The nature of Linguistics and Language

Juliana Valentina Gutierrez Sabogal

C.C 110601358
Numero de Grupo:518017_68

Universidad Nacional Abierta y A Distancia UNAD

Intoduction to Linguistic
2020
Task 1: individual activity

1. Read the following two documents “An Introduction to Linguistics and Language
Studies” pages 1-13, by McCabe A, and “Linguistics”; and read the document
‘Linguistics’ by Bauer, Laurie. Pages 10-18, found in UNIT 1, in the Knowledge
Environment.
2. Based on the first document, do Exercise 1.4 in page 13. You have six phrases and
you have to identify them to whom the phrases might belong, “Attribute each of
the…phrases to Ferdinand de Saussure, Noam Chomsky, or Michael Halliday. What
motivates, in each case, your response according to the text? What does the quote
tell you about their perspective on the study and analysis of language?

Ferdinand de Saussure
3. ‘Every text – that is, everything that is said or written – unfolds in some context of use;
furthermore, it is the uses of language that, over tens of thousands of generations, have shaped
the system. Language has evolved to satisfy human needs; and the way it is organized is
functional with respect to these needs.’
1. ‘If we could embrace the sum of word-images stored in the minds of all individuals, we
could identify the social bond that constitutes language. It is a storehouse filled by the
members of a given community through their active use of speaking, a grammatical system
that has a potential existence in each brain, or, specifically, in the brains of a group of
individuals. For language is not complete in any speaker; it exists perfectly only within a
collectivity.
What motivates your response?
When reading and analyzing reading through my reading comprehension, I could see that
Ferdinand Saussure was the father of modern linguistics, because of this we saw how
language evolved by human needs sastifascer and the way it is organized is functional with
respect to these needs
What does the quotation tell you about your perspective on the study and analysis of
language?
I think it is very interesting the evolution that has had and that has influenced today for the
benefit of us also in the quality we as teachers can have the opportunity to study a language
and teach it.
 Noam Chomsky
2.‘It seems clear that we must regard linguistic competence – knowledge of a language – as
an abstract system underlying behavior, a system constituted by rules that interact to
determine the form and intrinsic meaning of a potentially infinite number of sentences.
4. ‘Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker-hearer, in a completely
homogeneous speech community, who knows its language perfectly and is unaffected by
such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory limitations, distractions, shifts of
attention and interest, errors (random or characteristic) in applying his knowledge of the
language in actual performance.’
What motivates your response?
By reading and analyzing the reading through my reading comprehension, I could see that
Noam Chomsky sees language from a perspective where he relates them to a focus in which
they are symbolic symbols where there is a speaker and a listener from a native-speaking
community in which there is no need for grammar rules because their language is known
perfectly naturally.

What does the quotation tell you about your perspective on the study and analysis of
language?
I think it is very interesting to see the language of a community, its relationship with other
communities and the synchronization of all languages.

Michael Halliday
5. ‘Language is a system of interdependent terms in which the value of each term results
solely from the simultaneous presence of the others ... [for example]. To determine what a
five-franc piece is worth one most know:

(1) that it can be exchanged for a fixed quantity of a different thing, e.g. bread; and (2) that
it can be compared with a similar value of the same system, e.g. a one-franc piece, or with
coins of another system (a dollar, etc.). In the same way a word can be exchanged for
something dissimilar, an idea; besides, it can be compared with something of the same nature,
another word. Its value is therefore not fixed so long as one simply states that it can be
‘exchanged’ for a given concept.’

6. ‘Spoken and written language, then, tend to display different KINDS of complexity; each
of them is more complex in its own way. Written language tends to be lexically dense but
grammatically simple; spoken language tends to be grammatically intricate but lexically
sparse’ ... ‘The value of having some explicit knowledge of the grammar of written language
is that you can use this knowledge, not only to analyze the texts, but as a critical resource for
asking questions about them.
What motivates your response?
By reading and analyzing the reading through my reading comprehension, I could see the
relationship that there in michel's sentence and text, language is a system of interdependent
infenito terms and relationships in which the value of each result resulting from the presence
simultaneous of others.
What does the quotation tell you about your perspective on the study and analysis of
language?
My sample in language in a way in which I have never seen the breadth of my way of seeing
things from a different perspective, which I can use for my own benefit different ways of
acquiring a language.
3. Based on the second text ‘Linguistics’ in “Bauer, Laurie; The Linguistic Student's
Handbook” Answer the following question: why is Linguistics definitely considered
a science? In your answer, involve the other language areas such as semiotics,
philology and literature.
 It is considered a science because it is methodical, it uses steps during its
investigation, it is systematic because it maintains an order has its own terminology
according to its theories or investigations.

4. In the following two questions you should consult and then explain:
4.1 The concept of "double articulation" is classic to identify the language, explain it and
give examples.
 The concept of double articulation consists of two levels, the first level consists of
linguistic signs and the second level, the individual sounds that do not make sense
and that form the components of the first level.
 It is also a characteristic of all languages, since each linguistic sign is composed of
two levels, that of meanings and that of signifiers, is a linguistic characteristic that
consists in the decomposition of the linguistic sign into minimum units again as I said
before with meaning and significant, the first articulation of language is the division
of the linguistic sign into small units called nonemas with their own meaning, the
second articulation is meaningless units that articulate with each other to form signs
or words, generally languages have 20 to 30 phonemes :
example:
e/l+g/a/t/o+j/u/g/a/b/a+c/o/n+l/a+n/i/ñ/i/t/a
Phonemes are emitted by sounds. In writing they are represented with letters.
4.2 Human language is different from other semiotic systems, explain at least three
characteristics that, according to linguistics, are unique to human language (provide
references).
Irradiated transmission and directional reception:

The linguistic signals inherent to the vocal-auditory channel are transmitted by the air
medium in the form of a wave, as well as a consequence of the physics of the sound, the
wave waves expand radially from the point of origin, which allows the signal emitted can
be captured by any individual that is within the appropriate radius depending on their
hearing abilities. In turn, the receiver perceives the signal coming from a certain direction
thanks to our biaural hearing which allows us to associate and locate the exact point from
which to proceed the sound. As this property also refers to the transmission and physical
reception of sound, silence is included at this point in the non-sensory perception or in
the non-transmission of the sound.

Evanescence (or transience):

Although the technical advances of today's society allow us to overcome the spatio-
temporal limitations in the emission of vocal signals and despite the writing it serves to
preserve the linguistic messages, human language in its natural capacity imposes the
simultaneous presence in the space-time of the individuals who communicate. Thus, the
emitted vocal signals are determined not to last in coordinated dimensions. The signal
that is not captured is irretrievably lost. Otherwise, the transmission channel would be
blocked by overlapping signals. That is why silence prevails before the vocal signals since
otherwise, the constant noise that would entail the accumulation of these difficulties in
extreme any communication.
Discreet character:

Within the variety of sounds capable of being emitted by the human sound system, the
interpretation of the speakers is based on a distinction of different and differentiated
categories, that is, in the linguistic plane distinguished the sounds in units - The
phonemes - that oppose clearly, discreetly and not gradually. Each language selects a
subset of sounds within the sound plane and establishes the categorical differences
between them, establishing its inventory of discrete units. The sounds that remain
outside the phonic inventory of each language, although they are perceived by the
senses, are silenced as a categorical element, that is, we listen to them but they do not
transmit information to us.
References: http://porloscodos.com/2014/11/10/propiedades-del-lenguaje-humano/

REFERENCES:
http://bibliotecavirtual.unad.edu.co/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?d
irect=true&db=nlebk&AN=547849&lang=es&site=eds-live&scope=site