Linguistics Magazine Task 2 - The nature of linguistics and language

LINGUISTICS
Introduction to Linguistics
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Task 2 - The nature of linguistics and language
Andres Leonardo Alvarado
Nasly Solangee Martínez
Camila Andrea Botia
TUTOR: Luz Adriana Perdomo
Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia
Licenciatura en lenguas extranjeras con énfasis en inglés
Introduction to Linguistics
October, 2020
Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia
Vicerrectoría Académica y de Investigación
Course: Introduction to Linguistics
Code: 518017

Activity Guide and
Evaluation Rubric - Task
2 - The nature of linguistics
and language
Activity 1: Based on the
first document, do
Exercise 1.4 in page 13.
You have six phrases and
you have to identify them
to whom the phrases
might belong, “Attribute
each of the…phrases to
Ferdinand de Saussure,
Noam Chomsky, or
Michael Halliday. What
does the quote tell you
about their perspective on
the study and analysis of
language?”
“If we could embrace the
sum of word-images stored
in the minds of all
individuals, we could
identify the social bond that
constitutes language? It is a
storehouse filled by the
members of a given
community through their
activity use of speaking, a
grammatical system that
has a potential existence in
each brain, or, specifically,
in the brains of a group of
individuals. For language is
not complete in any
speaker; it exits perfectly
only within a collectivity”
Ferdinand de Saussure: it
was posed by Saussure, that
language was a system of
signs showing a relation
between a given signified
and its signifier, which can
be the image-word stored in
the minds of all individuals.
But it is mentioned that
signs are not stable in terms
of the relationship between
signified and signifier since
there is not an alreadyexisting
concept assigned
due to it would depend on a
group of individuals or
their community.
“It seems clear that we
must regard linguistic
competence- knowledge of
a language- as an abstract
system underlying
behavior, a system
constituted by rules that
interact to determine the
form and intrinsic meaning
of a potentially infinite
number of sentences”
Noam Chomsky:
Chomsky’s linguistics is
based on that everyone has
got a mental repository of
the rules by which our
language or dialect
organizes linguistic
elements into well-formed
strings: this means that we
have a syntactic expertise
in our heads, in terms of a
set of finite rules which
allows us to generate an
infinitive number of
sentences, many of which
we have never Heard
before.
“Every text- that is,
everything that is said or
written- unfolds in some
context of use; furthermore,
it is the uses of language
that, over tens of thousands
of generations, have shaped
the system. Language has
evolved to satisfy human
needs; and the way it is
organized is functional with
respect to these needs”
Michael Halliday: This
phrase is from Michael
Halliday because he
established a dialectical
relationship between
language and society. Since
linguistics for Halliday was
a form of social action, his
work was involved in
educational projects on this
topic and he explains that
in this way the variation of
language is attributed to the
social relationships in
which they emerge. So it
can be said that language
not only reflects social
structures, but rather these
social structures build
language.
“Linguistic theory is
concerned primarily with
an ideal speaker-hearer, in a
completely homogeneous
speech community, who
knows its language
perfectly and is unaffected
by such grammatically
irrelevant conditions as
memory limitations,
distractions, shifts of
attention and interest, errors
(random or characteristic)
in applying his knowledge
of the language in actual
performance”
Noam Chomsky:
Chomsky was interested in
underlying mental
structures rather than on
actual performance which
means that his theory was
being focused on idealized
utterances, or instances of
language which are
considered to be wellformed
according to the
syntactic rules of a
language, rather than on a
real language in use.

