Language Basic Principles

Communication Systems All communication systems share 3 features:

Communication Systems 1.Mode — a means of communication, signals or signs

Communication Systems 2. Semanticity — The signal means something to users

Communication Systems 3. Pragmatic function — Language is a communication system that is used to produce a useful result

Communication Systems Many communication systems share the following 4 features:

Communication Systems 4. Interchangeable — all users can emanate or receive signals equally

Communication Systems 5. Cultural Transmission — acquired from associating with a community

Communication Systems 6. Arbitrariness — relation of signal to its meaning is arbitrary

Communication Systems 7. Discreteness — utterances (messages) are made up of distinct units

Communication Systems True language — human language — is characterized by the following two features

Communication Systems 8. Displacement — may communicate about things not present in space or time

Communication Systems 9. Productivity — open-ended can make an infinite number of sentences can make sentences never made before

Human Understanding the category ‘human’ means recognizing the faculty for displacement and productivity in language It is these which distinguish human from other forms of life

Linguistics signs Linguistic sign — A spoken form with a conventional meaning –These are the signals that make up a language

Iconicity and arbitrariness Iconic signs— Language: Sound like the thing named by the word Graphemes: Look like the thing/meaning of the word

Linguistics signs, iconicity, and arbitrariness Non-arbitrary signs include the following: a. Words such as barnyard sound words or words for natural noises — Such words sound like the thing they represent (iconic)

Linguistics signs, iconicity, and arbitrariness These words are adjusted to the phonetics of the language using the word p. 17 (barnyard sound words)

Non-arbitrary words These words are Onomatopoeic: their meaning associated with the sound (cats meow; doors creak) These are iconic

Non-arbitrary words b. baby words and kinship words — baba, mama, dada, etc. — have a reasoned relation between the words and the neuromuscular development of infants and small children

Non-arbitrary words Many languages have similar or identical kinship words because these words relate to the simplicity and ease of production of sounds in the developing child

Iconicity and arbitrariness Arbitrary — A. No natural relation between sound and thing B. No reasoned relationship between sound and thing

Linguistic signs Linguistic signs, with a small number of exceptions, are arbitrary. table, mesa, zhuozi dog, perro, gou

Iconic written signs Written signs can be iconic 人 ‘person’ 日 ‘sun’ 月 ‘moon’ 內 ‘inside’ 肉 ‘meat’ 坐 ‘sit’

Iconic written signs secondary iconicity (now that the association is conventional) threw vs. through their vs. there

Comm. Systems and Animal Language 1.Mode(LF 27 – 37) 2.Semanticity 3.Pragmatic function 4.Interchangeability 5.Cultural transmission 6.Arbitrariness 7.Discreteness 8.Displacement 9.Productivity

Linguistic signs and meaning What does it mean for a sign to mean something to us? What is meaning in human language?

Basic principles What do you know when you know a language? [We hope that by the end of the course we can answer that question]

Basic principles Phonetics, phonology — you can use the sound system of the language

Basic principles Morphology — you know and can make words

Basic principles Syntax — you know how to form utterances

Basic principles Semantics — you understand meanings of words and items in the language

Basic principles Styles & Pragmatics — you know how to use the language in different types of situations you know what utterances in the language are used to do