Other properties

These six properties of displacement, arbitrariness, productivity, cultural transmission, discreteness and duality may be taken as the core features of human language. Human language does of course have many other proper­ties, but these are not uniquely human characteristics.

The use of the vocal-auditory channel, for example, is certainly a feature of human speech. Human linguistic communication is typically generated via the vocal organs and perceived via the ears. Linguistic communication, however, can also be transmitted without sound, via writing or via the sign languages of the deaf. Moreover, many other species (e.g. dolphins) use the vocal-auditory channel. Thus, this property is not a defining feature of human language.

Similar points can be made about reciprocity (any speaker/sender of a linguistic signal can also be a listener/receiver); specialization (linguistic signals do not normally serve any other type of purpose, such as breathing or feeding); non-directionality (linguistic signals can be picked up by anyone within hearing, even unseen); and rapid fade (linguistic signals are pro­duced and disappear quickly). Most of these are properties of the spoken language, but not of the written language. They are also not present in many animal communication systems which characteristically use the visual mode or involve frequent repetition of the same signal. Such properties are best treated as ways of describing human language, but not as a means of distinguishing it from other systems of communication.

Study questions

Be ready to discuss the questions. Give your grounds and provide examples:

1. What is language (its sounds, words, grammar)?

2. Can all human beings learn a language?

3. Are there any languages that do not use sounds?

4. Do primitive people have complete language or are their languages primitive?

5. Can you briefly explain what the term 'arbitrariness' means when it is used to describe a property of human language?

6. How do human beings acquire a language best?

7. Which term is used to describe the ability of human language-users to discuss topics which are remote in space and time? How does the mechanism work in this case?

8. Is the fact that linguistic signals do not normally serve any other type of purpose, such as feeding, a good reason to consider this a unique proper­ty of human language?

9. What is the term used to describe the fact that, in a language, we can have different meanings for the three words tack, act and cat, yet, in each case, use the same basic set of sounds?

10. What kind of evidence supports the idea that language is culturally transmitted?

Additional:

Be ready to comment on the moist popular theories of language origin.

The origins of language, like those of many other aspects of culture, are lost in antiquity, and the final answer to the question “How did language originate?” will probably never be known. However, there are many theories which suggest possible lines of development.

1. Language is thought to be the product of man’s social evolution. As he evolved so his cultural horizons expanded and his language inevitably developed at the same time. Man’s primarily instinctive responses to certain physical and emotional stimuli have also been regarded as a possible basis for language development (ejaculatory responses to pain, pleasure, fear … )

NOTE: Early theories such as Plato’s idea that there is an original perfect language which human beings are striving to rediscover, and the origin of the language as an act of God (God invested Adam with the power to speak a fully-fledged language and that the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel accounts for the multiplicity of languages) have long since been discredited.

Man is unique in his ability to transmit ideas through language and this quality distinguishes him not only from other animals but also from the machines which he himself has created. He is a social being using language to communicate in such a way that it is indispensable to the maintenance of his culture. Language is essential to human society and reflects every facet of our attitudes and behaviour. It is central to our whole culture and therefore merits close and systemic study.

THEME 2 LECTURES 3-4

GRAMMATICAL ANALYSIS: APPROACHES

AND METHODS

Part 1

1. The scope of grammar

2. Types of grammar

3. Grammatical analysis

   1. grammatical description

   2. agreement

   3. prescriptive and descriptive approaches

   4. structural approach

4. Methods of analysis

   1. oppositional

   2. distributional

   3. IC analysis

   4. Transformational

Part 2

Tasks

Part 3

Basics of Sentence Parsing

Recommended reading:

1. Donnelly, Colleen. Linguistics for Writers. – NY: State University of New York Press, 1994

2. Huddleston, R. English Grammar: An Outline. – Cambridge: CUP, 1988

3. Iofik L, Chakhoyan L. Readings in the Theory of English Grammar. – L.: Prosveshchenije, 1967.

4. Lehman, Winfred. Language: An Introduction. – NY: Random House, 1993

5. Todd, L. An Introduction to Linguistics. – Longman: York Press, 1987

6. Yule, G. The Study of Language. – CUP, 1996

Study questions

Projects / reports