Linguistic course

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