The Creative Aspect of Human

Language
The creative aspect of language is
something which
all languages have in common,

it is, therefore, according to Chomsky,

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 The Creative Aspect of Human
Language
``an essential property of language that

provides the means for expressing

indefinitely many thoughts and for
reacting appropriately in an indefinite
range of new situations''.
It is one of the most striking features
of language:
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 The Creative Aspect of Human
Language
the capacity for the generation and
understanding of an indefinite
number of sentences.
Chomsky and Hockett among
others, regard creativity as one of
the most crucial properties of
human language, and
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 The Creative Aspect of Human
Language
Chomsky (1976:40), cited by Atkinson et al
(1989:5) states along Cartesian lines that
‘the capacity for free, appropriate, and
creative use of language as an expression
of thought, with the means provided by
the language faculty, is … a distinctive
feature of the human species, having no
significance analogue elsewhere’.

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 The Creative Aspect of Human
Language
Summarising, language creativity means
We can construct an infinite number of
sentences from a finite set of ‘building
blocks’ (words and rules).
Native speakers can produce and
understand sentences they have never
heard before.

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 The Creative Aspect of Human
Language
In other words, When we talk about the
creative aspect of human language , we
mean:
Native speakers can produce and understand
sentences they have never heard or said before.
Native speakers can construct an infinite
number of sentences from a limited set of
‘building blocks’ (words and rules).
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Infinity in Human Language
Here is a way we can make sentences longer and
longer, and infinitum:
a. It is raining.
b. Paul thinks that it is raining.
c. I know that Paul thinks that it is raining.
d. Sheila suspects that I know that Paul thinks that it is raining.
 What allows us do this?

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 Infinity in Human Language
Our linguistic competence allows us to
make infinitely many, and infinitely
long sentences in this way.
We are limited only by performance.
Just as with the expanding sentences,
we can make longer and longer noun
compounds:
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 Infinity in Human Language
a. film series
b. Student film series
c. Student film series committee
d. Student film series committee budget
e. Student film series committee budget report

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 Infinity in Human Language
This is a situation where linguistic
units (in this case sentences)can
occur in bigger units of the same
type. This is called a recursive
structure.
Why can linguistic structures be
recursive?
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 Recursive structure
Linguistic structures can be recursive
because they are built using recursive rules.
Noun compounds (or nominal compounds)
are an example of a recursive structure built
by a recursive rule.
Some of the distinguishing properties of
nouns are:

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Some Distinguishing Properties of
Nouns
They typically refer to names,
people, places, ideas, concepts,
things, etc.
They occur after the, a, my, your, …
(unless it is a name).
If countable, they can be pluralized.

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 Noun Compound
In a noun compound, two nouns
combine to form a new noun. For
example, dog and house can combine
to form either dog-house or house-
dog.
The meaning of the compound
depends on the order of the two nouns:
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 Noun Compound
Dog-house means a kind of house
House-dog means a kind of dog
Farm-dog means a kind of dog
Dog-farm means a kind of farm
The noun that contributes the basic
meaning to the compound is called the
head of the compound.

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 Right-hand head rule
In English, the head of a compound
word is always on the right.
There is a phrase structure rule that
allows us how compounds are built.
It is written like this: N → NN
And it is read, “A noun can be composed
of two nouns.”
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 Phrase structure rules
Phrase structure rules such as the one above are
recursive.
The rule starts with a noun, and it gives us two
more nouns, so the rule can be applied again.
We can represent the structures that are built
using tree diagrams.
Next is a tree diagram showing that the compound
film-series is composed of the two nouns film and
series:

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 Phrase structure
N

N N
Film series
If we apply the phrase structure rule
recursively, we can get the longer compound
student film series.

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 Phrase structure
N N

N N N N
series student
N N N N
student film film series

Meaning: a series of student film a film series organised by

students

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 In summary:
Linguistic units can be put together in
different orders, yielding different meanings
(dog-farm vs. farm-dog).
Rules can be applied recursively (farm dog
farm).
Linguistic units can be combined into
different hierarchical structures (the way
words are grouped together).
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 Language Universals
Although a considerable amount of languages
around the world seem to have nothing in
common with each other on the surface, many
linguists propose that all languages share
certain universal principles.

These principles are a set of rules referred to

as a Universal Grammar.     

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 Language Universals
It is true that the formation of sentences in
Hungarian seems to have very little, if anything in
common with the formation of sentences in Farsi
(Modern Persian).

It is also true that Chinese verbs are not

conjugated whereas Italian verbs have six
conjugations. 

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 Language Universals
However, the fact that these four
languages all adhere to some type
of sentence structure formation
and use verbs, shows that at a basic
level, they all share certain
characteristics.

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General Universal Principles
There are many linguistic features which
the languages of the world seem to share.   
Some are more basic, such as the notion of
‘sentence’ or ‘ verb,’ some are more complex,
such as Wh- movement. 
And not all of these characteristics are
observable to the same extent. 

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General Universal Principles
The rules which all languages have in common,
with either very few, or no exceptions are called
absolute universals.  Consider the following
statements:
All languages are equipped with the grammatical
structures needed to give orders, negate a thought,
and ask a question.
All languages use verbs which reflect the past,
present, or future.

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General Universal Principles
All languages possess a finite set of phonemes
(sounds) including vowels and consonants
which are strung together to form words. 
All languages share the basic categories of
words, such as nouns, verbs, description
words, relative clauses, and a method for
counting.    
All languages use pronouns.

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General Universal Principles
All languages include any blend of or
subcategory of the basis five colours: red, blue,
yellow, black and white.  The colours which are
included in every language are red, white, and
black.

Linguistic features which are shared by many

but not all languages are referred to relative
universals or universal tendencies.
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 Bibliography

Atkinson, M., Kilby, D. and Roca, I. Foundations of

General Linguistics, 3rd Ed., GB: Biddles Ltd, 1989

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