Linguistic Signs

Human Language consists of signs which are defined as things that stand for or represent something else.

Language in Terms of its Various Functions

1. Language gives expression to our thoughts.

2. Language is used to transmit information – communicative function.

3. Language is used to maintain social intercourse – “phatic” function.

4. Language provides the raw material for works of literature.

Very little language is iconic: Onomatopoeic words. Certain aspects of word order are iconic. Interaction can also sometimes be iconic.

Few aspects of language are indexical: demonstrative pronouns or adverbs.

Most language is symbolic. Linguistic sign and what it signifies is conventional or arbitrary.

Types Of Signs By C.S. Peirce

SYMBOLIC

Which are only conventionally related to the thing they represent. E.g.: a wedding ring to marriage, a flag to a nation.

INDEXICAL

Point to or have a necessary connection with the things they represent.  E.g.: Weathercock to the direction of the wind, smoke to fire.

ICONIC

Resemble the things they represent.  E.g.:  Photographs, star charts, diagrams.

The Rule-Governed Nature Of Language

Language Universal, Innateness, and Creativity

 

Features of Language

Language Universals: Language appears to be more motivated than previously assumed. It varies in terms of syntax.

Language shared elements: their principles. E.g.: The subject in a sentence.

Language differences elements: their parameters. E.g.: Parameter specifies whether in a given language the subject can be omitted or not.

Language is Innate

We are born with an inborn capacity for language acquisition and are genetically equipped to learn a language.

Children learn their first language during a crucial period of language acquisition (birth to age of four), despite the fact that the linguistic data that they hear is incomplete, they receive no negative evidence, and that they are seldom explicitly “taught” or corrected.  Language is in part learned as well as innate.  Language is equipped with both principles and parameters, but the parameters become “set” as language learning progresses.

Language is Creative or Infinite

Aspects

Ø  Human beings can produce and understand novel sentences and sometimes even new words.

Ø  We can create sentences (theoretically) infinite length, although there are obviously practical limits on length.

Human Language vs. Animal Language

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Definitions of Grammar

 Sense of Grammar

Fallacies Concerning Grammar

1. There are languages that have “no” grammar or “little” grammar. Each language´s grammar is completely adequate.  It is equally operative.

2. Certain types of grammars are simpler and hence more primitive than others.

3. Grammar should be logical and “analogical” (that is regular).

4. About changes in grammar is that they result in deterioration, or, alternatively evolution.  It would be difficult to define what is meant by grammatical “evolution or deterioration”.  There is no doubt that languages change over time, sometimes in quite radical ways, but the changes do not seem to entail an advancement or a loss of any kind; the status quo is maintained.

5. The sentences a person produces directly reflect his or her grammatical knowledge, the distinction between competence and performance.

6. Grammar of the spoken language and grammar of the written language is entirely different. For written tends to be more embedded, for spoken is more fragmented.  Spoken language is also typically more diffluent, with false starts, repetitions, conversational fillers (e.g. um, er, you know).

Linguistics and the Components of Language

Linguistic is defined as the study of language systems.  For the purpose of study, language is divided into level or components.

1. PHONOLOGY: The study of the speech sounds of a particular language.

Phonetics as a part of Phonology: The study of the speech sounds of human language in general, either from the PERSPECTIVE of their production “articulatory phonetics”, their PERCEPTION “auditory phonetics” or their PHYSICAL properties “acoustic phonetics”.

Since the writing system of English does not provide with a one-to-one correspondence between a sound and written symbol, we need a tool for representing human sounds in a regular way when studying phonology, the International Phonetic Alphabet (the IPA) has been invented for this purpose.  In it each written symbol represents one, speech sound, while each sound is represented by only one written symbol.

2. MORPHOLOGY: The study of the structure or form of words in a particular language, and of their classification.  It considers principles of word formation in a language:

- How sounds combine into meaningful units such as prefixes, suffixes, and roots (re-mind-er).

- Which of these units are distinctive and which are predictable variants (the different forms of the indefinite article a and an), and

- What process of word formation of language characteristically uses such a compounding (road-way) or suffixing (pave-ment).

Morphology then considers how words can be grouped into classes “parts of speech”.

3. SYNTAX: The study of the order and arrangement of words into larger units, as well as the relationship holding between elements in these hierarchical units.  It studies the structure and types of sentences (questions or commands), of clauses (relative or adverbial clauses), and of phrases (prepositional or verbal phrases). It is an extensive and complex area of language.

4. SEMANTICS: The study of how meaning is conveyed in words, phrases, or clauses.  

The study of semantics focuses either on meanings related to the outside world (lexical meaning) or meanings related to the grammar of the sentence (grammatical meaning).

 It is also considered the meaning of individual words (lexical semantics) and the meaning which results from the interaction of elements in a sentence (sentence semantics).

5. PRAGMATICS: The study of the functions of language and its use in context.

Language has a variety of functions, including the expressing of emotions, the maintenance of social ties, and even the performance of action.  Furthermore, in any context, a variety of factors, such as the age, sex and social class of the interlocutors and their relationships of intimacy and power, influence the form of language used.

Bibliography: Language_Forms_ and_ Functions_eBook_Chapter_1