UNIT_1_language.pdf
- 1. Properties of a Language Cristina Chirino UNEFM
- 2. Properties of Language Properties of Language Properties of Language Authors give different names to the features that characterize language. They use similar terms like properties or characteristics to refer to these features. You can see two similar classification of these features of language which are universal in all languages. According to Francis P. Dinneen language is: 1.- Sound 2.- Linear 3.- Systematic 4.- Meaningful 5.- Arbitrary 6.- Conventional 7.- Creative 8.- Unique 9.- Similar to other languages According to George Yule language is or has: 1.- Displacement 2.- Arbitrariness 3.- Productivity 4.- Cultural Transmission 5.- Discreteness 6.- Duality
- 3. Yules Yules’ ’s s Classification Classification Displacement We can refer to past, present and future time, and others locations, no Only the here and now. Arbitrariness It implies that there is no necessary A natural (iconic) connection between a linguistic form and its meaning Productivity This property is linked to the fact that the potential number of utterances in any human Language is infinite. Discreteness: The sounds used in a language are meaningful distinct. Duality: Meaningless units are combined to form arbitrary signs. Other properties: Specialization = function Communicate Feedback = Any speaker/sender can be a Listener/ Receiver. Vocal – auditory channel. Cultural Transmission: The process whereby the language is passed on from one generation to the next. This is crucial in the human acquisition process.
- 4. Dinnen Dinnen’ ’s s Classification Classification Sound The most common experience that man has with the language is in speaking Linear The sound are produced by successive movements of the speech organs. one sound after another Systematic It is describable in terms of a finite number of units that can combine only in a limited number of ways Meaningful The sounds produced in speech are connected with almost every fact in human life. Conventional Because people use according to fixed analogical rules. Using the same word for the same thing among a community. Creative: Knowing a limited number of utterances It provides the basis to produce and understand new sentences . Unique Since languages are arbitrary, each language must be considered as unique. That is why we have to learn different patterns in the study of a new language Arbitrary: It means that is not necessary a connection between the sounds that each language produced and the message expresses.
- 5. A system of communication, medium of thought, a vehicle for literary expression. WHAT IS LANGUAGE? WHAT IS LANGUAGE? WHAT IS LANGUAGE? The communication occurs due to the ability of the speakers to produce and understand unlimited number of utterances, including many that are new or Unfamiliar for them. GRAMMAR It is the mental system that allows human beings to form and interpret the words and sentences of their language. The system of human communication which consists of the structured arrangement of sounds (or their written representations) into larger units, e.g. morphenes, sentences, utterances.
- 6. CHARACTERISTICS Generality = all languages have grammar Equality = all grammars are equal Universality = Grammars are alike in basic ways Tacitness = Grammatical knowledge is acquired without the help of instructions when one is still a child. (in the case of mother's tongue acquisition) COMPONENTS COMPONENTS Phonetics = Articulation and perception of speech Phonology = the pattering of speech sounds Morphology = Word formation Syntax = sentence formation Semantics = The interpretation of words / sentences LANGUAGE LANGUAGE