PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE

1
PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE

• Language is dynamic change is a matter of fact
  and not a symptom of decay
• Unfolding of historical events
• Movement of people
• Changing world Language responds to our needs.
  More precisely, we as users of language, add and
  delete as we must in order to talk and write
  about the events, concepts, and things that come
  and go in our lives. Stalker, 1987

2
Properties of Language

• 2. Language is an arbitrary system, with its
  words and other structures having no necessary
  connection with objects
• Dog? Chien? Hund?
• bow-wow or tan-tan?
• 26 symbols or over 3,000 characters?

3
Properties of Language

• 3. Language varies from place to place and among
  social groups, but all varieties of language
  communicate.
• How do you ask for a soft drink?
• What do you call your Grandparents?
• Issues of prestige and status
• African American English (AAE)
• Registers who is talking to whom about what?

4
Properties of Language

• 4. Language serves a multitude of functions
  (Halliday, 1975 and Tough, 1977)
• Instrumental
• Regulatory ? Reveal or assert needs and wants
• Interactional
• Personal ? Connect with self and others
• Heuristic
• Imaginative
• Representational ? Create, comprehend, expand
  knowledge

5
Properties of Language

• 5. Language is orderly or patterned
• Phonology a system of sounds (phonemes)
• Brip - jike
• Stribe - tbluck
• nguma - Pazer
• When are we going to eat mother? (inflection)

6
Properties of Language

• 5. Language is orderly or patterned
• Morphology building blocks of words
• (morphemes smallest units of meaning)
• turn -ed -s -ing re-
• turned turns turning return
• turntable downturn

7
Properties of Language

• 5. Language is orderly or patterned
• Syntax words and morphemes are combined to
  generate phrases and sentences
• horse man carried the

8
Properties of Language

• 5. Language is orderly or patterned
• Semantics subtle shades of meaning that we
  bring to language
• Denotations and connotations
• old, elderly, aging
• Importance of context

9
Properties of Language

• 5. Language is orderly or patterned
• Pragmatics language in use
• The social conventions of language (e.g.
  turn-taking, physical space)
• Social registers rules of using language in
  different social situations
• Linguistic competence vs. communicative competence

10
Properties of Language

• 5. Language is orderly or patterned
• Discourses conventions for connected oral or
  written language that is larger than a sentence
  in length
• Narrative language vs. expository language
• Conversational vs. literary language
• Political discourse, etc.