Properties of Human Language

Presentation on The Properties of Human Language

The Islamia University of Bahawalpur

M.Phil English Linguistics (2018-20)

1. Properties of Human Language Presented By: Syed Nadeem Abbas Presented To: Sir Shahid Nawaz M.Phil English Linguistics (Session 2018-20)

2. A Brief Intro… Here we tend to think of Communication as the primary function of “Human Language”, its not a distinguishing feature. All creatures communicate in some way. However, we suspect that other creatures are not reflecting on the way they create their communicative messages or reviewing how they work (or not). That is one barking dog is probably not offering advice to another barking dog along the lines of “Hey, you should lower your bark to make it sound more menacing. Humans are clearly able to reflect on language and its uses ( e.g I wish he wouldn’t use so many technical terms) thats reflexivity.

3. Design Features of Language Design Features of Language refer to the quintessential characteristics of Human Language, which can distinguish any human language system from any non-human language system. They cover: Displacement, Arbitrariness, Duality, Creativity (Productivity) and Cultural Transmission

4. Displacement Human Languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication. Thus we can refer to Confucius or the North Pole, even though the first has been dead for over 2550 years and the 2 nd is situated far away from us. Animal Communication is generally considered to lack this property.

5. Arbitrariness It is generally the case that there is no “Natural” connection between the Linguistic form and its Meaning (Saussure) We can’t just look at the Arabic word کلب and say that its Dog Different sounds are used to refer to the same object in different languages ( i.g Tree, Boum …)

6. Duality Human Language is organized at two levels or layers, this property is called Duality or Double Articulation. In speech production we have a physical level at which we can produce individual sounds, like n, b and i . as individual sounds, non of these descrete forms has any intrinsic meaning. In a particular combination such as Bin and Nib both have different meanings but with the same letters… so at one level we have distinct sounds and, at another level, we have distinct meanings. What about Woof , o owfs and foow …???

7. Productivity Humans are continually creating new expressions and novel utterances by manipulating their linguistic resources to describe new objects and situations this property is known as Productivity (Creativity and Open-endedness). Language is resourcefull because of its Duality and its Recursiveness . That Recursiveness provides a potential to create an infinite number of endless sentences.

8. Productivity “Limited rules can produce unlimited sentences.” (Chomsky) This limited feature of animal communication is described in term of fixed reference. Each signal in the system is fixed as relating to a particular object of occasion.

9. Cultural Transmission While we may inherit physical features such as brown eyes and dark hair from our parents, we donot inherit their language. We acquire a language in a culture with other speakers and not from parental genes. An infant born to Korean parents in Korea but adopted and brought up from birth by English speakers in the United States, will have physical characteristics inherited from his or her natural parents, but will inevitably speak English.

10. Cultural Transmission This process whereby a language is passed on from one generation to the next is described as Cultural Transmission. . . . What about the Kitten…???

11. Very much Thanks for your kind Attention.