This chapter explores the definition of language with reference to the design features of human language. The origin and role of language are also described.

1. Master of Education
Chapter 2:
What is Language?
Applied Linguistics for
Language Teachers
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2.  Outline some important
‘design features’ of human
language;
 Explore the extent to
which they are found in
animal communication;
 Examine the main
purposes or origin of
language in human life.
Learning Goals
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3.  What if there
were no
language?
 What function
does language
play in daily life?
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Introduction

4. 4
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What exactly is language?
Language means the specialized
sound-signalling system which seems
to be genetically programmed to
develop in humans.
Introduction

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Introduction
• Humans can communicate in numerous
other ways: they can wink, wave, smile,
tap someone on the shoulder, and so on.
the psychology of
communication
• It is also clear that humans can transfer
language to various other media: written
symbols, Braille, sign language, and so
on.
Media
• But can language be defined?
• How can it be distinguished from other
systems of animal communication?
Questions

6. Design Features of Language
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American linguist
Charles Hockett
• Proposed a useful approach,
design features –the
features that distinguish
human language from other
animal communication
systems.
• and consider whether they
are shared by other animals.

7. Linguistics
 Linguistics:
– can be defined as ‘the
systematic study of language’
– a discipline which describes
language in all its aspects and
formulates theories as to how
it works.
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8. Design Features
Design Features
Use of
Sound
Signal
Arbitrari
ness
Displace
ment
Duality
The need
for learning
Creativity
(productivity)
Patterning
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9. Use of Sound Signals
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 Specific signals can be matched with specific
meanings. In short, words have meanings.
• But such methods are
not as widespread as
the use of sounds,
which are employed
by humans.
Sounds can be used in
the dark, and at some
distance, they allow a
wide variety of
messages to be sent, and
they leave the body free
for other activities.
• When animals communicate with one another
through variety of means.
• Crabs communicate by waving their claws at one
another.
• Bees have a complicated series of ‘dances’ which
signify the whereabouts of a source of nectar.

10. Arbitrariness
 a property of language describing the
fact that there is no natural connection
between a linguistic form and its
meaning (Yule, 2020).
tree ដ ើមដ ើ
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• There is often recognized link between
actual signal and message in animal
wishes to convey, but normally no in
Human language. Ex. A cat will arch its
back, spit and appear ready to pounce.

11. Arbitrariness
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12. The need for learning
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• 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.

13. The need for learning
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• Humans acquire a language
in a culture with other
speakers and not from
parental genes, which is
culturally transmitted. Ex. A
human brought up in isolation
simply does not acquire
language.
• It is clear that human are born
with some kinds of predisposition
towards language. However, we
are not born with the ability to
produce utterances in a specific
language.
• This latent potentiality can be
activated only by long exposure to
language.
• Many animals automatically know how
to communicate without learning.
Their systems of communication are
genetically inbuilt.
Human language is both environmental and biological

14. Duality
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• English consists of around 44 or 45
phonemes (a small unit of sound that makes a
difference in the meaning of a word) is normally
meaningless in isolation; it becomes
meaningful only when it is combined
with other phonemes
 Sounds (basic level) … f, g, d, o
 Meaning (higher level) … fog, dog, god
• a property of language whereby linguistic forms have two
simultaneous levels of (phoneme) sound production and
meaning, also called “double articulation”(Yule, 2020).
• Most animals can use each basic sound
(phonemes: cow under 10; dolphins, gorillas and
chimpanzees: between 20 and 30) only once.That
is, the number of messages an animal can
send is restricted to the number of basic
sounds.

15. Displacement
 a property of language that allows users to talk about
things and events not present (in time = past or future and space
–here or elsewhere) in the immediate environment (Yule, 2020).
Thus, we can refer to Confucius,
or the North Pole, even though
the first has been dead for
over 2550 years and the
second is situated far away
from us.
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The honeybee's dance exhibits a
very limited displacement. If a
worker bee finds a new source of
nectar, it returns to the hive and
performs a complex dance in order
to inform the other bees of the exact
location of the nectar, which may be
several miles away.

16. Creativity (productivity)
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• A property of language that allows users to understand
and create never-before-heard utterances (Yule, 2020).
 Creativity is unique to human
language.
 Language is creative in that it makes
possible the construction and
interpretation of new signals by its
users.
• Bees can communicate only about nectar.
Dolphins, in spite of their intelligence and
large number of clicks,whistles and
squawks seem to be restricted to
communicating about the same things
again and again.

17. Patterning
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• Many animal communication systems consist of a simple
list of elements.There is no internal organization within the
system. Humans do not juxtapose sounds and words in a
random way.
• Language has its own intricate network of interlinked
elements in which every item is held in its place and given
its identity by all the other items.
sounds
Structures
• Ex. (a, b, s, t)
• Only four arrangements of these sound are
possible: bats , tabs , stab or bast (* sbat , * abts ,
* stba)
• Ex. burglar , loudly , sneezed , the.
• Only three combinations are possible.

18. Structure dependence
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• Language operations are structure-dependent –
they depend on an understanding of the internal
structure of a sentence, rather than on the number
of elements involved.This may seem obvious to
speakers of English.

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Sounds & Symbols
Human language
• is a signaling
system which uses
sounds, a
characteristic
shared by a large
number of animal
systems;
• is innately guided
Sounds & Symbols
• Animal communication :
frequent connections
between signal and
message are present;
system is mainly
genetically inbuilt.
• Human Language:
symbols are often
arbitrary; system is
culturally transmitted
Duality and
displacement;
creativity
• There are no these
features (Duality &
displacement) in
animal
communication;
• Creativity seems not
to be present in
animal
communication
Human language vs. Animal
Communication

20.  ‘Language’ is a
patterned system of
arbitrary sound
signals,
characterized by
creativity,
displacement,
duality and cultural
transmission.
What is Language?
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21. Origin of language
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• Language probably developed in east Africa, around
100,000 years ago. Three preconditions enabled
early humans to build up a store of words.
• Humans had to view
the world in certain
common ways.
• Ex: they noticed
objects and actions
Worldview
• They were able to
produce a range of
sounds – a spin-off
of walking upright,
according to one
view
Sounds • They must have
attained the ‘naming
insight’, the
realization that sound
sequences can be
symbols which ‘stand
for’ people and
objects.
Naming

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The Role of language
Why did
language
begin?

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The Role of language
Small talk (social
chit-chat):
• ‘ Hallo, how nice to see
you. How are you? Isn’t
the weather terrible?
Persuading &
influencing
• public forms
of language
Communicating
feelings and
emotions
• convey emotions via
screams, grunts, sobs,
gestures and so on.
Aesthetic
purpose
• In writing poetry, people
manipulate words in the same
way as they might model clay
or paint a picture. Or they
may talk in order to release
nervous tension, a function
seen when people mutter to
themselves in anger and
frustration.

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