LANGUAGE: is an ARBITRARY SYSTEM of VOCAL SIGNS used for COMMUNICATION.
ARBITRARY – conventional, social agreement, that makes the language function, the users that changes the language;
Phenomenon:
§ some African languages – plurality marked at the beginning of nouns (rzecz.)
§ in NATUAHL (Modern Aztec language of Nothern Mexico) – using verb forms it is necessary to mark whether one refers to subject or people
§ in HUPA (an Indian language of Nothern California) nouns are marked for time
Exceptions to ARBITRARiness:
ü onomatopeic words - oing oing, miau
ü iconic expressions – symbolic picture, that shows sth; “it was a looong, long, long time ago”
ARBITRARiness is sometimes a matter of a scale:
white lie
white wine
white cat
SYSTEM:
v internal organisation,
v all elements work together,
v one element failure causes the whole system to collapse.
VOCAL:
§ primacy (wyższość) of speach over writing,
§ historical arguments,
§ statistical arguments (about 30% of people in the world are illiterate).
SIGN = symbol, sth that represents sth else.
Ferdinand de Saussure – the father of modern linguistics, defined the linguistic sign. Notes of his students, with his major ideas, were published:
“Language is a system of elements that have meaning. These elements are language signs.”
(signifiont) denoting arbitrariness denoted (signifie)
phonological aspect of a sign the actual concept it represents
NKJO_BYD_ANG