos xxviii. 107 Wythout eny more langage dydo..seased thenne the swerde. 1514Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) p. xviii, To morowe of court we may have more language.
†b. That which is said, words, talk, report; esp. words expressive of censure or opprobrium. Also pl. reports, sayings. to say language against: to talk against, speak opprobriously of. Obs.
a1450Knt. de la Tour (1868) 2 And so thei dede bothe deseiue ladies and gentilwomen, and bere forthe diuerse langages on hem. 1465Marg. Paston in P. Lett. No. 502 II. 188, I hyre moch langage of the demenyng betwene you and herre. 1467Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 172 Ȝe haue mekel on setenge langwache aȝenste me, were of I mervel gretely for I have ȝeffen ȝowe no schwsche kawse. 1470–85Malory Arthur ii. xl, Euery daye syre Palomydes brauled and sayd langage ageynst syr Tristram. 1485Caxton Chas. Gt. 225 Feragus said in this manere... The valyaunt Rolland was contente ryght wel, & accepted hys langage. 1636Sir H. Blunt Voy. Levant 33 A Turke..gave such a Language of our Nation, and threatning to all whom they should light upon, as made me upon all demands professe my selfe a Scotchman.
5. a. A community of people having the same form of speech, a nation. arch. [A literalism of translation.]
1388Wyclif Dan. v. 19 Alle puplis, lynagis, and langagis [1382 tungis]. 1611Bible Ibid. 1653Urquhart Rabelais i. x, All people, and all languages and nations.
b. A national division or branch of a religious and military Order, e.g. of the Hospitallers.
1727–52Chambers Cycl., Language is also used, in the order of Malta, for nation. 1728Morgan Algiers I. v. 314 Don Raimond Perellos de Roccapoul, of the Language of Aragon,..was elected Grand Master. 1885Catholic Dict. (ed. 3) 413/2 The order [of Hospitallers]..was divided into eight ‘languages’, Provence, Auvergne, France, Aragon, Castile, England, Germany, and Italy.
6. attrib. and Comb.
a. simple attributive, as language acquisition, language-capacity, language change, language course, language description, language engineering, language event, language-family, language-form, language-group, language-history, language-pattern, language sign, language structure, language-study, language-system, language-turn, language-use.
b. objective, as language-learner, language-learning, language-maker, language-teacher, language-teaching, language-user, language-using; language area, (a) an area of the cerebral cortex regarded as especially concerned with the use of language; (b) a region where a particular language is spoken; language barrier, a barrier to communication between people which results from their speaking or writing different languages; language-contact Linguistics (see quot. 1964); language-game Philos., a speech-activity or limited system of communication and action, complete in itself, which may or may not form a part of our existing use of language; language laboratory (colloq. language lab), a classroom, equipped with tape recorders, etc., where foreign languages are learnt by means of repeated oral practice; language-master, a teacher of language or languages; language-particular a., = language-specific adj.; language-specific a. Linguistics, distinctive to a specified language.
1921H. E. Palmer Princ. Lang.-Study 14 In addition to certain spontaneous capacities, we possess what we may term ‘studial’ capacities for *language-acquisition. 1965N. Chomsky Aspects of Theory of Syntax i. 52 The innate structure of a language-acquisition device. 1971D. Crystal Ling. 257 Alternative theories of language acquisition are much needed.
1937Bull. Los Angeles Neurol. Soc. II. 36 (heading) Case illustrating capacity for use of symbols after destruction of the major (left) *language area. 1939L. H. Gray Foundations of Lang. ii. 25 One may frequently say that such-and-such an individual is from such-and-such a district within the language-area. 1961Lancet 12 Aug. 361/2 The insistence that the degree of disability—e.g., in aphasia—was proportional to the amount of ‘language area’ destroyed.
1933Discovery Sept. 281/2 Science itself..might go forward with greatly increased efficiency if the *language barrier were removed by the adoption of Basic for Abstracts and Congresses. 1961Guardian 18 May 8/2 A German girl tries to talk to him, but the language barrier is impenetrable. 1971Physics Bull. Sept. 514/2 Important work in a number of countries may be missed because of the language barrier.
1875Whitney Life Lang. xiv. 281 Every division of the human race has been long enough in existence for its *language-capacities to work themselves out.
