PSYC 100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: American Sign Language, Bound And Unbound Morphemes, Coarticulation

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Christopher Miners

Document Summary

Language is a method for communicating information, including ideas, thoughts, and emotions. Some forms of human communication may or may not qualify as language. Examples of music and flowers suggest that information can be communicated only if both the sender and the receiver understand what"s going on. Semanticity the extent to which a language can use symbols to transmit meaningful messages. Refer to the extent to which a form of communication can meaningfully represent ideas, events, and objects symbolically. Human language is semantic, no matter what language or idiom is used. So are languages such as sign language and braille. Generativity the ability to combine words or symbols of a language using rules of composition and syntax to communicate an almost infinite variety of ideas using a relatively small vocabulary. To be considered language in the strictest sense, a form of communication must have the property of generativity.