LINA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Linguistic Prescription, Universal Property, Universal Grammar
Document Summary
Possession of lang distinguish us from other animals. Myth & religion: the lang is the source of human life & power. Relationship between speech sounds & meanings they represent in lang of world is mostly arbitrary. Ferdinand de saussure: swiss linguist; the arbitrariness of the sign - wholly conventional pairing of a sound w/ a concept e. g. sign lang: mimetic/iconic -> lost iconicity as time passes -> signs become conventional. Sound symbolism: found in words whose pronunciation suggests meaning (e. g. hiss) Onomatopoeic: imitate sounds of nature (still diff in diff lang) Lang = lexicon (vocab) + sound system + rules for combing morphemes & words. Linguistic competence vs. linguistic performance: what you know (knowledge)/ mental grammar vs. how you use this knowledge in actual speech (behaviour) -> there may be performance errors even for a native speaker. Mental grammar: a set of conventional signs (letters/words/morphemes) + ways to combine these signs.
