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    What Is Language

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    Dean Wynx
    The document discusses several definitions of language from different scholars and sources: 1. Language is a structured system of arbitrary vocal sounds and sequences of sounds used for interpersonal communication that catalogs human experience. 2. Language is an open system that interacts with and changes culture, and is one of the most complex social skills. 3. Language relates meanings to substance and is a mental phenomenon that is innate to humans.

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    What Is Language

    Uploaded by

    Dean Wynx
    28 views10 pages
    The document discusses several definitions of language from different scholars and sources: 1. Language is a structured system of arbitrary vocal sounds and sequences of sounds used for interpersonal communication that catalogs human experience. 2. Language is an open system that interacts with and changes culture, and is one of the most complex social skills. 3. Language relates meanings to substance and is a mental phenomenon that is innate to humans.

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    The document discusses several definitions of language from different scholars and sources: 1. Language is a structured system of arbitrary vocal sounds and sequences of sounds used for interpersonal communication that catalogs human experience. 2. Language is an open system that interacts with and changes culture, and is one of the most complex social skills. 3. Language relates meanings to substance and is a mental phenomenon that is innate to humans.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    28 views10 pages

    What Is Language

    Uploaded by

    Dean Wynx
    The document discusses several definitions of language from different scholars and sources: 1. Language is a structured system of arbitrary vocal sounds and sequences of sounds used for interpersonal communication that catalogs human experience. 2. Language is an open system that interacts with and changes culture, and is one of the most complex social skills. 3. Language relates meanings to substance and is a mental phenomenon that is innate to humans.

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    What is

    language?
    Modern Linguistics – by
    John Carroll
    Language is a structured system of
    arbitrary vocal sounds and sequences of
    sounds which is used in interpersonal
    communication and which rather
    exhaustively catalogs the things, events,
    and processes of human experience.
    Social Scientists
    Language is an open system interacting
    with, changed by, and changing its
    environment as part of culture. The
    humanness of language and its place in
    human society is one of the most
    necessary and complex of all social skills.
    TRANSFORMATIONALISTS – BY
    CHOMSKY

    Language is a system which relates


    meanings to substance. Language is a
    mental phenomenon. It is innate. Man
    has the genetically imparted ability
    for language learning.
    Webster’s New International Dictionary
    of the English Language, 1961

    Language is a systematic means of


    communicating ideas or feelings by
    the use of conventionalized signs,
    sounds, gestures, or marks having
    understood meanings.
    Random House Dictionary of the
    English Language, 1966

    Language is any set or system of


    linguistic symbols as used in a more
    or less uniform fashion by a number
    of people who are thus enabled to
    communicate intelligibly with one
    another.
    RONALD WARDHAUGH, 1972

    Language is a system of arbitrary


    vocal symbols used for human
    communication.
    MARY FINOCCHIARO 1964

    Language is a system of arbitrary,


    vocal symbols which permit all
    people in a given culture to
    communicate or to interact.
    TASK: COMPARE AND CONTRAST THE
    DEFINITIONS AND SUMMARIZE THEM IN A
    TABLE

    Definition Similarities Differences

    Note: Include the meaning or your


    interpretation of the terms you listed under
    similarities and differences
    SOME CONSIDERATIONS IN RELATION TO THE DEFINITIONS
    OF LANGUAGE

    1. Language is used for communication


    2. Language is essentially human, although
    possibly not limited to humans
    3. Language is a set of arbitrary symbols
    4. Those symbols are primarily vocal, but may
    also be visual
    5. The symbols have conventionalized meanings
    to which they refer.
    6. Language is systematic and generative
    7. Language operates in a speech community or
    culture.

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