LANGUAGE AND

LINGUISTICS

MISS NOELIA SÁNCHEZ

3RD YEAR
ISDM 8207
2023
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
 LANGUAGE IS A SYSTEM OF ORAL SYMBOLS USED
FOR COMMUNICATION BY HUMAN BEINGS

 1.ORAL: oral language comes first in the history of each person

and Civilization.
 2. SYMBOLS: their meaning is arbitrary, a matter of convention.
 3. COMMUNICATION: we interact and cooperate with others
through language.
 4. HUMAN BEINGS: it is not shared with animals or other
species.
LANGUAGE IS ARBITRARY:
LANGUAGE IS A SYSTEM OF ORAL (VOCAL) SYMBOLS
LANGUAGE IS A HUMAN MEANS OF COMMUNICATION
BE CAREFUL!
 LANGUAGE:VOCAL SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATION USED BY ALL
HUMAN BEINGS (LENGUAJE)

A LANGUAGE: VOCAL SYSTEM OF COMMUNICATION SHARED BY

ALL THE PEOPLE IN A CERTAIN SPEECH COMMUNITY.
FOR EXAMPLE: SPANISH, ENGLISH, FRENCH, PORTUGUESE,
ITALIAN, ETC. (UNA LENGUA)
LANGUAGE HAS SUBSTANCE
 SUBSTANCE: IT IS A RAW MATERIAL OUT OF WHICH ALL LANGUAGES ARE FORMED.
EACH LANGUAGE (SPANISH, ENGLISH, FRENCH, ETC.) TAKES A PORTION OF THAT RAW
MATERIAL.
ELEMENTS OF SUBSTANCE OF LANGUAGE:

1. PHONIC SUBSTANCE: all the sounds (phonemes) that human beings make due to
their articulatory organs.

2. GRAPHIC SUBSTANCE: all the graphemes (visual representations of speech) used by

human beings.

3. NOTIONS: the categories into which people organize reality (place, time,
possession, quality, quantity, frequency, etc.)

4. FUNCTIONS: Jobs that speakers do with language (their intentions when speaking).
They are stated with gerunds. For example: apologizing, refusing, accepting, etc.
 Each language has its own FORM:
1. Each language has its own set of phonemes.
2. Each language has its own set of graphemes.
3. Each language has its own exponents to refer to a particular notion.
E.g. To indicate possession:
 In English: Tom´s car
 In Spanish: el auto de Tom
4. Each language has its own exponents to fulfill a particular function.
E.g. Offering help
 In English: Shall I help you?
 In Spanish: ¿Te ayudo?
Each language has its own SYSTEM:
BRANCHES:

1. Phonetics
2. Phonology
3. Morphology
4. Syntax
5. Semantics
6. Pragmatics
1. PHONETICS:
It is the study of human speech sounds.
2. PHONOLOGY:
It studies the sound system of a particular language.
The object of study in phonology is phonemes.
3. MORPHOLOGY:
Morphology studies the formation of words, that is,
how phonemes are combined to form morphemes
(words and affixes: prefixes and suffixes).
Morphemes are the minimal units of meaning or form.
4. SYNTAX:
Syntax studies the rules that govern the formation of sentences
from words. These rules specify word order, sentence organization,
and the relationship between word order, word classes and other
sentence elements.
5. SEMANTICS:
Semantics is the study of meaning. It’s not only concerned with the
meaning of words, but also that of morphemes and sentences.
6. PRAGMATICS:
Pragmatics is the study of meaning in context. It deals with specific
utterances in particular situations.
What is LINGUISTICS?
 LINGUISTICS IS THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF LANGUAGE

1) scientific study – investigation

controlled and empirically verifiable observations
reference to a theory of language
Some features:
 exhaustiveness
 consistency
 objectivity
 It has its own jargon

2) The subject matter of linguistics is language

ORIGINS:
 Linguisticscame into being as a SCIENCE at the end of the
19th century- beginning of the 20th century

The Swiss scholar Ferdinand de Saussure

(1857- 1913) is known as “the father of
Modern Linguistics”.

School of linguistics: STRUCTURALISM.

His theory of language was compiled by his

disciples after his death and published in
1916.