PART 1 LESSON 1 Introduction to the Study of Language

PART I
Introduction to the Study of Language

Lesson 1
Definition, Nature, and Characteristics of Language
At the end of the lesson, you shall have:
• defined language and
• explained its properties and features

Language, the most valuable single possession of the human race.

Charles F. Hockett (1958), A Course in Modern Linguistics

Language plays a critical role in our lives as a functional system of human

communication. It is fundamental to our cultures and societies, and has played a vital
role in intellectual history of the study of philosophy, mind, ancient history, and culture.
This lesson provides an orientation of the definition, properties, and features of
language.

Defining Language

The concrete definition of language is difficult to provide due to the complexity of

language phenomenon. However, there have been scholars and linguists who have
proposed the definition of language.

Language as conceived of by Chomsky is “a set (finite or infinite) of sentences,

each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements”. As he
further claims, this holds true for all natural languages since they have “a finite number
of phonemes (or letters in its alphabet) and each sentence is representable as a finite
sequence of these phonemes (or letters)”.

Linguists Finegan and Besnier (1989) define language as a finite system of

elements and principles that make it possible for speakers to construct
sentences to do particular communicative jobs.

Another linguists, Robins & Crystal (2021) define language as a system of

conventional spoken, manual (signed), or written symbols by means of
which human beings, as members of a social group and participants in
its culture, express themselves. The functions of language
include communication, the expression of identity, play, imaginative expression,
and emotional release.

Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and language scholar, stated: “Language is the
expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words.
Words are combined into sentences, this combination answering to that of
ideas into thoughts.”

More so, the American linguists Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager formulated the
following definition: “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by
means of which a social group cooperates.”

©2021 Caraga State University l Department of Communication and Humanities EL 100 (Introduction to Linguistics) 1
 PART 1 LESSON 1 Introduction to the Study of Language

In a nutshell, language in its narrowest sense is, for most linguists, a uniquely human
cognitive system used to produce and understand precise meaningful utterances.

Universal Properties of Language

Understanding and explaining the properties which are universal to all languages – as
well as those which vary across languages – is the fundamental job of the language
educator.

Modularity
Most linguists believe that language is a modular system. That is, people produce and
interpret language using a set of component subsystems (or modules) in a coordinated
way. Each module is responsible for a part of the total job; it takes the output of other
modules as its input and distributes its own output to those other modules. Modules
may refer to the components or subsystems of the language such as phonology,
phonetics, morphology, semantics, and others which will be discussed
comprehensively in the next chapters.

Constituency and Recursion

All languages are organized into constituents, allowing more complex units to enter
structures where simpler ones are also possible. So, we can say in English, “She sat
down,” “The smart woman sat down,” “The tall, darkhaired, smart woman with the
bright red sweater and pearl necklace sat down.” Being composed of constituents gives
language a balance of structure and flexibility. Constituents can be replaced by other
constituents, but you can’t replace a constituent with a series of words that is not a
constituent. So you can’t replace she with smart with the bright red sweater (“Smart
with the bright red sweater sat down” doesn’t work). Constituents can be moved, but
you can only move a complete constituent. She is very smart is possible and so is Very
smart, she is, but not Smart, she is very. Being composed of constituents also allows
languages to be recursive. Recursion is the property of language which allows
grammatical processes to be applied repeatedly, combining constituents to produce
an infinite variety of sentences of indefinite length. Recursion is what allows someone
to expand a short sentence like He was tall into longer sentences like He was tall and
strong and handsome and thoughtful and a good listener and . . . or to embed clauses,
as in This is the mouse that nibbled the cheese that lay in the house that Jack built.
The recursiveness of language has profound implications. It means that no one can
learn a language by memorizing all the sentences of that language, so there must be
some other explanation for how human beings are able to learn them.

Discreteness
Another property of all languages is discreteness. The range of sounds that human
beings can make is continuous, like a slide whistle. For example, you can slide from a
high “long e” sound (as in feed) all the way down to a low “short a” sound (as in bat)
and then slide back to a “long o” sound (as in poke) – all in one continuous glide. But
all languages divide that continuous space of sound into discrete, incremental
territories, just as most western music divides the continuous range of pitch into
discrete steps in a scale. Sounds that are discrete in one language may not be discrete
in another. In English, for example, we distinguish “short a” from “short e,” so that
pat and pet are different words.

