What is language?

Language is the system of human communication-whether spoken or written-where words are combined in a meaningful and structured way. We use language to express thoughts and emotions , communicate with others, to have wants and needs met and to learn and understand new concepts. Receptive language refers to the language a person is able to understand. Expressive language refers to the language a person is able to use.

What is a receptive language disorder?

A receptive language disorder is an impairment in comprehension of a spoken, written, and/or other communication symbol system (e.g., American Sign Language).

What is an expressive language disorder?

An expressive language disorder is an impairment the use of a spoken, written, and/or other communication symbol system (e.g., American Sign Language). The disorder may involve the form of language (phonology, morphology, syntax), the content of language (semantics), and/or the function of language in communication (pragmatics) in any combination

Language is a rule-governed behavior. It is defined as the comprehension and/or use of a spoken (i.e., listening and speaking), written (i.e., reading and writing), and/or other communication symbol system (e.g., American Sign Language).

Spoken and written language are composed of receptive (i.e., listening and reading) and expressive (i.e., speaking and writing) components.

Spoken language, written language, and their associated components (i.e., receptive and expressive) are each a synergistic system comprised of individual language domains (i.e., phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics) that form a dynamic integrative whole

Descriptions of the five language domains follow:

• Phonology—study of the speech sound (i.e., phoneme) system of a language, including the rules for combining and using phonemes.

• Morphology—study of the rules that govern how morphemes, the minimal meaningful units of language, are used in a language.

• Syntax—the rules that pertain to the ways in which words can be combined to form sentences in a language.

• Semantics—the meaning of words and combinations of words in a language.

• Pragmatics—the rules associated with the use of language in conversation and broader social situations.

The five basic language domains are part of a continuum which spans to higher order language skills, such as discourse, which is impacted by skills in the pragmatics domain.

Higher order language skills include inferencing; comprehension monitoring; interpretation of complex language, such as jokes and puns; and use.

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