GENERATIVE LINGUISTICS

HOME ACTIVITIES
Each of the following activities corresponds to each class lecture. You are asked
to work on them and bring them along at the following class. Your participation in
this activity will have a participation of 20% in the overall semestral mark.
NOTE: You cannot accumulate undone activities and bring them all together at
some later point.
LECTURE 1 (9/3/2015)
What would you say are the core characteristics of language and why?
For me the main characteristic of language are that it is a system, because it
has rules which one must follow in order to achieve the communication, and also,
this system is social, it is inside a community in which every person inside it
know the characteristics of this system. Language can be written and spoken,
that is another important characteristic due to the fact that written language
creates the opportunity of leaving a register throughout time. The purpose for
language is that it is used to communicate ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc... so, in
that way, it is important because it helps us to give information to our
surrounding. Finally, another important characteristic is that language it is
arbitrary, in other words, there is no natural reference between the words we
say and the thing in the real life they designate, language is a mental process.