Republic of the Philippines

Tarlac State University

COLLEGE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
CENTER OF DEVELOPMENT
Lucinda Campus, Tarlac City
Tel. No. (045) 493-0182; Fax No. (045) 982-0110
Re-accredited Level III by the
Accrediting Agency of Chartered Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (AACUP), Inc.

Name: Mallari, Amberlie Joy D.

Year and Section: 1st year, 1A
Group #1

PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE

Objectives:
1. To explain and further study different scholars' interpretations of language.
2. To identify the other properties of language, mainly creativity/productivity, cultural transmission, and
duality.
3. Provide examples to the given properties of language to further understand the discussion.

Discussion Proper

What is language?

 According to Collins English Dictionary, a language is a system of communication which consists

of a set of sounds and written symbols which are used by the people of a particular country or
region for talking or writing.
 Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and language scholar, stated: “Language is the expression
of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words. Words are combined into sentences,
this combination answering to that of ideas into thoughts.”
 Sapir characterizes language as purely human and non-instinctive, consisting of a conventional
system of arbitrary sound symbols that are produced voluntarily. Therefore, not only
communication systems of animals are excluded from his definition of language but also any
human articulation that is not symbolic or voluntary, e.g., instinctive cries.

Properties of language

 Productivity/Creativity – means that language can be used to produce an infinite set of new and
meaningful utterances. We can say things that no one has ever said before or state previous
ideas in new ways. Such novel utterances are meaningful and readily interpretable by others.
 Productivity is frequently contrasted with creativity, which is defined as the ability to generate
new ideas or methods of doing things. While creativity is important, productivity is what allows us to put
our ideas into words and communicate them to others. Linguists study many different aspects of
productivity, such as how speakers can combine words to create new meanings, the rules that govern
how new words are created, and how languages change over time.

Example: A red-eyed zebra is dancing on a hotel bed.

Key idea: there is an infinite limit on writing/expressing sentences word combinations that
disregard conventional or typical formulas/formats in making a sentence or combining various words to
make a sentence.

 Cultural Transmission – the ability to pass knowledge on from one individual to another even
across generations – that makes us unique among animals. True, we also learn by observing
what happens in the world around us.

The process whereby a language is passed from one generation to the next is described as
cultural transmission. While we may inherit physical features such as brown eyes and dark hair from
our parents, we do not inherit their language. We acquire a language in a culture with other
speakers and not from parental genes. The general pattern in animal communication is that
creatures are born with a set of specific signals that are produced instinctively.

Example 1: A Chinese speaker and an English speaker are not mutually intelligible.

Example 2: An infant born to Philippines is adopted by English speaker in United States will
inevitably speak English. But if we transfer a puppy from Philippines to United States the puppy will just
say Arf! Arf!

Keyword: language is a tool that helps preserve itself and its inclination to the human race by
having the property of being able to be passed down to the next generation.

 Duality- The language has two specific structures: the phoneme and composition. Phoneme has
no meaning by themselves. Composition is when we compose a whole word, which has meaning
in our cognitive.

Human language is organized at two levels or layers simultaneously. This property is called
duality (or 'double articulation'). In speech production, we have a physical level at which we can
produce individual sounds, like n, b and i. As individual sounds, none of these discrete forms has any
intrinsic meaning. In a particular combination such as bin, we have another level producing a
meaning that is different from the meaning of the combination in nib. So, at one level, we have
distinct sounds, and, at another level, we have distinct meanings. This duality of levels is, in fact, one
 of the most economical features of human language because, with a limited set of discrete sounds,
we are capable of producing a very large number of sound combinations (e.g. words) which are
distinct in meaning.

Keyword: language operates into two layers of physicality and meaning simultaneously.

Generalization
One purpose of language is communication. Every part of our daily actions requires language.
Humans can communicate using language. Creativity/productivity is one of the properties of language,
wherein we can say new words and new things in a creative way, individuals have the right to express
themselves, but we must be careful with our words because they have the power to both change and
destroy a person's life. I hope as we learn more about language, we will choose to use our knowledge to
inspire others through the words we speak.

References
• Williamson,G. ( 2014, January 16). Duality and Productivity in Language. SLTinfo.
https://www.sltinfo.com/duality-and-productivity-in-language/?
fbclid=IwAR1gFbHyUtptN5BHmjej4oyLiKzR82eFJ4MBGLIMOZbs8p9ox-FK1Pm4Ruc
• Medialab,S. (2015, April 9). Cultural transmission: The most powerful learning 'tool’.
ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150409081824.htm?
fbclid=IwAR15U6eiaTPmNlxWo3mYnATeBrDUd0V8nkdl_B16Y5PN0y1YaVWRZPSHviI
• Nordquist,R. (2018, June 10). Duality of Patterning in Language. ThoughCo.
https://www.thoughtco.com/duality-of-patterning-language-1690412
• Robins, R. (2022, August 16). Language. Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/language
• Sonnenberg,B. (2004). Edward Sapir’s views on Language. GRIN.
https://www.grin.com/document/25907