DPEL 5103

LINGUISTICS
CHAPTER 1:
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
What is Language?

Language is the source of human life & power.

Why?
What do we use language for?
What happens if we do not know a language?
Overview of Linguistics & Language
A. LINGUISTICS:

- The study of both the external and internal features

of a language.
- E.g: English Language ---- c a t ---- made of 3 sounds
Malay Language ---- b u k u ---- made of 4 sounds
- A scientific study of a human language as:
* Empirical observation of perceptible natural
phenomena and drawing conclusions from these
observations
* Formulation of theories independent of empirical
observations
- Concerned with the nature of a language and communication
B. LANGUAGE:
- A system of arbitrary vocal symbols used by humans
for communication within their society
- The structural components:
1. Morphology:
* Concerned with the properties of words and
word-building rules
2. Phonetics & Phonemics:
* Introduces the physiology involved in the
production of speech sounds as well as phonetics
& phonemics transcriptions used to represent the
sound of a language
3. Phonology:
* Surveys the organizational principles that determine the patterns
the sound speech are subject to.
4. Syntax:
* Presents the structure of sentences & phrases
5. Semantics:
* Deals with the structure of meaning & denotation
6. Language Variation (Dialect Varieties):
* The ways of speakers and group of speaking can differ with each
other in the various forms of language that they use.
7. Language Change:
* Examines how language changes overtime and can be historically
-related
Linguistic Knowledge
Knowing a language means knowing that:
* The sounds & signs that are in and are not in a
language (phonetics)
* Certain sound sequences signify certain concepts &
meanings (phonology & morphology):
- What sentences are appropriate in various
situations
- What string of words are and are not in a
sentence
(pages 4 & 5)
* Enables us to combine words to form phrases &
phrases to form sentences (syntax)
* Can produce new sentences never spoken before &
understand sentences never heard before.
* Enables us to produce new words

(pages 4 & 5)
The Functional Properties of Language
include:
Pragmatics:
- Explores some of the issues involved describing human
communication & proposes certain communication
strategies that people use when they talk to each other.
Psychology of Language:
- Examines how language is cognitively processed &
perceived.
Language Acquisition:
- Studies the stages involved in language acquisition by
normal human (children) and reviews the evidence for
positing a genetically endowed ‘language acquisition
device’
(
The Unique Properties of Human Language:
Displacement:
- Human language can be used to refer to the past &
future time and to other locations
- Users can talk about things & events not present in
the immediate environment
- This property allows humans to create fiction & to
describe possible future words
- Animals communication lacks this property although
bee communication has a very limited form of
displacement.
Arbitrariness:
- A linguistic form has no natural or ‘iconic’
relationship with its meaning
- There is an arbitrary relationship between linguistic
signs & the objects they used to indicate
- In other words, the forms of human language
(including sounds) has the property of
ARBITRARINESS
- But there are some words (onomatopoeic) which
have sound which ‘echo’ the sounds of
objects/activities, e.g: bang, crash
- Animal communication = non-arbitrary
(pages 5-8)
Productivity:
- A speaker of a language is able to come up with an
indefinite number of sentences not known to anyone
and yet understandable to their learners (and
readers). There are called NOVEL (new) sentences.
- This is the property of creativity
- It is linked to the fact = the potential number of
utterances in any human language is infinite
- Non-human signaling is fixed as relating to a
particular object/occasion ----- Fixed reference
(pages 8-9)
Cultural Transmission:
- We acquire a language in a culture with other
speakers
- It is transmitted/passed on from one generation to
the next
- We are not born with the ability to produce
utterances in a specific language (e.g: English/Malay)
although we are not born with an innate
predisposition to acquire language
- Animal communication = e.g: the signals, is
instinctive & not-learned
Discreteness:
- Sound used in language are meaningfully distinct
- E.g: In English, a /b/ sound is distinct from a /p/
sound. This difference leads to a distinction in
meaning in the forms /bill/ and /pill/
- Each sound in the language is discrete

Duality:
- Language is organized at 2 levels simultaneously
- (duality/double articulation)
a. distinct sounds
b. distinct meanings
- Each distinct sound has no intrinsic meaning to it but when some of them are combined in a
particular manner, they form another level producing meaning

- E.g: /n/ + /i/ + /p/ -------- /nip/

/p/ + /i/ + /n/ -------- /pin/

- This property enables us to produce a very large number of sound combinations (words which are
distinct sounds & meanings)
- This feature makes human language very economical (animal communication lacks this
property of duality)
Other properties:
a. Vocal-auditory channel:
- generated via the vital organs & perceived via the
ears)
b. Reciprocity:
- any speaker/sender of a linguistic signal can also
be a listener/receiver
c. Specialization:
- linguistic signals do not serve other purposes,
only for communication
d. Non-directionality:
- Can be picked up by anyone within hearing
Assignments:
1. Give the definition of the following words:
a. Competence
b. Performance

2. What is the importance of language?

3. What is grammar?
4. Is grammar important? Why?