The Miracle of Language and Linguistics

The Miracle of Language and Linguistics

by Diane M. Hoffmann

Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications

Language and linguistics are the names that refer, respectively, to the spoken forms of communication among the members of the various human cultures, and the science of such languages.

Linguistics include the study of human language and its phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics within the descriptive, historical, comparative and geographical structure and development and the relationship to other languages.

Language is the human speech or expression of communication of thoughts and feelings by means of vocal sounds.

A good cross-section of the meaning and descriptions of language and linguistics can be found in the Internet's Wikipedia.

But in this article, I'd like to give you a different perspective on the subject which you will not read anywhere else.

A few years ago, a prominent newspaper reported that until recently, science knew little of how humans developed language; through experiments with specially devised tools at the University of Indiana, researchers were able to send sounds of the human voice to children who are totally deaf.

The miracle, as described by those witnessing the scene, was not that children who were born deaf and never learned to speak were hearing and using spoken language for the first time… but ccording to Dr. Mary Joe Osberger, director of research in the department of otolaryngology, that until now, their ability to speak was zero, no matter how intensely they were trained.

This was a quantum step indeed into the sciences of the brain and language. It went on to say that because language is so important to humans, the brain “will not let it go”. For example, it says that children who suffer major damage on the left side of the brain from accidents or disease, can acquire language using the right side of the brains.”

The expert team said that after the age of seven, the flexibility to bounce language around in the brain diminishes… then relearning a language as a result of brain damage becomes more difficult.

It is beyond full explanation how important language is. Some evolutionists place language as the line between humans and animals.

But those who believe in God’s creation realize the magnitude of this fearfully and wonderfully made human body, in all its intricacies, which is made “a little lower than the angels” and which has been crowned “with glory and honor” (Psalms 8:4-6).

With language, we communicate in family and society, we learn, we teach our children, we run our communities and nations.

With language we can bless or curse our fellow human being… we exert power to move ahead in careers and in life. How wonderful God’s gift of tongue is.

The awesome complexity of language is further explained, in part, in the article reporting that, before birth human brain cells are created and assigned general jobs. After birth, a second wave of structural changes occurs as the number of connections, called synapses, are increased between brain cells.

The report explained that between birth and about age 1, the number of connections multiplies from about 50 trillion to 1,000 trillion. Then a third res-tructuring takes place between the ages of 4 and 10 where the brain seems “to glow like a nuclear reactor, pulsating at levels 225 percent higher than adult brains.”

It is said that during this time, learning a foreign language, math, a musical instrument or anything else is easy. Then beyond the age of 10, when the brain’s maps have been made, learning a language involves the building of new connections and the tearing apart of old ones. Wow!

This is where the real miracle comes in…

In Genesis, chapter 11, we read the story of Babel where God broke up the one world language of that time into many languages:

“Therefore is the name of it called, Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth”. (verse 9). That is a mighty miracle of God. These people had gone through all the biological and psychological transformations of language learning, and contained a whole nation of people including the old who had long passed the scientific reasoning “when the brain’s maps have been made and learning a language involves the building of new connections and the tearing apart of old ones.”

But “instantly” God changed their language and “confounded” them all into speaking many tongues right there and then so as to scatter them from their rebellious plan!

In light of what we discover today through science and technology, miracles we read about in the Bible are becoming more and more awesome./dmh

Article copyright(c)2009-2011, Diane M. Hoffmann. You may reprint this article without any changes, making sure to include this bio.

Diane M. Hoffmann is founder/director of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and the web site http://communicationverbalnonverbal.blogspot.com which offers free articles and tips on verbal and nonverbal communication. Diane is the author of the 296-page "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training and the 2-part ebook version of the same.
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Being Aware Of Our Body Language In Communication Is Half The Battle

by Diane M. Hoffmann, ph.d./th.

Body language in communication can be demonstrated in an almost unlimited list of nonverbal and verbal activities that take place in our daily communication.

Researchers have shown that verbal and nonverbal communication is a lot more subtle and difficult to categorize as it was previously thought.

We can write up a popular list of body language communication elements such as verbal, which is from spoken words, and nonverbal that show up in facial expression, gesture, attitude, posture, behavior, action, tone of voice, personality traits, cultural innuendos, appearance, presentation, stress, emotion, style, etc.

