Lincoln gives Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863. Undated illustration, artist unknown. The language code Modern linguistics has taught us that, in its essence, language is a special kind of code. When we crack a code, we understand an encoded message because we understand the language that we have translated the code into. Natural language is a different sort of code, because its forms are related to meaning directly.
Words refer to objects, actions, properties and logical connections.
Sentences relate words to each other to depict events and states of affairs in the conversation or whether a sentence is a statement or a question. Language is a complex code because all these types of representations interact to determine the meaning of each sentence in each context. Processing language Language processors activate these linguistic representations in speaking, understanding, reading and writing, in a remarkably fast and accurate way. For instance, when we speak, we select words in accordance with what we think our listener will understand. We activate the sounds for each word.