WEEK TASK 1

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

-Answers to text 1

1) The example of “talking “birds shows how the ability of hearing and producing sounds, together
with that of imitating sounds are not necessarily required to learn a language. Since the birds cannot
neither divide these sounds in smaller units nor understand or even produce new ones to convey
their thoughts, they couldn’t be considered as really talking beings, thus explaining the reason of the
“talking” in inverted comas.

2) By saying that the communication of other creatures is “stimulus-bound” the author means that
animals mainly communicate expressing their primary needs and immediate sensations and they do
not “talk” about abstract things like humans can do.

3) Even though it can convey various information, a “stimulus-bound “system of communication

cannot be considered as very complex due to its being confined to a smaller set of messages.

4) The example of the deaf children shows how learning a language is not only related to the ability
to produce or hear sounds, since deaf people are able to communicate with their own language.

5) The characterizing feature of human language is its creative aspect, which is the ability of the
speaker to combine different linguistic units to produce utterances that are usually novel.

-Exercise 1

The cartoon provides a nice representation of the difference between the human language and a
“stimulus-bound” system of communication. Before his meeting with Jane, Tarzan can be seen
thinking of how he will introduce himself trying to make a good impression to Jane. The introduction
he prepared in his mind is a perfect example of typical human language that follows grammatical
structures. However, due to his feelings for her, he panics and the result is a very primitive sentence
that barely follows grammatical rules. This represents how even a complex system of
communication like human language can be affected by human stimulus and become similar to
those of the animals.

-Answers to text number 2

1) The design features of human language described in the previous text are not the same as the
“abstract- principles” that Chomsky refers to in this one. In fact, Chomsky believes that these
abstract principles that govern the structure and use of language are universal by biological
necessity and not historical accident derived from characteristics of the species.

2) There is no contradiction in Chomsky’s thoughts because a child is still a human being and he can
then implicitly interiorize and understand the abstract structures of human language.

3) The several reasons why one may want to study language that Chomsky lists are: to discover the
order and arrangement of different elements of language, the way they are used in various aspects
of ordinary life and to find out their origins in the individual or in history. All these reasons refer to
several fields of language study, such as: grammar, linguistic and glottology.
4) What Chomsky really wants to discover are those unconscious processes that allows people to
learn a language so that the real scheme behind the human mind might be undestood.

-Exercise 2

A) The first Italian text is an exact translation of the English one, while the second Italian text might
be a newspaper’s article reporting the same event of the English one, but exposing it in a different
way.

B) This relationship shows how translations can be done in many ways that change from every
person, culture and language regarding not only the mere grammatical rules, but also the target, the
aim and the author of the translation.

C) Regarding the Chomskian view of language, this relationship represents the different ways in
which elements of language are used in relation to global communication and how the translations
might be “mirrors” of their author’s mind and view of the language.

-Answers to text number 3

1) The networks are the combinations of many options of meaning available in language and since
only few of them are independent, they correspond to certain functions of language.

2) Psychological and sociological investigations are extremely relevant in linguistics since they are
used in order to better understand the relationships and the hidden aspects between people and the
way they interact and communicate.

3)By saying that the ideational function “helps to determine our way of looking at things”, Hallyday
means that even the same event or theme can be perceived in different ways depending on who is
talking about it. This happens because everyone, while speaking, influence the speech with his point
of view.

4) It is possible for social roles to “be created by language itself” because the relationship between
two or more people can manifest itself in language too. When the register is formal there is a
different social role than the one that occurs when the register is informal.

5) The textual function is the one who brings the interpersonal and the ideational functions together
in a real text. Without the textual function the other two would remain abstract and couldn’t be
conveyed to other people.

6) The word “function” as used by Hallyday represents the several social and personal needs the
language is required to serve and that are closely tied one another.

-Exercise 3a

1) My interpretation is that Mich might be an alcoholic drink and since A is underage, he cannot
drink it

2)The ideational function of this talk is to convey the image of a person underage trying to buy some
alcohol.
3)The interpersonal function is that of an Adult/Bartender and a Boy-Girl/Client.

4)The textual function is given by the transcription of the turns of speaking of the two people
(reported as A and B)

5) In order to understand the conversation, one needs to know the laws about drinking and from
what age someone is no more underage in America.

6)To make someone who knows nothing of the Anglo-American world understand this conversation I
would repropose it changing the age from 21 to 18 in order to contextualize the scene in an Italian
point of view.

-Exercise 3b

1)The ideational function of this text is to convey an advertisement for people to buy Marmite.

2)The interpersonal function is that of a Company and Client.

3)The textual function is given by the “stage directions” that constitute the script of the
advertisment.

4)The text can be considered “creative” given all the unusual and informal terms and expressions
used to familiarize with the reader.

5) In order to understand the joke, one needs to know the common idea of hating Mondays.

ENRICO ANTONELLI