©2021 Caraga State University l Department of Communication and Humanities EL 100 (Introduction to Linguistics) 2
 PART 1 LESSON 1 Introduction to the Study of Language

Productivity
Another key feature of language is productivity. When people hear a word for the first
time, they often ask, “Is that a word?” If they ask a linguist, the answer is likely to be,
“It is now.” If the novel word is formed according to the morphological and
phonological rules of its language and it is understandable in context, it is a bona fide
word, even if it’s not found in a dictionary. Languages can systematically combine the
minimal units of meaning, called morphemes, into novel words, whose meaning is
nonetheless deducible from the interaction of its morphemic components

The productivity of language comes from more than just the ability of speakers to coin
new words. Sentences can become indefinitely long, by adding modifiers (A great big
huge beautifully designed, skillfully constructed, well-located new building . . .) or by
including one sentence in another, over and over again (He said that she said that I
said that they believe that you told us that . . . .). Since languages place no limits on
the use of these recursive processes, all languages are potentially infinitely productive.

Arbitrariness
According to de Saussure, linguistic signs are arbitrary. In other words, they are
examples of symbolic signs with only conventional relationships between the signifier
and the signified. No doubt following de Saussure, Hockett made arbitrariness one of
his design features (though it is not unique to human communication). Arbitrariness
in language relates to the fact that the same meaning can be expressed in an unlimited
way across languages. ‘Arbitrariness’ happens when the forms of linguistic signs bear
no natural resemblance to their meaning. The link between them is a matter of
convention, which differ radically across languages. An example given by Widdowson
(2006) in his book ‘Linguistics’ is from the English word ‘dog,’ which happens to denote
a particular four-footed domesticated creature, the same creature which is denoted in
French by the completely different form chien. According to him, ‘Neither form looks
like a dog, or sounds like one. If it did, then dogs in France would be unrecognisable
to English speaker, and vice versa.’

Reliance on Context
Reliance on context is a crucial property of languages, not just in figuring out the
meaning of words like one and won, but in interpreting the meaning of entire
utterances. The meaning of a sentence depends crucially on the context in which it is
uttered. That context could be the sentence or sentences that immediately precede it,
or it could be the broader physical or social circumstances in which the sentence it
uttered. If someone says “One,” the meaning of that utterance is only clear in the
context of a preceding utterance – for example, “Do you want one lump of sugar or
two?” Similarly, “It’s cold in here” could be a complaint, a request to close a window,
or even a compliment (about a freezer, perhaps). Who or what a given pronoun (like
she, it, us, or them) refers to may rely on prior sentences or the immediate physical
environment. Languages rely on the connection between form (what is said) and
context (when, where, by whom, and to whom it is said) to communicate much more
than is contained in a sequence of words.

Variability
Although all languages share some universal characteristics, languages also differ in
many ways. The language that people use varies depending on who’s speaking and
the situation in which they’re speaking. In fact, variability is one of the most important
– and admirable – properties of language. Variation (also known as difference and
diversity) is the essence of information. Variability in language allows people to

©2021 Caraga State University l Department of Communication and Humanities EL 100 (Introduction to Linguistics) 3
 PART 1 LESSON 1 Introduction to the Study of Language

communicate far more than the semantic content of the words and sentences they
utter. The variability of language is indexical. Speakers vary the language they use to
signal their social identities (geographical, social status, ethnicity, and even gender),
and also to define the immediate speech situation.

Design Features of Language by Hockett

Hockett’s design features are a set of features that characterize human language and
distinguish it from communication with animals. They were identified by linguistic
anthropologist Charles F. Hockett in the 1960s. He called these characteristics the
design features of the language. Hockett originally believed there were 13 design
features. While primate communication uses the first 9 functions, the last 4 functions
(bias, productivity, cultural transmission, and duality) are reserved for humans. Later,
Hockett added exclusively human qualities to this list: evasiveness, reflexivity and
learning. He argued that even the simplest human languages have these 16
characteristics.

Voice-auditory channel
This refers to the idea that speech/hearing is the way people speak. This means that
the standard human language occurs as vocal (making sounds with the mouth) type
of communication which is perceived by hearing it. This feature has since been
modified to include other language channels such as tactile-visual and manual-visual.

Broadcast and Directed Reception

When people speak, sounds are transmitted in all directions; however, listeners
perceive the direction the sounds are coming from. Likewise, signers broadcast to
potentially anyone within line of sight, while those who watch can see who is signing.
This is typical for most forms of communication between humans and animals.

Fleetingness
Transience, also called rapid extinction, refers to the idea of a temporary quality of
language. Language sounds exist only for a short period of time, after which they
cease to be perceived. Sound waves quickly disappear when the speaker stops
speaking. The same is true for signs. In contrast, other forms of communication such
as writing and Inca kipus (tying knots) are more permanent.

