Language and its Role in Social Communication

Dhiya Aldeen Khalil Ibrahim, Muhammad

	Language and its Role in Social Communication
Journal Dawat
Article 1, Volume 2, Issue 5, 2016, Pages 51-86
Author
Muhammad Dhiya Aldeen Khalil Ibrahim
Abstract
The research studies language from two trends : 1-The formal side , on which Arabs distinguished two branches; syntax and morphology. According to Westerners, it includes the pure linguistics which deals with the language system excluding the context of social communication. 2.The second side is the communicative trend which studies language production in a certain context . This includes different branches such as, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics . Despite the multiplicity of these studies and their focus on a particular aspect , they all share a common framework which is the given communicative framework. Researchers have tried to identify the act of communication, how it occurs, and the strategies employed by the sender to communicate with others. Since communication is a social activity between two or more parties, and even between individual and itself, many forms of communication are distinguished. Some forms of communication include personal communication, interpersonal, social communication, and cultural communication. Each form is based on specific elements, and some of them may appear in all forms. The process of communication gives life to language because language lives in communication , and it dies away from it. Language is not regarded as language unless it is used by societies .This is supported by Durkheim who mentioned that, “the boundaries of languages tend to correspond with the boundaries of social groups.» Therefore; language does not exist or live unless it is in a particular social group. This also proves that language is a social phenomenon. A human being communicates with the members of society that he lives in , and mixes with them at different times and places. Language is essential to human life. A human being can get along without many things, but cannot dispense with language as a part of life. On the basis of this social function of language, we intend to investigate the social and linguistic communication and its forms in language from the perspective of the rhetorical heritage of our ancestors. We attempt to analyze its rules , explaining its bases , and demonstrating its pivots . Therefore, this study is conducted for this purpose. In order to achieve this aim , the study is divided into three sections: The first section is titled ‹communication› , concepts meanings . In and this section,we dealt with the concept of communication, its meaning in the ancient and the modern scholars, the concept of social communication and its most important elements. The second topic is titled, ‹Modes of language and social communication› , in particular discourse as a sample of study. In this section, the modes of language and social communication are reviewed, mainly focusing on discourse as the most important subject of language and social communication , which is discussed by Arab Rhetorician in their study and analysis. The third section is titled as ‹language social communication rules›. It briefly describes the topic of rules in the process of social communication, that were established by Arab rhetoricians. These rules consist of the conformity of speech within situations .This section ended with speech defects which must be a given particular attention to in the process of communication, such as the defects that are related to pronunciation, and those related to the orator or speaker. Some conclusions are drawn : 1. Language has several functions. The most important is the communicative function, which would give life to language, because language lives in use and does not live without it. 2.Arab scholars in their language and rhetorical heritage paid attention to the meaning of communication through their definition of language. Bin Genie gave it communal attribute. 3. Arabic scholars pinpointed the components of communication ,such as sender (speaker) and recipient (hearer) as the key components of communication. A message is exchanged (news) by either a channel (language) or anything that replaces it such as hand gesture or nodding the head ,etc. This does not occur except in a particular context (situation/place). To achieve complete understanding between them, speaker and hearer must get to know a certain code, which Ibn Sinan called convention, and thus completed the six components of communication.

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