If you were to ask anyone the question “What is language?” you would probably receive an answer that includes the word “communication.” Most of us, if we think about our language at all, have the common-sense notion that language exists for the purpose of communication. This way of thinking views language as a “tool” that people use to accomplish the “job” of communication. It may not be the only tool that people use for this job, and it may help accomplish other jobs as well. However, many people, both linguists and non-linguists, have the idea that the main purpose of human language is communication.

Viewing language as a tool has profound consequences for all kinds of applications. Whether you are planning to contribute to linguistic theory, document one of the many unwritten languages of the world, prepare educational materials, or simply learn to speak a second language, you will profit greatly from a perspective that considers language as a tool for communication. In this introductory section, we will explore this perspective in some detail, after which we will discuss some fundamental concepts of linguistic analysis.

Every tool has two components: a function and a form. The function is the job the tool is designed to accomplish, and the form is the tangible structure that accomplishes that job. For example, the main function of the kind of hammer pictured here is to pound nails into wood and to remove them.