Unit 7 Language

Language
Definition: Abstract system of symbols and meanings.
Common Features
1. Meaningfulness
2. Arbitrary Nature
3. Openness (infinite number of meanings)
4. Sound-meaning link
The Structure of Language
- Rules of phonology (sounds recognized as speech)
- Consists of phonemes and morphemes
- Rules of Syntax (order of worlds)
- Rules of Semantic (meaning of words)

Linguistic Acquisition
Genetic programming (nature)
Social Leaning (nurture)
The Skinner- Chomsky Debate
The Language-thinking Debate
Whorf introduced the linguistic relativity hypothesis i.e. language shapes basic ideas
Key Questions are:
Can we still understand with having a word or phase?
Does experience also shape language?

Conclusion
Language, culture and thought are intertwined. People create words and words shape how people think and what they think about. But people can think about things for which they have no words, so thinking is not limited to the world in a language.