“Language is a system of
interdependent terms in
which the value of each
results solely from the
simultaneous presence of
the others… [For example].
To determine what a fivefranc
piece is worth one
most know: (1) that it can
be exchanged for a fixed
quantity of a different
thing, e.g. bread; and (2)
that can be compared with a
similar value of the same
system, e.g. a one-franc
piece, or with coins of
another system (a dollar,
etc.). In the same way a
word can be exchanged for
something dissimilar, an
idea; besides, it can be
compared with something
of the same nature, another
word. Its value is therefore
not fixed so long as one
simply states that it can be
“exchanged” for a given
concept”
Ferdinand de Saussure: in
an effort to define
linguistics, Saussure
presented a principle in
which is explained that
language is a set of signs
that are members of a
system and defined by their
relationships to each
other’s. So when it is drawn
our attention to the
elements of language, they
are related to each other on
the paradigmatic
dimension, which presents
a set of choices where we
consider something based
on the relationship that has
with others.
“Spoken and written
language, then, tend to
display different KINDS of
complexity; each of them is
more complex in its own
way. Written language
tends to be lexically dense
but grammatically simple;
spoken language tends to
be grammatically intricate
but lexically sparse”…
“The value of having some
explicit knowledge of the
grammar of written
language is that you can
use this knowledge, not
only to analyze the texts,
but as a critical resource for
asking questions about
them”
Michael Halliday:
Language acquisition
includes the gradual
mastery of functional
potential until the third
stage, in which the
characteristic functions of
adult language have been
registered. Meaning and
purely interactive processes
constitute the two pillars of
the theory, which is why
Michael Halliday
concluded that the
conditions for us to learn
languages are largely
determined by culture. It's
called part of social
psychology.
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Activity 2: Based on the second text
‘Linguistics’ in Bauer, Laurie; “The
Linguistic Student’s Handbook”, answer
the following question:
Why Linguistics is definitely
considered a science? In your
answer, involve the other language
areas such as semiotics, philology
and literature.
Linguistics, like most social sciences, has had
a long way to position itself as such, that is, a
science. Although it studies something so
fundamental to the existence of society, such
as language, it has not aroused great interest;
therefore its resources have been limited. It is
true that “Linguistics deals with human
language”, Bauer, Laurie. (2007) and this
makes its object of study important for other
sciences and in general for understanding
human life.
Likewise, linguistics comprises a great
variety of branches, which specialize in
specific language aspects, such is the case of
semiotics, which is the study of signs and
symbols and their interpretations and it has
great importance in the commercial and
social world, in addition, it makes significant
contributions to the study of language,
understanding it, from the context, thus the
language “is a treasure buried by the practice
of speech in people belonging to the same
community” because is the community of the
social group who gives it meaning.
On the other hand, linguistics encompasses
philology, which is in charge of studying the
evolution of language through history,
presenting in its studies even more data for
the comprehensive study of language. We can
also name within the great repertoire of
branches that linguistics encompasses
grammar, syntax, semantics, phonetics,
among others, making the study carried out
from linguistics encompass all aspects of
language.
In the same way, linguistics uses the
scientific method as a basis to generate its
postulates, Like many scientists, “linguists
construct hypotheses about the structure of
language and then test those hypotheses by
experimentation” Bauer, Laurie. (2007) this
certifies that all the knowledge that is
produced from the studies of linguistics has a
rigorously academic foundation
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In the following two questions you have to
consult and then explain:
The concept of ‘double
articulation’ is a classic one at
identifying language, please,
explain it, and give examples.
The concept of ‘double articulation’ is a
classic one at identifying language, please,
explain it, and give examples.
Double articulation ’sometimes called
‘duality of patterning’ refers to the property
of all human languages that meaningful units
of speech are composed ultimately by
meaningless units. Wier (wd) It is a property
shared by all the languages of the world.
According to André Martinet, language is
doubly articulated: when speaking or
listening, Rivera (2006).
In other words, we have two units, the
monemes that have meaning and signifier,
and there are two types of lexemes, which
provide the basic meaning of the word and
the morphemes that indicate gender, number
and time. For example, For example, in the
word walker, the lexeme is walk, the verb and
the ending er is the one given by the person
who performs the action.
The above refers to the first articulation of
language. the second refers to the sound or
the mental representation of a sign, in this
case the letter and are called phonemes, For
example, in the word creator, the phonemes
are "c", "r", "e", "a", "t", "or" and "r"
Human language is different from
other semiotic systems, explaining
at least three characteristics that,
according to Linguistics, are
unique to human language.
Arbitrariness: we can notice that
except in the case of onomatopoeic
words or expressions, there seems to
be no logical relationship between the
signal and the message. So, we can
say that the symbols used by humans
are arbitrary.
Creativity: humans can talk about
anything or everything they like.
They can understand and produce
utterances which they have never
heard or even produced before. So,
this clearly shows that creativity is
one of the important characteristics of
human language.
Double articulation: every language
has a set of 30-40 basic sounds called
phonemes. These phonemes become
meaningful when they are combined
with each other according to the rules
of a language. So, we can conclude
that human language consists of two
layers- a layer of individual sounds
which combines with each other to
form a second layer of bigger units
like words. This is called double
articulation, which is unique to
humans.
Productivity: this trait is closely
related to Noam Chomsky called
"limitless scope" and Humboldt
"discrete infinity." Caballero (2014),
simply put, human language is
unlimited, even though its
components are limited.
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REFERENCIAS.
Imagen 1: Getty Images (2019) La lingüística computacional, el campo donde se unen las
ciencias y las letras. Obtenido de:
https://retina.elpais.com/retina/2019/01/15/tendencias/1547545169_410011.html
Imagen 2: CHRIS FELVER / GETTY IMAGES. Noam Chomsky: "No es extraño que a la
gente no le entusiasme la democracia". Obtenido de:
https://www.elmundo.es/cronica/2016/04/18/57122930ca474118338b45f0.html
Imagen 3: M.A.K Halliday y la teoría sociológica. Obtenido de:
http://didacticadelalenguaoralescrita.blogspot.com/2017/04/mak-halliday-y-la-teoriasociologica.html
Imagen 4: siehe dort, see source file [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Obtenido
de: https://www.lifeder.com/ferdinand-de-saussure/
Imagen 5: Maria Keller (2020) Dribbble. Patrón de ciencia. Obtenido de:
https://dribbble.com/shots/1545884-Science-pattern?list=likes&offset=2
Imagen 6: Sergio Morales (2018) En defensa de la cientificidad de las ciencias sociales.
Obtenido de: https://cienciasdelsur.com/2018/08/02/defensa-cientificidad-ciencias-sociales/
Imagen 7: Obtenida de: https://cecytenplanteltepic.milaulas.com/