Summary of Linguistics
Properties
of human Language
1. Displacement is
the property of human language and human can refer to past and future time.
Displacement allows us to talk about things and places.
e.g.: angels, santa clause, superman, heaven, hell, etc.
2. Arbitrariness: the
term arbitrary here refers to the fact that symbol that people use is made or
chosen without any principle, logic or reason.
For instance, people in java do not have a principal or logic to call an
animal with long tail, two hands, and two legs and like scratching and playing
on trees as khetek. There is no logic either for people in Jakarta to
call that animal monyet. This is what arbitrary means.
So that, English people do not have any reason why they call the animal
that produces “meauww” as cat. Again, this is because language is arbitrary; no
logical reason is used when choosing a symbol, and no direct relationship
between the symbol and the symbolized.
3. Productivity: humans are continually creating new
expressions by manipulating their linguistic resources to describe new objects
and situations. This property is called as productivity. For instance, the
sounds “acong” in Madura is child. But, Lombok people do not have same
perception for the sounds “acong”, it is famed as DOG.
4. Cultural
Transmission: is the process whereby a language is passed on from one
generation to the next in a community. Also known as cultural learning and
cultural transmission. It is also well-known as mother tongue. For instance, the
parents always speak English to his child and also the environment. Even the
parents are not foreigner, the child will able to speak English.
5. Duality
(double-articulation) human language is organized at two levels or layers
simultaneously. In speech production we have a physical level at which we can
produce individual sounds, like D, O. none of these discrete forms has any
intrinsic meaning. In a particular combination such as DOG
