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1、1.What is language?“Language is system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. It is a system, since linguistic elements are arranged systematically, rather than randomly. Arbitrary, in the sense that there is usually no intrinsic connection between a work (like “book”) and the obje
2、ct it refers to. This explains and is explained by the fact that different languages have different “books”: “book” in English, “livre” in French, “shu” in Chinese. It is symbolic, because words are associated with objects, actions, ideas etc. by nothing but convention. Namely, people use the sounds
3、 or vocal forms to symbolize what they wish to refer to. It is vocal, because sound or speech is the primary medium for all human languages. Writing systems came much later than the spoken forms. The fact that small children learn and can only learn to speak (and listen) before they write (and read)
4、 also indicates that language is primarily vocal, rather than written. The term “human” in the definition is meant to specify that language is human specific.2.What are design features of language?“Design features” here refer to the defining properties of human language that tell the difference betw
5、een human language and any system of animal communication. They are arbitrariness, duality, productivity, displacement, cultural transmission and interchangeability3.What is arbitrariness?By “arbitrariness”, we mean there is no logical connection between meanings and sounds. A dog might be a pig if
6、only the first person or group of persons had used it for a pig. Language is therefore largely arbitrary. But language is not absolutely seem to be some sound-meaning association, if we think of echo words, like “bang”, “crash”, “roar”, which are motivated in a certain sense. Secondly, some compound
7、s (words compounded to be one word) are not entirely arbitrary either. “Type” and “write” are opaque or unmotivated words, while “type-writer” is less so, or more transparent or motivated than the words that make it. So we can say “arbitrariness” is a matter of degree.4. What is duality?Linguists re
8、fer “duality” (of structure) to the fact that in all languages so far investigated, one finds two levels of structure or patterning. At the first, higher level, language is analyzed in terms of combinations of meaningful units (such as morphemes, words etc.); at the second, lower level, it is seen a
9、s a sequence of segments which lack any meaning in themselves, but which combine to form units of meaning. According to Hu Zhanglin et al., language is a system of two sets of structures, one of sounds and the other of meaning. This is important for the workings of language. A small number of semant
10、ic units (words), and these units of meaning can be arranged and rearranged into an infinite number of sentences (note that we have dictionaries of words, but no dictionary of sentences!). Duality makes it possible for a person to talk about anything within his knowledge. No animal communication sys
11、tem enjoys this duality.5. What is productivity?Productivity refers to the ability to the ability to construct and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences in ones native language, including those that has never heard before, but that are appropriate to the speaking situation. No one has
12、 ever said or heard “A red-eyed elephant is dancing on the small hotel bed with an African gibbon”, but he can say it when necessary, and he can understand it in right register. Different from artistic creativity, though, productivity never goes outside the language, thus also called “rule-bound cre
13、ativity” (by N.Chomsky).6. What is displacement?“Displacement”, as one of the design features of the human language, refers to the fact that one can talk about things that are not present, as easily as he does things present. In other words, one can refer to real and unreal things, things of the pas
14、t, of the present, of the future. Language itself can be talked about too. When a man, for example, is crying to a woman, about something, it might be something that had occurred, or something that is occurring, or something that is to occur. When a dog is barking, however, you can decide it is bark
15、ing for something or at someone that exists now and there. It couldnt be bow-wowing sorrowfully for a bone to be lost. The bees system, nonetheless, has a small share of “displacement”, but it is an unspeakable tiny share.7. What is cultural transmission?This means that language is not biologically
16、transmitted from generation to generation, but that the details of the linguistic system must be learned anew by each speaker. It is true that the capacity for language in human beings (N. Chomsky called it “language acquisition device”, or LAD) has a genetic basis, but the particular language a person learns to speak is a cultural one other than a genetic one like the dogs barking system. If a human being is b
