Republic of the Philippines

North Eastern Mindanao State University

Rosario, Tandag Surigao del Sur

Name: Cheryl S. Ranoco Date: March 18, 2022

Section & Subject: B_Educ 201 B Foundation of Language Studies

CLASSWORK #3 – Page 1

1.1 I was exploring the book Introduction to Psycholinguistics by Matthew J. Traxler,

2012, and The Study of Language by George Yule, 2010 to further look into their
differences in defining the characteristics of language and its function. Language is a
type of communication that is used to express oneself. It also serves additional roles,
such as social bonding, through transferring information between people who speak
the language (Traxler, M. 2012). He also defined a few characteristics of language
which I only chose 4 that have been known as language characteristics and these are
semanticity, arbitrariness, language origins, displacement. First is Semanticity, which
means individual words can be ascribed specific meanings, which happens at various
levels in languages. Second is, arbitrariness refers to the lack of necessary
relationship between actual items or occurrences in the world and the symbols used
to represent such objects or events in a language. A word can change as time goes
by and as long as everyone agreed and once people agreed, only the word changes
but the meaning remains the same. Third is Language origin is investigating ape
communication can help researchers figure out why humans have the linguistic
abilities they do. Comparing modern languages to ancient languages is another way
to explore language origins to our evolutionary forefathers. Lastly, grammar is one
of the vital components in language, a speaker examines the vocabulary for symbols
that correspond to the notions she wants to convey. Whilst characteristics of
language according to another author by George Yule, 2010 also define one
characteristic of language as a divine source, the main theory appears to have been
that if infants were allowed to grow up without hearing any other language, they
would spontaneously begin to speak the original God-given language. Physical
adaptation source means rather of looking at different forms of noises as the source
of human speech, we can look at the different types of physical characteristics that
people have, especially those that are unique from other organisms, to see if they
could have supported speech creation. The cultural transmission we may inherit
physical characteristics from our parents, such as brown eyes and dark hair, we do
not inherit their language. We learn a language from other people in a culture, not
from our parents' genes. Lastly, Phonetics is defined as the main focus that will
concentrate on articulatory phonetics, which is the study of how speech sounds are
produced.
 Republic of the Philippines
North Eastern Mindanao State University
Rosario, Tandag Surigao del Sur

Name: Cheryl S. Ranoco Date: March 18, 2022

Section & Subject: B_Educ 201 B Foundation of Language Studies

CLASSWORK #3 – Page 2

1.2 One characteristic I chose is Grammar, because as a language teacher I always apply
this characteristic on a daily basis. Everyday it can be applied especially to our work
and profession and studies. Grammar describes the various types of words and word
groups that makeup sentences in any language. Knowing about grammar, on the
other hand, means being able to discuss how sentences are constructed, as well as
the many sorts of words and word groupings that makeup sentences.

2. Functions of Language based on Halliday's and on Jakobson's taxonomy

2.1 State the functions of language according to Halliday and provide a sentence or two
to illustrate the specific function.

The functions of language according to Halliday’s are instrumental, personal,

interactional, regulatory, representational, Heuristic, Imaginative. It describes that
people use language is to communicate one with another, to express their personal
reactions to situations, and as means of conveying something that the user language
function wants to convey. The functions of Language suggest by Halliday’s model is
easier to understand compared to Jakobson.

2.2 State the functions of language according to Jakobson and provide a sentence or
two to illustrate the specific function.

Any act of verbal communication, according to Jakobson, is made up of six elements or

factors (the model's terms): First, a context (the co-text, or other verbal signs in the
same message, and the world in which the message occurs), Second, an addresser (a
sender, or enunciatee), Third an addressee (a receiver, or enunciatee), Fourth a contact
between an addresser and addressee, Fifth a common code, and Sixth message.