Unit+01+--+The+Power+of+Language

What is language?
Language has three basic characteristics
 * 1) Semanticity, or the ability to communicate meaning
 * 2) Productivity, or the ability to produce new forms of itself
 * 3) Displacement, or the idea to displace meaning into moments of time other than the immediate present

Language is
 * natural
 * it is an instinct (see Pinker) that is hardwired into humanity
 * it evolves similarly to the evolution of life by natural selection
 * social
 * it facilitates interpersonal (micro-social) interaction
 * it is enmeshed in macro-social realities such as ethnic identities and power structures (whether formal or tacit)
 * historical
 * its natural development occurs in social context as a function of time, such that every language is a product of long historical development

Resources
Here's a link to an [|interactive timeline] of the history of the English language.

Check out this YouTube video on the origins of BEV: media type="youtube" key="LvuWSJI87r8" height="315" width="420"