7.10.

2022 STEOP ENGLING

1. Semiotics (tutorial recommended)

language as a system of signs
signs can be linguistic and non linguistic

signs= pairing of form and meaning

Examples:
The road sign “Yield”
A real world object.

Mary says:”This is a donkey!”

different people send out different linguistic signs (influenced by the vocal tract and
other factor).
Linguistic signs are basically words or other parts if a language and their meanings

Three different types of signs:

Icon: form meaning relation is one of resemblance (zB Gemälde einer Person)

Index: form implies the concept/meaning indirectly through a particular link

(Zeichen für Gefahr; Totenkopf mit gekreuzten Knochen)

Symbol: form-meaning relation is arbitrary (willkürlich)

(“Vorrang geben”- Schild)
Painting of a woman= Icon because it resembles a person

Picture of a wind sock= picture is an icon, but the object itself is an index, because
when such a wind sock moves, we think about the speed of the wind

photograph of smoke rising above the woods= icon because of the smoke and index
because it indicates the fire below the smoke

Igor saying: “Meow!”

Its an icon, because he tries to replicate the sound of a cat

A child saying: “Meow comes!”

An index, because the meow implies the cat through an indirect link.

A linguistic sign consists of 2 sides:

the concept (a visual); signified
the sound image; signifier

Linguistic signs are symbols, but they are arbitrary but already conventional (-ized)
A common exception to this rule is called onomatopoiea (e.g. buzz, splash, crack or
even cuckoo). But they still contain some level of randomness. However they are stil
icons not symbols.

Another type of linguistic signs that are not symbols are some written signs (Japanese
or Chinese letters describing the meaning of a word as small pictures)

What is a word?
An arbitrary conventionalized sing or symbol;
a form-meaning pairing;
It is stored in the human mind (language) or produced as speech (parole) in spoken,
written or sign mode;

2. Animal communication vs human language

Animal use indexical sings (when wanting to go for a walk, the go to the door), but
not symbolical signs (like having a different utterance for different meanings).
Animal language is not intentional.

Animals have ways to communicate, the question is just how much of the
communication is intentional. Rest siehe Moodle Präsentation

Reflexivity/ Reflexiveness
The ability to think about the language itself.

Displacement
Animal communication is designed for the moment, human language can describe
any time and location.

Siehe Datei YuleChapter1

Duality
On one level we produce sequences of sounds or signs
On the other level we produce meaning by combining elements
Animals usually produce sequences that might have a fixed meaning but these sounds
can’t be broken up or rearranged (a dogs woof is not a combination of w+oo+f and
can’t be rearranged to f+oo+w). Again there are exceptions.
Recursion
In human language we can endlessly embed statements into others
e.g.
You are a fool
I think you are a fool