1912L. Bloomfield in C. F. Hockett Leonard Bloomfield Anthol. (1970) 37 A suggestion of ‘concerted effort to shape usage’ is..hitched on to a discussion of the universal unconscious processes of *language-change. 1968J. Lyons Introd. Theoret. Ling. i. 22 To have developed a general theory of language change and linguistic relationship was the most significant achievement of nineteenth-century linguistic scholarship.
1954U. Weinreich in Saporta & Bastian Psycholinguistics (1961) 378/1 A full account of interference in a *language-contact situation..is possible only if the extra-linguistic factors are considered. 1964M. A. K. Halliday et al. Ling. Sci. 77 Situations in which one language community impinges on another have been called ‘language contact’ situations. 1966Amer. Speech XLI. 39 A name in a language-contact situation is sometimes the only element which survives the impact of another language.
1921H. E. Palmer Princ. Lang.-Study 54 Most *language-courses must necessarily be corrective courses. 1973A. Price October Men xi. 155 [He] had been sent on a language course at a provincial English university.
1963J. Lyons Structural Semantics ii. 36 The distinction between language-operation and *language-description. 1971D. Crystal Ling. 54 It proved necessary to..redefine many of the catagories,..to make them applicable to the task of language description.
1953J. B. Carroll Study of Lang. iv. 113 Linguistics may play a part in the solution of certain social problems. If so, a new kind of applied science—‘*language engineering’ as it has recently been termed—may come into being. 1957Economist 7 Sept. 851/2 An electronic data-processing machine..is breaking new ground in ‘language engineering’ by providing words—as many as five consecutive ones—which are missing from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
1964English Studies XLV. 21 This admits under the label of ‘English’ a great range of different kinds of ‘*language event’. 1965R. M. W. Dixon What is Lang.? 93 The data to be accounted for are observed language events.
1891Tablet 29 Aug. 331 The rank it holds among the *language-families of the world.
1901H. Oertel Lect. Study of Lang. ii. 102 The results of all higher classification beyond these, such as *language-forms, are ideal types. 1932A. H. Gardiner Theory of Speech & Lang. iv. 207 Jespersen..points out that particular phrases used in this way have become so stereotyped as to be real language-forms, e.g. Well, I never! I must say! Most curious of all is I say! with nothing following. 1934R. Benedict Patterns of Culture (1935) iii. 48 When we describe the process [of the evolution of Gothic architecture] historically, we inevitably use animistic forms of expression as if there were choice and purpose in the growth of this great art-form. But this is due to the difficulty in our language-forms. 1971D. Crystal Ling. 71 The philosophical search for laws of thought underlying language forms.
1921H. E. Palmer Princ. Lang.-Study 145 *Language-games may not further the student sufficiently in the habit-forming process. 1933–4Wittgenstein Blue & Brown Bks. (1958) 17, I shall in the future again and again draw your attention to what I shall call language games. These are ways of using signs simpler than those in which we use the signs of our highly complicated everyday language. Language games are the forms of language with which a child begins to make use of words. 1970A. MacIntyre Marcuse vii. 80 Wittgenstein tries to construct language games. 1970Times Lit. Suppl. 23 July 787/1 In this country it was a dominant caste of philosophers..who seemed to be most gainfully preoccupied with the verbal manifestations of mind, having been coached at ‘language-games’ by Wittgenstein.
1927Peake & Fleure Peasants & Potters 121 A group with common speech, that is to say a *language-group. 1964English Studies XLV. Suppl. 11 His systematic sub-division of the principal language-groups..represents an astonishing linguistic perception.
1875Whitney Life Lang. Pref. 5 Scholars..versed in the facts of *language-history.
1963Guardian 4 Oct. 4/3 In a ‘*language lab’ each student has his own booth and a tape-recorder which guides his speaking in French, Russian, or in any other language. 1968A. Diment Bang Bang Birds ii. 18 There was my speech training. Usually a couple of hours a day down in the language labs.
