1.1 Why study language?
1. Language is very essential to human beings.
2. In language there are many things we should know.
3. For further understanding, we need to study language scientifically.
1.2 What is language?
Language is a means of verbal communication. It is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human
communication.
1.3 Design features of language
The features that define our human languages can be called design features which can distinguish human
language from any animal system of communication.
1.3.1 Arbitrariness
Arbitrariness refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their
meanings.
1.3.2 Duality
Duality refers to the property of having two levels of structures, such that units of the primary level are
composed of elements of the secondary level and each of the two levels has its own principles of organization.
1.3.3 Creativity
Creativity means that language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness.
Recursiveness refers to the rule which can be applied repeatedly without any definite limit. The recursive
nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the possibility of creating endless sentences.
1.3.4 Displacement
Displacement means that human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and
concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of conversation.
1.4 Origin of language
1. The bow-wow theory
In primitive times people imitated the sounds of the animal calls in the wild environment they lived and speech
developed from that.
2. The pooh-pooh theory
In the hard life of our primitive ancestors, they utter instinctive sounds of pains, anger and joy which gradually
developed into language.
3. The “yo-he-ho” theory
As primitive people worked together, they produced some rhythmic grunts which gradually developed into
chants and then into language.
1.5 Functions of language
As is proposed by Jacobson, language has six functions:
1. Referential: to convey message and information;
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