ANTH 1150 Chapter Notes - Chapter 4: Signify, Hopi Language, Appropriate Behavior
10 Feb 2014
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Harris - chapter 4: universal features of language. Language is: the medium by which ideas, inventions, and memories outlive individuals and generations. Linguistic competence allows: rules, appropriate behaviour for situations, situations are remote in space and time. Semantic universality: is a unique aspect of human communication. It refers to the communicative power of language-the fact that language provides for nearly infinite combinations that express different experiences and thought in different ways: these are the three distinctive features of semantic universality. Infinite capacity of human language: creation of new messages, to convey information about an infinite number of subjects, we create these messages in greater detail, animals do not have this linguistic ability. As with other areas of scientific inquiry, linguistics try to discover the underlying rules that govern language. Phonetics: the study of the phones, or individual sounds, that native speakers make.