1931R. H. Waltz in Mod. Lang. Jrnl. XVI. 217 (title) *Language laboratory administration. 1946French Rev. XX. 19 A large Language Laboratory was installed... Phonographs and records were available at all times of the day. 1963Listener 14 Nov. 791/1 In 1942..my ideas were referred to as the ‘language laboratory’, a name that has stuck..to this day. 1969Ibid. 3 July 8/2 I've done most through the Language Laboratory. I think it's a marvellous idea to start off a language by listening to what people say in the language. 1973Jrnl. Genetic Psychol. CXXIII. 7 The Ss were brought in groups of 20 to 30 students each, to a language laboratory where they were seated at individual carrels.
1921H. E. Palmer Princ. Lang.-Study 14 Most *language-learners at the present day are found to make an almost exclusive use of their studial capacities. 1965N. Chomsky Aspects of Theory of Syntax i. 43 Cyclic regularities..are much more difficult for the language-learner to construct.
1697J. Sergeant Solid Philos. Asserted Pref. §10 Perhaps there is not one Evident Truth in it..but only such a way of Plausible Discourse or *Language-Learning, as may serve equally and indifferently to maintain either side of the Contradiction? 1964Language XL. 134 Chomsky's hypothesis is that the child is innately equipped with a language-learning device.
1607Brewer Lingua iii. v. F 2, These same *language makers haue the very quality of colde in their wit, that freezeth all Hetero⁓geneall languages together. 1867W. D. Whitney Lang. & Study of Lang. v. 197 Language-makers in different parts of the earth. 1952H. Read in B. Hepworth Carvings & Drawings p. ix/1 In this situation the artists of a period are the language-makers, inventing visual symbols.
1712Addison Spect. No. 305 ⁋11 The Third is a sort of *Language-Master, who is to instruct them in the Style proper for a Foreign Minister in his ordinary Discourse. 1831T. Moore Mem. (1854) VI. 190 It turned out that what his friend, the language-master, had..been teaching him was Bas-Breton!
1968P. M. Postal Aspects Phonol. Theory viii. 164 The function of morpheme structure rules was to represent those *language-particular predictable constraints on the possible combinations of feature specifications both within a segment and sequentially. 1970Language XLVI. 377 It is a possible language-particular constraint on pronominalization in complex structures that a pronoun and its antecedent must lie within the same ‘chain of command’.
1935G. K. Zipf Psycho-Biol. of Lang. (1936) 19 Conditions present in all speech-elements or *language-patterns. 1961J. B. Wilson Reason & Morals iii. 178 Accepted language-patterns..act primarily as conservative forces both in the individual and in society.
1946C. Morris Signs, Lang. & Behavior 350 In this book ‘*language sign’ is often used in place of ‘lansign’. 1970Language sign [see lansign]. 1972Language XLVIII. 431 The post-Saussurean debate on the arbitrary nature of the language sign.
1965N. Chomsky Aspects of Theory of Syntax iv. 166 However, there are also many *language-specific redundancies. 1969Computers & Humanities III. 258 Studies of..relative frequencies of language-specific syllabic patterns. 1970Language XLVI. 784 It is non-language-specific in that it is empirically based on studies in English, some ten Meso-American languages, some twenty-four Philippine languages, and a few scattered languages from other areas.
1933L. Bloomfield Lang. i. 18 H. Steinthal..published in 1861 a treatise on the principal types of *language structure. 1971D. Crystal Ling. 59 Areas of language structure other than grammar were disregarded in most traditional accounts.
1921H. E. Palmer (title) The principles of *language-study. 1933L. Bloomfield Lang. i. 1 Many people have difficulty at the beginning of language study. 1964C. Barber Ling. Change Present-Day Eng. vii. 149 Your own speech..is always the right place to begin language-study.
1940A. H. Gardiner Theory of Proper Names 67 Regardless of the *language-system as a whole. 1946Mind LV. 339 This task should be approached by construction of consistent language-systems. 1966English Studies XLVII. 193 An item in a highly personal language-system.
1826Pusey Let. to Lloyd in Life (1893) I. v. 97 A *language-teacher gives me lectures..five times a week. 1921H. E. Palmer Princ. Lang.-Study 58 The language-teacher must possess a considerable knowledge of phonetic theory.
Ibid. 15 The *language-teaching forces of nature. 1964W. R. Lee in D. Abercrombie et al. Daniel Jones 291 The clear purpose is to see in what manner aids can subserve language-teaching.
