Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires

by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols. These symbols are, in the first instance,auditory
and they are produced by so-called organs of speech. – Edward Sapir

A LANGUAGE: any particular language that is the common possession of all the members of a given
language-community

design features of language: a set of features that characterize human language and set it apart from
animal communication

DUALITY, CREATIVITY, ARBITRARINESS, DISPLACEMENT, CULTURAL TRANSMISSION

❑ DUALITY (double articulation) is a property of human language which sees language as being
structurally organized in terms of two abstract levels.

❑ CREATIVITY (productivity, open-endedness) is a property which makes possible the construction

and interpretation of new signals

Baby – one word stage = holophrastic stage

❑ ARBITRARINESS There is no direct connection between the sound or form of any word and the
subject which it represents. Exception: onomatopeia

❑ DISPLACEMENT The ability to communicate about matters removed in time and space.

❑ CULTURAL TRANSMISSION is a property of human language whereby the ability to speak a

language is transmitted from generation togeneration by a process of learning, and not
genetically

Origin of language theories: divine origin, natural sound origin (bow-wow, ye-he-ho, pooh-pooh),
oral gestural origin

Andre Martinet (1908-1999, France) – founder of functional linguistics

FUNCTIONAL LINGUISTICS emphasizes ‟examining the elements of a language system and the
correlations of these elements in terms of their functions in communication

Martinet’s six factor model:

1 a speaker

2 delivers a message (report)

3 to a listener

4 at a certain location and time (context)

5 using a language known by both (code)

6 without any perception problems (channel)

 Roman Jakobson (1896-1982)
elements in the formation of verbal communication

Michael A.K. Halliday (1925-2018)

Language is a ‟meaning potential”

Linguistics as the study of ‟how people exchange meanings by ‘languaging’”

instrumental (fulfilling a need)

regulatory (influencing behaviour: persuading, commanding or requesting)

interactional (developing relationships, establishing interaction)

personal (expressing feelings, opinions, identity)

representational/informative (facts and information)

heuristic (questions)

imaginative (telling stories, creating imaginative constructs)

Brown & Yule

Transactional function – transferring information

Interactional function – establishing and maintaining contacts

PHILOLOGY – incorporates linguistics but restricts itself to: the study of the written texts (narrow sense),
the study of classical texts and history/ development of language

LINGUISTICS – the study of language, the “Science of language”

A linguist attempts to describe how (a) language works; does not give an opinion as to how it should
work

- To describe language at all levels from phonology to semantics

- To apply theoretical considerations to a description or analysis of language or languages
GRAMMAR – the area of science that deals with formal structure, sounds & morphological
characteristics of language

refers to statements about the regularities and irregularities in language

a set of rules prescribing “correct usage” of language in the spoken and the written form

GRAMMAR: focuses on the characteristics of a certain language and tries to define its rules, prescriptive,
prioritizes written language

LINGUISTICS: does not examine a particular language, it is the study of ALL the phenomena involved
with language (its structure, its use), descriptive, prioritizes spoken language, does not force languages
into a Latin-based framework.