Lecture 3：What is language？.pptVIP

Lecture Three: What is language? Liao Meizhen 1．Definitions of Language 1.1《辞海》（1989年版，第446页） 人类最重要的交际工具。它同思维有密切 的联系，是人类思维和表达思想的手段， 也是人类社会最基本的信息载体。人们借 助语言保存和传递人类文明的成果。语言 是人区别于其他动物的本质特征之一。共 同的语言又常是民族的特征。语言是以语 音为物质外壳，以语词为建筑材料，以语 法为结构规律而构成的符号体系。语言是 一种特殊的社会现象，它随着社会的产生 而产生，发展而发展。语言没有阶级性， 一视同仁地为社会各阶层服务。社会各阶 级，阶层或社会集群也会影响到语言，因 而造成语言在使用上的不同特点或差异。 1.2 Language is a system of signs that express ideas, and is therefore comparable to a system of writing, alphabet of deaf-mutes, symbolic rites, polite formulas, military signals, etc. But it is the most important of all these systems. (de Saussure, 1916, p. 16) 1.3 [Language is] a set (finite or infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements. (Chomsky, 1957) 1.4 Language is a purely human and non- instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols. (Sapir, 1921) 1.5 A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols for human communication. 2. Features of LanguageDesign Features (1) Arbitrariness Language is arbitrary. All languages are arbitrary. (a) Definition Arbitrary: not based on reason, things don’t have to be the way they are. There is no natural relationship between a linguistic sign and the thing or the object it refers to. (b) Levels of arbitrariness (1) The particular grammar rules of a language at a particular moment in history are frequently arbitrary. Different languages and different dialects have different but equally good rules for such matters. English “break” “is breaking” Swahili faw nfaw English “he wishes” “they wish” Samoan manao mananao (2) The words of a language or languages are arbitrary. Just as Saussure defined it, the link unifying signifier and signified is arbitrary or, even more, since we understand by the sign the total result of the association of a s