1803Southey Let. to C. W. W. Wynn 9 June, In all these modern ballads there is a modernism of thought and *language-turns to me very perceptible.
1956J. Holloway in A. Pryce-Jones New Outl. Mod. Knowl. viii. 42 Discoveries about *language-use which are in themselves not necessarily connected at all with metaphysics. 1963J. Lyons Structural Semantics i. 7 The known or apparent facts of language-learning and language-use. 1965N. Chomsky Aspects of Theory of Syntax 6 The grammar of a particular language..is to be supplemented by a universal grammar that accommodates the creative aspect of language use.
1953Mind LXII. 332 The sentence..mentions neither linguistic expressions nor *language users. 1959Brno Studies in English I. 29 The consciousness in language-users of the existing quasi-ideographic trends of the written norm. 1961Encounter Mar. 60/1 Intentional action is characteristic of human beings..as language-users. 1971D. Crystal Ling. 85 We must..start with the study of individual language users.
1921H. E. Palmer Princ. Lang.-Study 96 These then are the chief things to be done once we have decided to enlist on our behalf the universal and natural powers of *language-using. 1954U. Weinreich in Saporta & Bastian Psycholinguistics (1961) 376/1 The language-using individuals are thus the locus of the contact.
Add:[1.] [a.] (b) foreign-language: used attrib. to designate esp. films produced in a foreign language. Hence with other defining adjs., designating films, newspapers, translations, etc., in which the specified language is used.
1940N.Y. Times 30 Dec. 20/2 ‘The Baker's Wife’ was voted the best foreign-language production. 1950Britannica Bk. of Year 173/1 The New York film critics made the following selections for 1949: best picture of the year, All the King's Men; best foreign-language picture, The Bicycle Thieves (Italian); [etc.]. 1962Maclean's Mag. 17 Nov. 4/1 Editors of French language newspapers who had wailed about [etc.]. 1972Korea Herald 17 Nov. 4/7 (Advt.), The Korea Herald is one of the liveliest English language papers in the Far East. 1974Listener 14 Feb. 196/2 The Russian-language version which has now appeared in the West contains only the first two of seven parts. 1989N.Y. Times 26 Dec. 25/1 Nestled among the samovars..is a stack of the Russian-language edition of Monopoly.
[6.] [a.] language behaviour.
1946F. P. Chisholm in W. S. Knickerbocker 20th Cent. English 178 Every observer of *language-behavior can call up examples of such ‘misunderstandings’ of language-fact relationships. 1986R. Cameron Portage v. 81 The expanded sequence incorporates language behaviours from all areas of the checklist and adds new behaviours to provide a profile of development.
language school.
1937Middlebury Coll. (U.S.) Bull. 1937–38 28 (heading) *Language schools. 1943School & Society 3 Apr. 370/1 After nine weeks of intensive instruction in the language school at Laramie, Wyoming, one graduate was sent on a mission to South America. 1974D. MacKenzie Zaleski's Percentage i. 22 After three weeks at a language-school he'd given up the struggle with syntax and cancelled the rest of the course. 1987R. Ingalls End of Tragedy 82 Mr Murdoch recommended a language school he'd gone to for French.
[b.] language arts chiefly Educ. (orig. U.S.), skills such as reading, writing, spelling, etc., taught in order to develop proficiency in the use of language.
1939Recent Trends in Reading (Conf. on Reading, Univ. Chicago) v. 87 By *language arts we mean all uses of language to convey or to receive the conceptions of the mind. 1953J. B. Carroll Stud. of Lang. i. 4 The psychometrician..tries to make tests of ‘verbal intelligence’ or tests of achievement in various language arts. 1981Amer. Speech LVI. 167 The focus is on problems of language-arts education.
language death Linguistics, the process whereby a language, esp. that of a cultural minority, falls into disuse or becomes extinct.
1972W. Dressler in Papers 8th Regional Meeting Chicago Linguistic Soc. 448 *Language death has been viewed as an extreme case of language contact. The victorious language slowly replaces the dying language. 1987Cambr. Encycl. Language lx. 360/2 As shown by the history of the Celtic languages.., the contact can lead to a language being completely eliminated (language death).
language loyalty Linguistics, the continued use of or preference for a language, esp. within a culture where another language is dominant.