And within this list of body language in communication are also further adjective elements such as: smiling, frowning, happiness, sadness, anger, fear, signals, waving, pointing, loudness, pitch, inflection, strength, weakness, enthusiasm, depression, hesitancy, boldness, interested, disinterested, defensive, offensive, expectations, interpretations, ethical, situational, perceptional, spatial, social, normal, abnormal, familiarity, unfamiliarity, formal, informal, casual, looks, stares, blinks, friendliness, hostility, touch, contact, deficiency, abundance, hairstyles, clothing, color, mood, etc.

There are experts who spend their whole career studying what each of these elements mean. And then books are written to tell the public about their outcome which is supposed to help us read one another better.

However caution is necessary. Too many people will read a book and begin a post-reading exaggerated scrutiny of others.

Just because a book says that "crossing the arms over the chest" is a sign of domineering or un-cooperation, it does not mean that everyone crossing his/her arms is expressing that feeling! How many times have you done it and you were not being uncooperative.

Often, this posture is simply because one is tired of having his/her arms hang down the sides. I have seen in meetings, some of the most positively responding people, listening intently to a presenter, being most cooperating and happy about the subject -- all with arms crossed over the chest!

A speaker's eyes moving around the room while talking is construed to mean several things. Some studies have gone to the extent of saying that the direction of the eyes even tells what information they are "fetching" where in the brain (i.e. eyes to the left, searching in the right brain, eyes to the right, searching in the left, etc.).

I've seen people looking toward one corner of a room while speaking because there happened to be a distraction there! The right-brain/left-brain mechanism has a lot of truth to it, but sometimes "experts" can get too carried away. Nobody understands everything about the brain yet. But most times, people are just "searching" for their thoughts.

Neither does disconnecting eye contact with the listener necessarily mean the individual is hiding something from his listener -- or is lying. They may sometimes do that, but more often they don't. These conclusions are study results of behavioral extremes.

Rather than saying that the movements of the eyes in a certain way while speaking to another represent deception, teachers should say, "... it could mean deceiving or lying, but it usually means the person is shy or uncomfortable in the presence of authority or a stranger, or simply is not aware of a bad habit.

And there could be a whole list of other reasons. Shyness is often the cause of such behaviour. My sweet little seventy-five year old mother is so shy that she can't even look in the eyes of the cashier at the grocery store! And she has been like that ever since her childhood under an oppressive up-bring.

Someone may have never been taught how to communicate. Indeed, this habit is eliminated after a person has been made aware of it and has worked at correcting it -- in other words after reconditioning him/herself. Politicians or public relations and business people learn this as part of their training or experiences. But someone who does not work in a public environment may never have even heard of it!

Observe next time you hear people speak, most people's eyes do wander around. There is a higher percent of this taking place when the person speaks, then when the person listens. It is easier to focus the eyes on a person while listening because when we are speaking, we are searching for our thoughts, our ideas, our words, and our eyes will wander off of our listener's -- unless we are trained to keep them fixed on our audience. But that can be overdone sometimes too.

On television, it is difficult for inexperienced people to focus and keep their eyes directly on the camera -- again, unless they have been taught. If you are interviewed, it is important that you keep your eyes on the interviewer as the camera is on you, but when speaking to the audience, your eyes should be on the camera lens as you speak to the listeners.

This is not an article on the study in kinesic (body motion) and proxemic (use and perception of social and personal space) behavior. There are many good books available on the subject of nonverbal and body language. Your local librarian or book store will be able to direct you to helpful reading materials.

However this synopsis should bring the matter up to our attention for the awareness and improvement of our body language in communication./dmh

Article Copyright(c)Diane M. Hoffmann. You may print this article making sure to include the following bio without any changes.

Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.

Diane M. Hoffmann is the founder of Hoffmann-Rondeau Communications and author of the 296-page printed book "Contextual Communication, Organization and Training". Diane also provides a 2-part e-book version of her printed book, "Improve Communication, Verbal and Nonverbal" and "Improve Communication, Organization and Training" as well as many free articles which can be seen at her blog at http://contextual-communication-hrd.blogspot.com/.

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