LIN 1300 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Semiotics, Arbitrariness, Phoneme
18 Oct 2018
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Document Summary
Animal communication and the design features of language: terms to. Interchangeability: all members of the species can send and receive messages. Feedback: we are aware of what we are transmitting. Specialization: the system serves no other function than to communicate. Semanticity: the system transmits meaning through fixed relations between words or phrases and things, ideas, or concepts. Arbitrariness: there is no natural connection between the sign and its referent. Discreteness: the communication system consists of units that can be isolated and recombined. Displacement: we can refer to events remote in space and in time. Productivity: we can produce new messages on any topic. Duality of patterning: meaningless units (phonemes) are combined to form arbitrary signs. These signs can in turn be recombined to form new, meaningful larger units. Tradition: certain aspects of the system must learned from others. Prevarication: the system enables us to lie or talk nonsense. Learnability: we can learn other languages or dialects.
