TUGAS INTRODUCTION

TO LINGUISTICS
Oleh:
Averus bhismo p 181010600340
Amatul hady 181010600376
Apepius laia 181010600283
Arif firmansyah 181010600378
Alif thoriq 181010600380
 DESIGN FEATURES OF HUMAN
LANGUAGE
• Duality.
• The fact that language contains two subsystems; they are sounds and meanings. In
this way, language achieves a basic economy because a discrete number of
functional units of sound can be grouped and regrouped into units of meaning, and
then these units of meaning grouped and regrouped into an infinite number of
sentences. The permissible groupings are sometimes called tactical arrangements:
phonotactic arrangements when they refer to the possible sequences of sounds,
and syntactic arrangements when they refer to the possible sequences of meaning.
Language shows duality of structure involving two levels of structure. For instance,
one cannot say /p/ /u/ or /t/ have a meaning, but the combination /put/ does.
Therefore, words can be broken apart into chunks. Those chunks may or may not
have meaning; however, they are extremely useful to form new words. a good
example of such important word chunks are suffixes and prefixes. Other example is
we combined suffixes with many roots, and words can be combined in numerous
ways to create novel sentences. For example, decide --- decision, like --- dislike,
history--- historical, and may others.
• Productivity.
• This feature refers to the fact that language users can create and
understand novel utterances. Humans are able to produce an unlimited
amount of utterances. Language is not stagnant, but it is constantly
changing. This is one of the characteristics of human language to be
creative to use language. Humans can produce some words which are
never heard before by others. For example, when a child feels hurt or
anything else, he will utter aduh, oouch, iih, and many others. The utterances
can be different with different people who have cross culture.
• Arbitrariness.
• There is almost no predictability in many of its characteristics, and there is
almost never any connection between a word’s meaning and its sound or
form (sound and symbol). There is no relationship between the form of the
signal and the thing it refers to. The word “house” is in English, “rumah” in
Bahasa, and en la casa in Spanish. Furthermore, the word “car” is nothing
like an actual car. Spoken words are really nothing like the objects they
represent.
• Interchangeability.
• Any human beings can be both a producer and a receiver of messages, or
language users can both transmit and receive a message. The importance is
that a speaker can physically create any and all messages regardless of
their truth or relation to the speaker. In other words, anything that one can
hear, one can also say
• Displacement.
• Language can be used to refer to real or imagined matters in the past,
present, or future. It can even be used to talk about language itself. It Refers
to the idea that humans can talk about things that are not physically present
or that do not even exist. Speakers can talk about the past and the future,
and can express hopes and dreams. A human's speech is not limited to here
and now. Displacement is one of the features that separates human
language from other forms of primate communication. For instance, human
language allows language users to talk about the past event, future event,
or present event. They can also talk about that are physically distant such as
other countries, the moon, and others. In short, language users or speakers
are able to use their language to talk anything they want. Besides, they are
able to express their ideas and willingness without considering the time and
place.
• Specialization.
• The purpose of linguistic signals is communication and not some other
biological function. When humans speak or sign, it is generally intentional. It
means that linguistic signals do not serve any other purpose than to
communicate something; language signals are designed for the main
purpose of communication, and not any other biological functions such as
eating, swimming. In other words, language signals are intentional, and not
just a side effect of another behavior.
• Cultural/traditional transmission.
• It means that human language is not something that is newly born, but it is
transmitted from one generation to another generation. Although language
users were born with the ability to learn language, they must acquire their
mother tongue from other speakers around them. It is also the distinguish
between human and animal that the animals were born with their entire
system/ability such as bees are born with the ability of knowing how to
dance.
• Discreteness.
• Language signals are composed of basic units (sounds). These units can be
classified into distinct categories. These basic units can be put in varying
order to represent different meanings. The change in meaning is abrupt, and
rarely continuous. For example, language users perceive a sound as a /p/ or
a /b/, but not as a blend. A word can be broken down into units of sounds
like /pet/; it is classified into three sounds: /p/, /e/, and /t/.
• Reflexiveness.
• Human can use the language to talk about language which involves ability
to speak of abstract things. The language used to describe language is
usually called metalanguage.
• Semanticity.
• It means that specific signals can be matched with specific meaning. This is
a fundamental aspect of all communication systems; therefore, whatever
language users utter, it will deliver specific meaning. For example, in French,
the word sel means a white, crystalline substance consisting of sodium and
chlorine atoms. The same substance is matched with the English word salt.
Person who is a speaker of this language will recognize that the signal sel or
salt refers to the substance sodium chloride.
• Prevarication
• It means language users can use the language to lie or deceive. When using
language, humans can make false or meaningless statements. Speakers not
only use language to tell the truth but also, they sometime create the
mistake or incorrect information to others by using language.