S1 Approaches to Language I Flashcards
what is linguistics?
the science of the nature of human language/ looks at how language works as a system/ how human beings use language to do things
what is language?
sign system in which meaning is encoded and transmitted through grammatical structure/ human language is used by humans only/ it is used to think, act and communicate
how many languages exists
roughly 6000
how does language change
it varies along various dimensions: across time and space, it is influenced by social and cultural factors, and the same language can even vary from one individual speaker to the next
what are the differnt levels of language? (5)
phonetics/ phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics
phonetics/ phonology
physical properties of speech sounds, sound system, also sign languages –> sound
morphology
words (not vocabulary) –> structure
syntax
clauses and sentences –> structure
semantics
relationship between signs and meaning –> meaning
pragmatics
meaning in context of language use –> meaning
duality (properties of human language)
at one level, there is a limited set of discrete sounds, morphological and syntactic rules which, at the other level, can be combined into a very large number of sound combinations (words) and infinite syntactic units (sentences) with very distinct meanings. This makes the human language very economical.
arbitrariness (properties of human language)
no “natural” connection between meaning and sounds / exceptions are onomatopoeic words
reflexivity (properties of human language)
language can be used to talk about language itself (metalinguistic)
displacement (properties of human language)
language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situation of the speaker (the here and now)
recursion/ productivity/ creativity/ (“open-endednss) (properties of human language)
the ability to produce a theoretically infinate number of grammatical sentences and sentences of infinite length// in addition, human language also allows speakers to continually describe new objects and situations. this means that it is highly productive // in contest to animal communication, language is “open-ended”, allowing speakers to continually describe new objects and situations, form new words, and sentences never heard before, by using established rules // recursion and productivity allow humans to be creative by inventing new words, or using established words and structures in new and possibly unusual ways, for a certain purpose, such as creating art or constructing identity
