Chapter 1 Introduction: Language and Linguistics

     What is language?

     Different definitions of language

     Language is a system whose parts can and must be considered in their synchronic solidarity. (de Saussure, 1916)

     [Language is] a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. (Chomsky, 1957)

     Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.

     Each of the definitions above has pointed out some aspects of the essence of language, but all of them have left out something. We must see the multi-faceted nature of language.

     As is agreed by linguists in broad terms, language can be defined as a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.

     Features of human language

     Creativity

     Language provides opportunities for sending messages that have never been sent before and for understanding brand new messages.

     The grammar rules and the words are finite, but the sentences are infinite. Every speaker uses language creatively.

     Duality

     Language contains two subsystems, one of sounds and the other of meanings.

     Certain sounds or sequences of sounds stand for certain meanings.

     Certain meanings are conveyed by certain speech sounds or sequences of speech sounds.

     Arbitrariness

     The relationship between the two subsystems of language is arbitrary.

     There is no logical connection between sound and meaning.

     Displacement

     There is no limit in time or space for language.

     Language can be used to refer to things real or imagined, past, present or future.

     Cultural transmission

     Culture cannot be genetically transmitted. Instead, it must be learned.

     Language is a way of transmitting culture.

     Interchangeability

     All members of a speech community can send and receive messages.

     Reflexivity

     Human languages can be used to describe themselves.

     The language used to talk about language is called meta-language.

     Functions of language – three meta-functions

     The ideational function

     To identify things, to think, or to record information.

     The interpersonal function

     To get along in a community.

     The textual function

     To form a text.

     Types of language

     Genetic classification

     Typological classification

     Analytic language – no inflections or formal changes, grammatical relationships are shown through word order, such as Chinese and Vietnamese

     Synthetic language – grammatical relationships are expressed by changing the internal structure of the words, typically by changing the inflectional endings, such as English and German

     Agglutinating language – words are built out of a long sequence of units, with each unit expressing a particular grammatical meaning, such as Japanese and Turkish

     The myth of language – language origin

     The Biblical account

     Language was God’s gift to human beings.

     The bow-wow theory

     Language was an imitation of natural sounds, such as the cries of animals, like quack, cuckoo.

     The pooh-pooh theory