week2 Flashcards
father of modern linguistics
Ferdinand de Saussure
Origin of language - the divine source
if infants would be raised without hearing any language, they would spontaneously begin speaking a God-given language. Egyptian pharaoh: be-kos (growing up with goat = Phrygian), James IV of Scotland: Hebrew (no contact with human speech)
Origin of language - the natural sound source - bow-wow theory
imitation of natural sounds - onomatopoetic words = splash, boom, bang,… and natural cries of emotion = pain and joy
Origin of language - the natural sound source - the yo-heave-ho theory
a group of early humans could develop a set of groans, grunts and swear words used when carrying large and heavy objects
Origin of language - the oral gesture source
developed as a means of communication, it has very specific connection between physical and oral gesture. oral gesture = goodbye and physical - waving a hand - gives the same message
Origin of language - glossogenetics
biological basis of formation and development of human language, concentration on biological differences between humans (past and present) and other creatures (human: upright posture with bipedal locomotion)
Origin of language - physiological adaptation
development of mouth, teeth, lips and tongue. difference between monkeys and humans (have larynx +speech sounds -risk of choking)
duality
language is organized at two levels simultaneously - meaning and pronunciation
cultural transmission
language is passed on from one generation to the next one
displacement
humans are perfectly capable of producing messages referring to the past or future time as well as other locations - why we have tenses
discreteness
each sound in a language is treated as discrete
productivity
the potential number of utterances of any human language is infinite
conventionality
components are mutually linked by way of convention of speech community (how my parents taught me)
