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Essay on Phonological Processes in the English Language
The study of language has been a constant preoccupation with more or less professional researchers for thousands of years. Since the earliest times, much before the birth of linguistics as a distinct scholarly discipline, people have been aware of the essential role language plays not only in their everyday life, but also as a characteristic feature of mankind, radically differentiating human beings from other species of the animal kingdom. The earliest religious or sacred texts record the importance given by our ancestors to language and their consciousness of the fact that human existence itself cannot be conceived of outside the domain of language. If we were to refer only to the biblical tradition, the very beginning of the Book of the Genesis records the fact that the act of creation itself is intimately linked to speech. The creation of light is achieved through a speech act while all the subsequent stages of creation are preceded by God’s formulating His idea about what He was going to achieve, the creation proper only taking place after God pronounces the magic formula: “Let there be…” The newly created realities need names and God, explicitly satisfied with His work, duly proceeds to the naming of His world.
Creation is therefore preceded by, performed through, and followed by, a linguistic expression, which thus anticipates, materializes and completes it. After the creation of man, God created the other living creatures and asked man to find names for them. Thus Adam, who is made “in the image of God” takes over from Him the important role of instituting realities by means of language. The very act of creation cannot consequently be separated from that of naming whatever has come to have existence, since without a name the newly created realities don’t achieve a full ontological status.........
