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Properties of Language

Language has six unique properties: 1) Discreteness - Language is composed of distinct sounds that combine to convey meaning. 2) Arbitrariness - The symbols used in language have meanings given by humans rather than natural meanings. 3) Productivity - Speakers can construct and understand new utterances they have never heard before. 4) Cultural transmission - Language is passed down between generations within a culture rather than through heredity. 5) Displacement - Language can communicate across time and space unlike animal communication which depends on context. 6) Duality - Language can be produced and understood in both sound and written forms to reference the same ideas.

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163 views

Properties of Language

Language has six unique properties: 1) Discreteness - Language is composed of distinct sounds that combine to convey meaning. 2) Arbitrariness - The symbols used in language have meanings given by humans rather than natural meanings. 3) Productivity - Speakers can construct and understand new utterances they have never heard before. 4) Cultural transmission - Language is passed down between generations within a culture rather than through heredity. 5) Displacement - Language can communicate across time and space unlike animal communication which depends on context. 6) Duality - Language can be produced and understood in both sound and written forms to reference the same ideas.

Uploaded by

Quaid Hussain
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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PROPERTIES OF

LANGUAGE

EZH2910
TAYYIBAH KHANAM (A2EE-37)
HEENA ASLAM (A2EE-39)
MAHENA MAHMOOD(A2EE-41)
WHAT IS LANGUAGE?
• Language is a system of communication , a medium of
thought and social interaction.
• Language is a method of Human communication, either
spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a
structural and conventional way. For Eg: There are 22 major
languages in India.
PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE

• There are six unique properties of language;


1)Discreteness
2)Arbitrariness
3)Productivity
4)Cultural transmission
5)Displacement
6)Duality
DISCRETENESS
• Discreteness in language describes the fact the human
language is composed of sets of distinct sounds. One
sound on its own may convey one meaning, multiple
sounds combined in a particular order convey a different
meaning. Even repeated sounds have a particular
meaning.
ARBITRARINESS

• Arbitrariness of language is the fact that the


symbols we use to communicate do not have any
natural form or meaning in and of themselves. In
other words we can say that language wasn’t born,
it was created by humans for there own
convenience. It will be not much to say that we
‘ Humans have given meaning to the
words.’
PRODUCTIVITY

• This property enables native speakers to construct and


understand an indefinitely large number of utterances, including
utterances that they have never previously encountered.
• We can say things that no one has ever said before or state
previous ideas in new ways.
• For example - The aliens from the planet Sudo predetermined
their fate owing to great errors of judgment.
CULTURAL TRANSMISSION

• Process whereby a language is passed on from one


generation to the next in a community . The way a group
of people within a society or culture tend to learn and pass
on new information. While interacting with people from
other cultures, an individual generally faces certain
obstacles, which are caused by differences
in cultural understanding between the two people in
question.
• It cannot be transmitted through heredity in human beings
but different animals transmit their cries through heredity.
Human language is culturally transferred whereas animals
communicate largely with signs and sounds
DISPLACEMENT

• Displacement of language refers to the ability of


human language to communicate throughout time
and across space. In animals, language is primarily
an exchange between stimulus and response — the
meaning conveyed by animal language only works
in context.
DUALITY
• At one level of language there are discrete sounds,
and at another, there are discrete meanings.
• Duality describes the human ability to produce
language in multiple forms. We can both write the
word table and say it out loud, with both evoking
the same idea of a table. 
THAT’S ALL FOLKS,
THANKYOU!

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