Language And Language: The Evolution Of Language

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1.2. The evolution of language:

We can be certain of one thing regarding languages, that it is flexible, it continues to evolve over time, adapting to societies and the environment. This brings me to my first question: How and why did language evolve? Language evolution includes the following: evaluation of the language as a communicative system and of course the evolution of specific languages across generations and within different communities.
A quote from Charles Darwin directs us to Gestural theory:
„I cannot doubt that language owes its origin to the imitation and modification, aided by signs and gestures, of various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, and man’s own instinctive cries.” — Charles Darwin - (John Tyler Bonner …show more content…

In order to send the message he produces a signal and establishes a code for the given information that the receiver will have to decode. The signal is transmitted by a channel and the code protects the signal from other disturbing sources, for example noise, so that the signal reaches the receiver in a nearly unaltered form. The last step is the decoding of the message by the receiver to understand its meaning and significance. (Beciu 2009, …show more content…

Communication theory: Agenda setting theory

The Agenda setting theory was developed in 1968 by Dr. Max McCombs and Dr. Donald Shaw during the American presidential election in the same year. This theory originally suggested that the media sets the public agenda in the sense that: “Media may not tell you what to think, but it will tell you what to think about.” (McCombs M.E. 1972, 176)
Editors, newsroom staff, and broadcasters play an important part in process of shaping reality and by choosing and displaying relevant news. Readers learn not only about a given issue, but also learn how much importance to attach to that respective issue. This can be established by the amount of information that is presented in the give news story and the position it takes. The mass-media is the one setting the agenda by determining the importance of an

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