University of Saad Dahleb (Blida) November 2009
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences- Department of English Mrs YERBOUB
First Year (L.M.D.)
Module: Introduction to Linguistics
Lecture 01: Properties of Language
In fact, there are many characteristics which enable language (the subject-matter of
linguistics) to stand as a highly distinguished and unique system of communication, and which
allow us to single it out from any other human or non-human language. Among the specific
properties that contribute to the flexibility and uniqueness of the language-system, we shall
mention nine major ones: sounds, systematicity, linearity, arbitrariness, productivity,
displacement, duality, discreteness and cultural transmission.
1. Sounds
Human natural language is primarily a system of vocal communication. Language is primarily
spoken; chronologically speaking, writing came after speech. In fact, 20th century linguists
emphasise the importance of speech and its priority over writing.
2. Systematicity
Languages are systems, so they are structured. The sounds of a language are combined
together in specific ways, following specific rules. They are not arranged randomly to form
words. The order of words in sentences is, in turn, not haphazard; words have a structure and
so do sentences. There is also a system relating sounds with meanings.
3. Linearity
Language is linear; it comes out either as a succession of sounds or written symbols. Elements
occur one after the other in a linear sequence.
4. Arbitrariness
Arbitrariness in language means that there is no logical link or connection between a
linguistic form and its meaning, between the linguistic signs and the objects or ideas they
refer to. This property of human language is often used to contrast with the properties of other
semiotic systems. The relationship between the words “water” (English) or “eau” (French) and
the chemical compound H2O is arbitrary, that is non-predictable. In other words, given the
form, it is impossible to predict the meaning, and vice versa. Arbitrariness also exists at the
level of the grammatical and the phonological structure of particular languages in so far as each
language has its own set of rules.
However, there are some infrequent words in all languages which have sounds that seem to
“echo” the sounds of the objects or actions they indicate. Words such as ‘cuckoo’, ‘murmur’,
‘crash’ and ‘splash’ are called onomatopoeic. The relationship between the form and the
meaning of such words is non-arbitrary because they do seem to reflect properties of the non-
linguistic world. Nonetheless, in most languages, the onomatopoeic words are relatively rare
and the vast majority of words are, in fact, non- onomatopoeic.
,5. Productivity
Productivity refers to the creative capacity of language users to produce and understand an
infinite number of utterances and sentences. All language-systems enable their users to
construct and interpret indefinitely large numbers of utterances that they have never heard or
read before. For instance, children are able, at a quite early age, to produce utterances they
have never heard before. (This is proof that language is not learnt solely by means of imitation
and mechanical memorisation). Similarly, adults facing new situations can manipulate their
linguistic resources to produce new expressions which cope with these situations.
This property is seen as one of the design features of human language as it contrasts with the
unproductive systems of communication of animals. Thus, it would be misleading to say that
the communication-system used by the bees for indicating the source of nectar has the property
of productivity because they produce indefinitely many different signals (varying with respect
to the vibrations of their body and the angle they adopt in relation to the sun). Actually, there is
continuous variation in the signals, a non-arbitrary link between the signal and the message,
and the system cannot be used by the bees to convey other messages than the distance and the
direction of the source of nectar.
What should be stressed, though, is the fact that language creativity is not random or
unconstrained. It is rather rule-governed. That is, the native speakers of a language are free to
act creatively but within the limits set by the rules of the grammar.
6. Displacement
Displacement is another suggested defining property of human language, when this is
contrasted with the properties of other semiotic systems. It consists in the fact that language
can be used to refer to contexts different from the immediate situation of the speaker.
Unlike other systems of communication, human language can be used to refer to past or future
actions. Animal language is generally related to specific situations as danger or hunger. Thanks
to this property, speakers can use language to talk about imaginary things and places, create
fiction and describe possible future world.
7. Duality
By duality (also called double articulation after the French linguist André Martinet) is meant
the property of having two abstract levels of structure:
1) The primary level (higher level): At this level, language is organised as a sequence of
meaningful units (such as morphemes and words).
2) The secondary level (lower level): Language, here, is organised as a sequence of
elements (such as sounds in spoken language) which do not have any meaning in themselves,
but combine to form units of meaning.
It is because the smaller, lower-level elements are meaningless whereas the larger, higher-
level units are generally meaningful that the elements are considered as secondary and the units
as primary. All communication-systems have such primary units; but these units are not
necessarily made up of elements of the secondary level.
We can say that this duality of levels is one of the most economical features of human
language because with a limited number of elements, we can produce an extremely large
number of units.
