language

Language 1:outline

• language: shared system of symbolic communication
• Linguistic universals: features or characteristics common to all languages

Eight Linguistic Universals

• interpersonal/ communicative: goal of language is to communicate between two or more individuals .ex- twins
• symbolic: symbols of language/ the words we use do not have to sound like what they represent.
• meaningful: each word expresses a meaningful idea or concept
• referential: particular symbols (words or signs) refer to something in the world
• structured: implicit rules about how sentences are put together EX: word order
• Multiplicity of structure: words can have more than one meaning and can say the same thing in many ways
• creative / production : can use language to produce an infinite number of unique phrases and sentences
• dynamic: language is constantly evolving: new words and phrases are added into common language.

Sounds of language

• phonology: the study of how sounds are organized in language
• Phonemes: category of language sounds that are treated the same - EX /k/ of letter "K" in ski and letter "c" is cat
• phonological rules: general statement about the relationship between sounds acquired implicitly.

Unit of meaning within language

• morphemes: smallest unit of language that has meaning
• Morphology: rules that govern how we combine morphemes
• Not all morphemes are words pre= before
• Words consist of 1 or more morphemes: unhappiness = un+ happy+ ness

Syntax