Business Language and Fundamentals of Langauge BBS First Year Business English

 

Unit Two

Language

Language (https://youtu.be/9GuwlPP9yX4) is an oral, written, or non-verbal system of communication used by a particular community or group that uses voice sounds, written symbols, and gestures that convey meanings. It consists of rules for combining symbols to produce a variety of messages by the speakers. Language is an important vehicle of communication that expresses our thoughts and feelings. While using the language for communication, the user/ writer encodes the messages by using signals such as sounds, scripts, and non-verbal signs, and the listener/reader decodes those symbols to make meaning out of them. Incorrect grammar, syntax, overuse of obscure words, or ambiguity distorts the messages, posing a barrier to communication

Business Language

Link for Video: https://youtu.be/bsXfkfOU9VE 

Business English is the type of English used in business contexts such as International Trade, Commerce, Finance, Insurance, Banking, etc. In business, there are three main “languages” – accounting, finance, and economics.

Fundamentals of Language

According to Ethnologue, there are more than 7,000 living languages spoken in the world. Each language has its system of codes used while communicating in the mass. To be a member of a particular community, one must know the basic rules and standards guiding the language, its nature, or its functions.

Some fundamentals of the language are mentioned below:

Language and Meaning (https://youtu.be/-6hoDNZoV5g ): Language communicates through symbols that represent something else. For example, when we say ‘Namaste’, the sounds used are verbal symbols for greeting, whereas writing letters such as N-A-M-A-S-T-E are scripts that stand for greeting. A symbol (the word ‘Pigeon’) may represent the bird pigeon, but also peace or freedom, or love. Therefore, some symbols can have several referents. The relation between a symbol (sound ‘Namaste’ or ‘Pigeon’), the idea of greeting or peace, love (in our mind), and the referent (actual greeting or a pigeon) is indirect. We try to find out if a word is connotative or denotative.

Connotation is an idea or feeling that a word invokes for us so it includes the literal meaning of a word based on how we associate at present with our experiences. For example, the word ‘SHERPA’ denotes a member of an ethnic community but it also means a guide or helper, heroic, exploited etc.  

Denotation is the primary meaning of the word as we find in a dictionary. Monosemic words have only one use in language so they are easier to signify.  Meaning-making in a language is a complex process that requires rules to make language learnable and usable. Rules determine the boundaries of language for what is acceptable or not and what is used or not in speech, writing or non-verbal languages. A human being is biologically programmed for language acquisition. A human being gets mastery over his native language in just two years of his life. By his early teens, he acquires all the linguistic information that is required to communicate in his society. 

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