General Linguistics

M.Phill Linguistics semester 1

Group 3
Topic: Properties of human language
Presented to: Dr.Tahira Asghar
Presented by: Farha Noor Fatima
Fazila Sadiq
Properties of a Language
 *Arbitrariness
 *Discreetness
 *Duality
 *Displacement
 *Productivity
 *Cultural Transmission
Arbitrariness
 Definition:
 Arbitrariness is the absence of any natural
or necessary connection between a word’s
meaning and its sound or form.It is one of the
characteristics shared between all languages.
 Arbitrariness is a useful property because it
increases the flexibility of a language.The
flexibility arises because language is not
constrained by the need to match the form of a
word and its meaning.Because of this it is possible
to construct almost infinte number of words from
a limited set of speech sounds.
Example
 [k],[ae]and [t] are not meaningful in and of
themselves.Meaning emerges when sounds are
combined.
 There is nothing red about the word red,and the
word big is itself rather samll.(Cuskley,Simner and
Kirby)
 By reading the word “red”you might have recalled
the colour red in your mind may be apple,blood or
a coustume of a bride because all these are red.If I
said the word “bbal-gang”what would you imagine?
Unless you are Korean or someone who speaks
korean,it would be hard to recall.This word actually
means the color “red” in Korean.
Conclusion
 Arbitrariness refers to the quality of “being
determined by randomness and not for a
specific reason”.Language consists of a
signifier that represents the signified but the
signifier is not the signified.
 Moreover there is no reason to call ‘rat’ a rat it
may be the shape of rat’s head is similar to R
letter.There is no need to link word rat to the
actual animal other than people are used to it.
 Animal “Rat” is signified as “Rat”.Signified is a
mental concept and signifier is the physical
existence.
Discreetness
 Discreetness in a language describes the fact
that human language is composed of sets of
distinct sounds.One sound on its own may
convey one meaning,multiple sounds
combined in a particular order convey a
different meaning.Even repeated sounds have
a particular meaning.Language can be said to
be built up from discrete units e.g phonemes
in human language.Exchanging such units
cause a change in meaning of a signal.
Example
 We can understand this if we think about a
dog’s bark or a cat’s meow.These animal
sounds are not discrete,they are basically
whole.One bark may mean “feed me”while
another may mean something like “ ineed to
go out”.
 However,the barks cannot be broken down
into smaller units that can be recombined into
more complex barks with other meanings.
 It mean the sounds used in a language are
meaningfully distinct.
Duality
 Duality is the ability of Human language users
which describes the fact that by using a limited
set of distinct sounds, human language users
can produce a very large number of sound
combinations which are distinct in meaning.
 According to Hockett 1960 Duality is a
property that enables combinatorial structure
on two distinct levels:
 Meaningless sounds can be combined into
meaningful morphemes and words which
themselves could be combined further.
Example
 O-w-n- w-o-n n-o-w
 T-o-p p-o-t
 N-i-b b-i-n
 /b/,/t/,/a/
 Bat,tab
 Phonology and morphology are discreet

units.
 Phonology /p/,/t/,/a/
 Morphology pat,tap,apt
Conclusion
 In all languages,discreet units are combined
in a rule-based fashion to form bigger units.
 Sounds morphemes words

phrases/sentences
 /s/--toy+s---toys---The boy is playing with

his toys.
Displacement

 Human language refers to the past, present

and future- last night, at school, I’m flying to
Paris next week.
 Abstract concepts: Things that do not exist

in real life, e.g. superman, batman, Santa

Claus.
 Describe or refer to things that are not

visually present.
Example
 Babies are often taught displacement when
they are asked questions such as “Where is
grandma?” Even when grandma is not in the
room.
Productivity
 Productivity combine words to form phrases,
and phrases to form sentences, and to
produce new sentences never spoken before
& understand.
 Features of human language which enables

us to combine symbols (words, sounds,

phrases) in new ways to express unlimited
ideas.
Cultural Transmition
 Language can be culturally transmitted
 It cannot be transmitted through heredity

 “The process where language is passed from

one generation to other”.
Example
 If a Chilean couple adopt a child from Korea
the child will tend to learn Spanish and not
Korean.
Thankyou