What is

language?
Part II
What does it mean to
“know” a language?
Linguistic Knowledge

1. Produce strings of
sounds that signify
certain meaning

2. Understand sounds
produced by others
Knowledge of the Sound System
Sounds or signs that are part of a language.

The way speakers from

another language
pronounce words from
a foreign language.
 Speakers

Words that start with “s” Words that have “ñ” sound

Speak -> eSpeak Baño -> Banio

Star -> eStar Español -> Espaniol

Knowledge of Words

You know which sequences of sound have meaning

and which ones do not.
Arbitrary Relation of Form and Meaning
Fiona a oublié d’acheter du
lait quand elle a fait les
courses.
The same sequence of sounds can represent different meanings in
other languages.
Sound Symbolism
Onomatopoeic words
Not all is about words.
The Creativity of Linguistic Knowdelge
Knowing a language means being able to produce and understand new sentences
never spoken before.
 Sentences are not contolled by
Stimulus

The sound which describe an activity may sound

unlike for speakers of different languages.
Knowledge of Sentences and Nonsentences

Well-formed Sentences Ill-formed Sentences

Grammatical Ungrammatical
Linguistic Knowledge and Performance
There is no limit to create a sentence, but those very long sentences are more
likely to not get speakers interest.

● Linguistic competence: Knowledge and grammar are not the same.

● Linguistic performance: Speech production and comprehension.