Language is vocal. The primary medium for all languages is sound. Language is produced by various movements of speech organs. Words are just symbols; they are associated with objects, actions, ideas, etc. by convention. Language is possessed only by human beings to talk about the past, the present and the future, and to express request, command and so on. Nhomakorabea2
Language is an activity which consists of listening, speaking, reading and writing. (Halliday - Sociolinguist)
Ferdinand de Saussure M.A.K. Halliday (26 1857 – 22 February (born April 1925)is a British linguist 3 November Language is a set1913) (finite or13 infinite) of sentences , each was a Swiss linguist who developed the influential finite in length and constructed outinternationally of a finite set of whose ideas laid a foundation systemic functional linguistic model of language. elements. (Chomsky Transformationalist) for many significant developments in linguistics in the 20th century.
Elements of language are combined according to rules. *llbta *been he tall a not
Definition of language
2. Language is arbitrary. What is in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. ----- Shakespeare
Linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics can be defined as the scientific and systematic study of language.
Language
Linguistics
Language
Definitions of language Design features of language Functions of language
1 Productivity (能产性) Creativity / Open-endedness
Language is productive, or generative, because we can produce and understand sentences that have never been created or heard before.
Words are just symbols; they are associated with objects, actions, ideas, etc. by convention.
Features of language Definition of language
5. Language is particularly human.
*Dog’s bark *Worker bee’s dance
Definition of language
5. Language is particularly human.
Language is possessed only by human beings to talk about the past, the present and the future, and to express request, command and so on.
Language is symbolic. Language is particularly human.
Properties of Language -Design features
语言本质特征/识别特征
Design features: the defining properties of human language that distinguish it from any animal system of communication.
3 Arbitrariness (任意性) There is no intrinsic connection between a linguistic form and its meaning.
4 Displacement (移位性) Human language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of its users.
Language
What is language?
Analysis
Music?
Rules?
Words?
Symbols of language
Don’t feel frustrated!
Some definitions
Ronald Wardhaugh,R. Avram Noam Chomsky (born dec. 7, 1928--) a British Sociolinguist. Language is an abstract system of signs. 1 Is an American Linguist, the founder of Transformational-Generative Grammar (Saussure - Structuralist)
Definition of Language
Language is a system.
Explanation
Elements of language are combined according to rules.
Language is arbitrary. There is no intrinsic or logical connection between a linguistic symbol and what the symbol stands for.
Definition of language
3. Language is vocal.
Language is produced by various movements of speech organs.
Definition of language
4. Language is symbolic.

Can you find duality in dog’s bark ?
Roman Osipovich Jakobson M.A.K. Halliday (born 13 April 1925)is a British linguist who developed the internationally (October influential 11, 1896[ – July 18, 1982) systemic functional linguistic model of a language. was Russian–American linguist and a pioneer
Displacement
To symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication. Language can be used to refer to contexts removed from the immediate situations of the speaker.
4
Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. (Wardhaugh - Sociolinguist)
“Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication.”
2 Cultural transmission (文化传播性)
Language is passed on from one generation to the next through teaching and learning. You may inherit brown eyes and dark hair from your parents, you do not inherit their language. You acquire a language in a culture with other speakers and not from parental genes.