Design Features of Language.ppt

1、Design Features of Language语言的本质特征,Arbitrariness,Duality,Creativity,Displacement,Arbitrariness, firstly discussed by Saussure (Swiss, “Father of modern linguistics”) Arbitrariness refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bears no natural relationship to their meanings. There is no motiv

2、ated relationship between the sign and what it is a sign for. The symbols have been chosen arbitrarily for the message.,The smaller the linguistic unit, the more arbitrary it is. sounds morphemes words phrases clauses sentences/utterances texts/discourses,pin-bin, fish-dish compound words: shoe-make

3、r, photocopy They got married and had a child. They had a child and got married.,Arbitrariness and Convention,Then what is the link between a linguistic sign and its meaning? It is a matter of convention. 语言符号的形式和意义之间是约定俗成的关系。,Duality (二层性),Primary units words (meaningful) consist of secondary units

4、 sounds (meaningless) “the infinite use of finite means” sounds morphemes words phrases clauses sentences/utterances texts/discourses,Creativity (创造性),Language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness (递归性). duality: an infinite set of sentences recursiveness: an endless sentence,

5、Displacement (移位性),Human languages enable their users to symbolize objects, events and concepts which are not present (in time and space) at the moment of communication. Thus, we can refer to Confucius, or the North Pole, even though the first has been dead for over 2550 years and the second is situated far away from us.,Displacement benefits human beings by giving us the power to handle generalizations and abstractions. I hate you. I love you. “No matter ho