Sorry that the video part of the recording is cut off. The two handouts discussed in this class session
contain this info:
Some Universal Characteristics of Human Language
1. Wherever there are people, there is language.
2. All languages have grammar, i.e., a system of rules which define how linguistic units are combined.
3. All languages have highly complex grammars. There are NO 'primitive' languages.
4. The medium of language is sound. With one class of exceptions, all other media in which language is found are derivative of sound-based systems.
5. All languages have duality of patterning: discrete and meaningless units of sound are systematically combined to form meaningful units, and those meaningful units are combined into larger units.
6. The relationship between sounds and meanings is ARBITRARY.
7. Language is productive/creative: New sentences never before uttered in a language are constantly being produced or created.
8. Language is infinite: There is no limit to the number of sentences which can be produced, nor is there in principle any longest sentence.
9. All languages are complete: Every language has built in devices for expansion to cover areas of discourse not previously encountered, for example, compounding, blending, coining.
10. All languages are acquired by children in roughly the same amount of time and at roughly the same age and with the same degree of facility. The specific language acquired depends on the language(s) the child is exposed to.
11. All languages can be used to refer to things dissociated from the speech act in time and place.
12. Language is used voluntarily, not just as a response to stimuli.
13. ALL LANGUAGES CHANGE OVER TIME.
What do you know when you know a language?
1. You know the phonology of that language.
You know that certain morphemes may have different pronunciations in different contexts.
You know that sounds which are physically different from each other can be versions of the same sound.
You know what sounds are in the language and what sounds are not.
You know what contexts the sounds may appear in.
2. You know the morphology of that language.
You know how the meaningful parts are put together into words.
3. You know the syntax of that language.
You know what sentences are well-formed and what sentences are not.
You know that some sentences are structurally related to others.
You know how to create and understand sentences you never encountered before.
You can recognize ambiguous sentences.
4. You know the semantics of that language.
You know what morphemes mean and what sequences of morphemes mean.