What is language?

What are the main characteristics of language?

• Communicative
• Universal
• Mutable
• Inaccessible
• Arbitrary
• Discrete
• Productive
Language is communicative
What are the main characteristics of language?
• Communicative ✓
• Universal
• Mutable
• Inaccessible
• Arbitrary
• Discrete
• Productive
Language is
universal
 Language is universal
Same anatomical endowment, same
capacity for speech production and
comprehension

Human-specific neurological structures

support language acquisition and use
 Language is universal
The structures found in language -- those that make up grammars --
are themselves universal
 Language is universal
The structures found in language -- those that make up grammars --
are themselves universal
• Differences between languages can obscure the fact that...
• All languages have more consonants (p, t, d, etc.) than vowels (e,
i, a, etc.)
 Language is universal
The structures found in language -- those that make up grammars --
are themselves universal
• Differences between languages can obscure the fact that...
• All languages have more consonants (p, t, d, etc.) than vowels (e,
i, a, etc.)
• If a language has an f sound it very likely has s
 Language is universal
The structures found in language -- those that make up grammars --
are themselves universal
• Differences between languages can obscure the fact that...
• All languages have more consonants (p, t, d, etc.) than vowels (e,
i, a, etc.)
• If a language has an f sound it very likely has s
• All languages that have as the dominant basic word order verb
subject object also allow subject verb object
What are the main characteristics of language?
• Communicative ✓
• Universal ✓
• Mutable
• Inaccessible
• Arbitrary
• Discrete
• Productive
Language is
mutable
 Language is mutable
Why does language change?
 Language is mutable
Nepal's Newar language is Sino-Tibetan in
origin...

...but contact with India, and other

historical accidents, have led it to take on
Indo-Iranian features, e.g. extensive
inflectional morphology
 Language is mutable
• Communities in contact
• Innovation of communicative technologies
• Innate pressures of the cognitive apparatus: cognitive biases
What are the main characteristics of language?
• Communicative ✓
• Universal ✓
• Mutable ✓
• Inaccessible
• Arbitrary
• Discrete
• Productive
Language is
inaccessible
 Language is inaccessible
Schoolbook grammar is written out...

...but what you learned in your 5th grade English class built on
knowledge that was developed unconsciously -- primarily in the first
five years of your life
 Language is inaccessible
Now as a fluent adult speaker you still cannot access your mental
grammar
What are the main characteristics of language?
• Communicative ✓
• Universal ✓
• Mutable ✓
• Inaccessible ✓
• Arbitrary
• Discrete
• Productive
Language is
arbitary
Language is
arbitrary
Dog →

Perro →

Chien →

Hund →
Language is arbitrary
No (necessary) relationship
between form and meaning
 Language is arbitrary
...But not perhaps not completely

Onomatopoeia

• Vroom!
• Pop!
• Swish!
• Hiccup!
 Language is arbitrary
...But not perhaps not completely

Sound symbolism

• LARGE vs. tiny

• HUGE vs. petite
• BOUBA vs. kiki
What are the main characteristics of language?
• Communicative ✓
• Universal ✓
• Mutable ✓
• Inaccessible ✓
• Arbitrary ✓
• Discrete
• Productive
Language is
discrete
 Language is discrete
• Discrete contrasts with continuous
• Discrete entities have clear boundaries
• Discrete entities are categorical
• In contrast, continuous entities have
infinite/infinitesimally small values/
increments
 Language is discrete
The speech stream is continuous
 Language is discrete
But the rest of the units of language are discrete

• Phonemes: discrete units of sound

• Morphemes: discrete units of meaning
• Words: discrete units of meaning
• Sentences: discrete whole meanings
What are the main characteristics of language?
• Communicative ✓
• Universal ✓
• Mutable ✓
• Inaccessible ✓
• Arbitrary ✓
• Discrete ✓
• Productive
Language is
productive
 Language is productive
With discrete units at the level of sounds, morphemes, words, and
sentences, a finite set of elements can be combined to create new
interpretable forms
• Sound + sound → morpheme
• Morpheme + morpheme → word
• Word + word → sentence
/ɹ/ + /i/ + /d/ = "read"
/ɹ/ + /i/ + /d/ = "read"
read + -s = "reads"
 /ɹ/ + /i/ + /d/ = "read"
read + -s = "reads"
she + reads = "She reads"
Systematicity + Creativity =

Productivity
 Rules
Constraints on productivity
 Rules of sounds
• Acceptable
• flope
• conslinctuate
• grib
• ...
 Rules of sounds
• Unacceptable
• *psapr
• *dvarim
• *rfilsms
• ...
What are the main characteristics of language?
• Communicative ✓
• Universal ✓
• Mutable ✓
• Inaccessible ✓
• Arbitrary ✓
• Discrete ✓
• Productive ✓
 Next class
Bring a writing implement to Eaton 206 @ 4:30