In the philosophy of language, a natural language (or ordinary language) is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written. Natural language is distinguished from constructed languages and formal languages such as computer-programming languages or the "languages" used in the study of formal logic, especially mathematical logic.
Read more about Natural Language: Defining Natural Language, Native Language Learning, Origins of Natural Language, Controlled Languages, Constructed Languages and International Auxiliary Languages
Famous quotes containing the words natural language, natural and/or language:
“The eye of genius has always a plaintive expression, and its natural language is pathos.”
—Lydia M. Child (1802–1880)
“We do not want them to have less.
But it is only natural that we should think we have not enough.
We drive on, we drive on.
When we speak to each other our voices are a little gruff.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“It is a mass language only in the same sense that its baseball slang is born of baseball players. That is, it is a language which is being molded by writers to do delicate things and yet be within the grasp of superficially educated people. It is not a natural growth, much as its proletarian writers would like to think so. But compared with it at its best, English has reached the Alexandrian stage of formalism and decay.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)