Reflect on the following statements about language:

- "Language surrounds us every day and we know how to recognise it" (Language A: Course Companion)

            Every day we hear different things. Dogs barking, wind blowing, waves of the ocean splashing, people talking... All of these are sounds that we hear but when we talk to someone, or we hear others talking, language is applied and we know what it is, and if it’s English or Spanish we understand it. Not everything is language, as Wikipedia defines:”Language may refer to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication (...)” We know when we are listening to language or not. We use our brain capacity of attention to determinate if it’s language or not.

- "A word is one or more sounds that in combination have a specific meaning assigned by the language"

(http://anthro.palomar.edu/language/language_2.htm)

            “Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard” With this definition, everything we can hear is called “sound”. Different sounds (or the same), when put together in a certain way, form a word that has a meaning to us. That meaning comes from our brain which has the ideas of the object that WE put a word to define. When we know the word of a specific object, we know the meaning of the word. If we use the sounds in a different order, the meaning of the word is missing or changed. As said in the statement, the meaning to that specific combination of sounds is assigned by the language.

- "The most powerful tool known is the one we use to build every other tool"

(http://www.science20.com/chatter_box/blog/what_language)

            Even the smallest tool, or the biggest, can be a master tool which is used to create every other tool. The simplest tool will be the most efficient because it is the beginning of every other, without it, other tools can’t be created. Referring to language, without it, no society or community could have been created. No communication at all. No understanding, no learning. Language is the simplest but most efficient and powerful tool.