DANCEST 805 Lecture 25:
Document Summary
It is regular governed by a system of rules, called a grammar it is productive infinite combinations of things can be expressed in it. See labelled tree diagram (right): preposing: taking a certain part of a sentence & moving it to the front, usually for emphasis; Self-contradiction (why is it contradictory to say, my dog is not an animal ?) the side of a river?) Synonymy (why does the rabbit is not old enough mean the same thing as the rabbit is too young ?: entailment (why does pat is my uncle mean that pat is male?) There are two answers to the question, why do different languages sound different: they contain different sounds (phonemes, they have different rules for combining those sounds (phonology) Summary: to be a language, a system must exhibit regularity (that is, be governed by a system of rules, called a grammar) & productivity (be able to express an infinite number of ideas)
