PSY270H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 9: Bilabial Consonant, Fricative Consonant, Stop Consonant
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Ex: the sounds of human language carry meaning, whereas other sounds that we make, say coughing or whistling, are not part of our language because they do not usually convey meaning in the normal sense. Arbitrariness: there is no inherent connection between units (sounds, words) used in a language and their meanings. Exceptions are onomatopoeias, like buzz, hum, and zoom. The language symbol bears no relationship to the thing itself (i. e. , dog has no inherent correspondence to the four-legged furry creature) Two consequences concern flexibility and the principle of naming; this helps us to distinguish human language from animal communication and tells us about the human language user. Flexibility: because the connection between symbol and meaning is arbitrary, we can change those connections and invent new ones. In an iconic system, each unit has a physical resemblance to its referent. There is no flexibility because changing the symbol for a referent would make the connection arbitrary.