1953U. Weinreich Languages in Contact (Publ. Linguistic Circle of N.Y. No. 1) iv. 99 The sociolinguistic study of language contact needs a term to describe a phenomenon which corresponds to language approximately as nationalism corresponds to nationality. The term *language loyalty has been proposed for this purpose. 1985J. Richards et al. Longman Dict. Appl. Linguistics 158 Some immigrant groups in the USA, such as Estonians, have shown a high degree of language loyalty.
language maintenance Linguistics, the (degree of) preservation of a language by users who are in contact with another language or languages; also loosely, = *language loyalty above.
1964J. A. Fishman in Linguistics ix. 32 The study of *language maintenance and language shift is concerned with the relationship between change or stability in habitual language use,..and ongoing psychological, social or cultural processes. Ibid. 33 Although somewhat more cumbersome than previously proposed terms, ‘language maintenance and language shift’ may have the advantage of more clearly indicating that a continuum of processes and outcomes exists. 1980English World-Wide I. i. 14 Laws themselves are insufficient to either support or undercut language maintenance.
language planning Linguistics, the preparation or implementation of a formal policy on language use; spec. the codifying and standardization of the language(s) to be used in a nation having many local languages or dialects.
1959E. Haugen in J. A. Fishman Readings Sociol. of Lang. (1968) 673 By *language planning I understand the activity of preparing a normative orthography, grammar and dictionary for the guidance of writers and speakers in a non-homogeneous speech community. 1971Rubin & Jernudd Can Language be Planned? p. xv, Practitioners of actual language planning often attempt to solve language problems in purely linguistic terms. 1983G. Lewis in Cobarrubias & Fishman Progress in Language Planning 309 Language planning is an aspect of social change. 1994Lang. in Society XXIII. 459 A significant body of data on language planning, language change, and the dissemination of literacy in the Uzbek-speaking area of Central Asia.
So language planner.
1959E. Haugen in J. A. Fishman Readings Sociol. of Lang. (1968) 674 The *language planners have sought deliberately to upset the status quo by rejecting the linguistic models of their social élite. 1980Word 1979 XXX. 30 A ‘language planner’..is not necessarily a professional linguist, grammarian, or lexicographer.
language shift Linguistics, the move from the habitual use of one language to the use of another (often culturally dominant) language by an individual or speech community.
1953U. Weinreich Languages in Contact (Publ. Linguistic Circle of N.Y. No. 1) ii. 68 A *language shift may be defined as the change from the habitual use of one language to that of another. 1964J. A. Fishman in Linguistics ix. 32 The study of language maintenance and language shift is concerned with the relationship between change or stability in habitual language use,..and ongoing psychological, social or cultural processes. 1980Word 1979 XXX. 43 It cannot be stated with certainty that whenever such conditions as prestige or advantage obtain, language shift inevitably occurs.
language universal Linguistics = universal n. 6.
1948B. W. & E. G. Aginsky in Word IV. 169 There is a double interest in the study of *language universals, due to the twofold nature of language itself. 1981Ferguson & Heath Language in U.S.A. iv. 72 The language universals theory overcomes problems inherent in both the monogenetic and polygenetic theories.
▪ II. language, v.|ˈlæŋgwɪdʒ|
[f. language n.]
trans. To express in language, put into words.
1636Abp. Williams Holy Table (1637) 95 Learn, Doctour, learn to language this Sacrament from a Prelate of this Church. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. vi. xiii. (1821) 294 The style and manner of languaging all pieces of prophecy. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. vi. v. False Miracles §11 Predictions..were languaged in such doubtfull Expressions, that they bare a double sense. 1667Waterhouse Fire Lond. 185 Seneca has languaged this appositely to us.
b. transf. To express (by gesture).
1824New Monthly Mag. X. 196 'Twas languaged by the tell-tale eye.
Hence ˈlanguaging vbl. n. In quot. attrib.
1875Lowell in N. Amer. Rev. CXX. 395 It is very likely that Daniel had only the thinking and languaging parts of a poet's outfit.
▪ III. language
variant of languid n. (sense 2). |
