A short question about my paragraph

Question

Hello, I'm writing a short paragraph about various sorts of languages. I want to start with a topic sentence looking like this:

Language is divided into many different types.

I'm just not sure if I should write "The language" of just "Language". In the paragraph I'm referring to the language in general and I'm going to put some examples of the types of language like: sign language, body language etc. So i think i should write "Language".

Correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks.

Martin

KrisBlueNZ · Accepted Answer

Morrru"Language is divided into many different types."

I'm just not sure if I should write "The language" of just "Language".
In the paragraph I'm referring to the language in general and I'm going to put some examples of the types of language like: sign language, body language etc. So i think i should write "Language".
You're right to use just LANGUAGE. THE language is definitely wrong.
But that sentence is confusing. I would say "There are many TYPES of language: sign language, body language..." or maybe "The word 'language' has meaning beyond spoken and written language".

If you say that language is DIVIDED INTO many different types, that implies that there's a basic overall idea of language, which includes all these types of language, and that you can divide it into those types. It's like saying that the animal kingdom can be divided into categories like insects, mammals, etc. But the word LANGUAGE, by itself, normally refers to spoken/written language only (the word comes from the word for TONGUE), so it's not a large sweeping concept like "the animal kingdom".
Also, MANY implies more than four. I don't know how many types of language you're going to cover, but it might be better to use SEVERAL instead of MANY.

A short question about my paragraph

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