Interchangeability
This refers to the idea that humans can transmit and receive identical linguistic signals;
people are not limited in the types of messages they can say/hear. You can say “I’m
a boy” even if it’s a girl. This should not be confused with lying (evasion). The
important thing is that the speaker can physically create any messages regardless of
their veracity or relationship to the speaker. In other words, whatever can be heard
can also be said. Not all species have this feature. For example, to communicate their
status, queen ants produce chemical odours that other ants cannot.

Full feedback
Native speakers can hear their own speech and can control and change what they say
when they say it. Likewise, signers see, feel, and control their signature.

Specialization
The purpose of language signals is communication and not any other biological
function. When people speak or sign, it is usually done on purpose. An example of

©2021 Caraga State University l Department of Communication and Humanities EL 100 (Introduction to Linguistics) 4
 PART 1 LESSON 1 Introduction to the Study of Language

non-specialized communication is a dog breathing heavily. When a dog is gasping for

breath, it often informs its owner that it is hot or thirsty; however, the dog suffocates
to cool off. This is a biological function, and communication is secondary.

Semanticity
The units created on the second level – whether they are words or combinations of
words – have semanticity. That is to say, they mean things. They refer to something
other than themselves: entities, ideas, states of affairs, feelings and so on. ‘Rat’ means
a particular kind of rodent, and can be used to refer to one when it appears, or to talk
about one which is not there.

Free
Languages usually consist of arbitrary and signed characters. In spoken languages,
iconicity takes the form of onomatopoeia (for example, in English “murmur”, in
Mandarin “mao” (cat), in ASL “cup”, “I” “up / down”, etc.). For most other symbols,
there is no internal or logical connection between the sound form (signal) and what it
refers to. Thus, almost all the names that human language ascribes to an object are
arbitrary: the word “car” does not look like a real car. The words spoken do not really
resemble the objects they represent. This is further supported by the fact that different
languages give the same object very different names.

Discreteness
Linguistic representations can be broken down into small discrete units that are
combined with each other according to rules. Perceived categorically, not constantly.
For example, in English, a number is denoted by the plural morpheme / s /, which can
be added to the end of any noun. The plural morpheme is perceived categorically, not
continuously: we cannot express smaller or larger quantities by varying how loudly we
pronounce / s /.

Bias
This refers to the idea that people can talk about things that are physically absent or
don’t even exist. Speakers can talk about the past and future, express hopes and
dreams. Human speech is not limited to the here and now. Displacement is one of the
features that separate human language from other forms of primate communication.

Productivity
This refers to the idea that language users can create and understand new utterances.
People can make an unlimited number of statements. Also related to performance is
the concept of grammar templates, which makes the language easier to use and
understand. The language does not stand still, but is constantly changing. New idioms
are created all the time, and the meaning of the signals can vary depending on the
context and situation.

Traditional transmission
Also known as cultural transmission. Traditional transmission is the idea that although
people are born with innate language abilities, language is better absorbed after birth
in a social environment. It differs sharply from the idea of Chomsky’s Universal
Grammar and rather implies the concept that people learn to speak by interacting with
experienced users of the language. Remarkably, language and culture are intertwined
in this construct, functioning as a concept of language acquisition.

©2021 Caraga State University l Department of Communication and Humanities EL 100 (Introduction to Linguistics) 5
 PART 1 LESSON 1 Introduction to the Study of Language

The duality of patterning

Significant messages are composed of separate smaller meaningful units (words and
morphemes), which themselves are composed of separate smaller meaningless units
(phonemes).

Prevarication
Prevarication is the ability to lie or cheat. Using language, people can make false or
meaningless statements. This is an important difference between human
communication, i.e. language versus communication with animals. While
communication with animals may reflect several other designs, features proposed by
Hockett, communication with animals is incapable of lying or inventing things that do
not exist or have no referent.

Reflexivity
People can use language to talk about language. Reflexivity is also a hallmark of human
language, a trait that is not present in communication with animals. At its core,
reflexivity means that people can describe what language is, talk about the structure
of a language, discuss the idea of language among others using language.

Learnability
The language can be taught and learned. Just as a speaker learns his first language,
the speaker can learn other languages. It should be noted that young children learn
the language easily and competently; however, language acquisition is constrained by
a critical period, which makes it more difficult for a child to reach a certain age.

References

Fasold, R and Connor-Linton, J. (2006). An introduction to language and linguistics.

Cambridge University Press, New York.

Genetti, C. (2019). How languages work: an introduction language and linguistics.

Cambridge University Press.

https://englopedia.com/design-features-of-language-by-hockett/

Robins, Robert Henry and Crystal, David. "Language". Encyclopedia Britannica, 9 Mar.
2021, https://www.britannica.com/topic/language. Accessed 10 August 2021.

©2021 Caraga State University l Department of Communication and Humanities EL 100 (Introduction to Linguistics) 6