LING 290 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Oscilloscope, Spectrogram, Arbitrariness

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The ability of a language to combine meaningless elements to produce an unlimited number of meaningful elements. No connection between the thing referred to and the symbol/sounds used. The meaning of the words can be arranged in different ways. Phrases can be added within or at the end of other phrases. I know an old lady who swallowed a : other phrases can be added on. The ability of the language to discuss abstract things, non-visible things or things in the past or future. It means that the speaker has the ability to say whatever they want despite the stimuli in the environment. Warning call is the only response for certain stimuli with some animals. This is not the case for humans because we can choose to say whatever we want or nothing at all no matter what is in the environment. An instrument which measures and graphs oscillations of a signal.