,8. Discreteness
Discreteness is opposed to continuity, or continuous variation. In the case of language,
discreteness is a property of the secondary level. The elements have definable boundaries, with
no gradation or continuity between them. Discreteness is especially used in phonetics and
phonology for sounds which have clear-cut boundaries within the stream of speech. So, any
sound is treated as discrete and distinct from the other.
There is a distinction in meaning between “fast” and “vast” because in English /f/ and /v/ are
different. The difference between the /f/ and /v/ sounds is not very important, but when the
sounds are used in the language, the occurrence of one rather than the other is meaningful.
9. Cultural transmission
This property refers to the fact that the ability to speak a particular language is transmitted from
generation to generation by a process of environmental learning, and not genetically. That is,
unlike physical characteristics, we do not inherit the language we speak from our parents.
Parental genes have nothing to do with the acquisition of the language.
This cultural transmission is crucial in the process of the human language acquisition.
Children growing up in isolation cannot produce language instinctively.
, University of Saad Dahleb (Blida) November 2009
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences- Department of English Mrs YERBOUB
First Year (L.M.D.)
Module: Introduction to Linguistics
Lecture 02: What is Language?
It is practically difficult to agree upon one single definition of language. Therefore, we shall
attempt to clarify the term ‘language’ in relation to ‘linguistics’.
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. What exactly is meant by ‘language’? We
may notice here that the word ‘language’ is used in singular form without the indefinite article.
Thus, one should not confuse ‘language’ with ‘a language’ or ‘languages’. French, for instance,
makes a clear distinction between the two words: the word ‘langage’ is used to refer to
language in general whereas the word ‘langue’ is applied to particular languages like English,
Chinese and Spanish. The latter are human languages which are spoken by groups of people
and are also called ‘natural languages’. In fact, philosophers, psychologists and linguists
commonly make the point that it is the possession of language which most clearly distinguishes
man from other animals.
In his/her study of language, the linguist is primarily concerned with the general aspects
which are universally shared by all natural languages. John Lyons, a well-known linguist,
clarifies at this point that “What the linguist wants to know is whether all natural languages
have something in common not shared by other systems of communication, human or non-
human, such that it is right to apply to each of them the word ‘language’ and to deny the
application of the term to other systems of communication.”
Some Definitions of Language
There are so many definitions of language. However, it is not easy to find a complete
definition as each one stresses some aspect or another of language. That is why we shall quote
some statements about language made by well-known linguists in order to discuss the different
properties of language they try to demonstrate.
1) Sapir’s definition (1921): “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.”
2) Bloch and Trager’s definition (1942): “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols
by means of which a social group co-operates.”
3) Hall’s definition (1968): Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and
interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.”
4) Chomsky’s definition (1957): “From now on I will consider a language to be a set (finite or
infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.”
No matter how the above definitions differ in the perspective from which they conceive of
language, most of them seem to agree on the fact that languages are systems of symbols
designed for the purpose of communication.
To conclude, we shall quote the following more or less comprehensive definition suggested
by Richards and Schmidt in the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied
Linguistics (2002):
“The system of human communication which consists of the structured arrangement of sounds
(or their written representation) into larger units, e.g. morphemes, words, sentences, utterances.
In common usage it can also refer to non-human systems of communication such as the
“language” of bees, the “language” of dolphins.”
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences- Department of English Mrs YERBOUB
First Year (L.M.D.)
Module: Introduction to Linguistics
Lecture 01: Properties of Language
In fact, there are many characteristics which enable language (the subject-matter of
linguistics) to stand as a highly distinguished and unique system of communication, and which
allow us to single it out from any other human or non-human language. Among the specific
properties that contribute to the flexibility and uniqueness of the language-system, we shall
mention nine major ones: sounds, systematicity, linearity, arbitrariness, productivity,
displacement, duality, discreteness and cultural transmission.
1. Sounds
Human natural language is primarily a system of vocal communication. Language is primarily
spoken; chronologically speaking, writing came after speech. In fact, 20th century linguists
emphasise the importance of speech and its priority over writing.
2. Systematicity
Languages are systems, so they are structured. The sounds of a language are combined
together in specific ways, following specific rules. They are not arranged randomly to form
words. The order of words in sentences is, in turn, not haphazard; words have a structure and
so do sentences. There is also a system relating sounds with meanings.
3. Linearity
Language is linear; it comes out either as a succession of sounds or written symbols. Elements
occur one after the other in a linear sequence.
4. Arbitrariness
Arbitrariness in language means that there is no logical link or connection between a
linguistic form and its meaning, between the linguistic signs and the objects or ideas they
refer to. This property of human language is often used to contrast with the properties of other
semiotic systems. The relationship between the words “water” (English) or “eau” (French) and
the chemical compound H2O is arbitrary, that is non-predictable. In other words, given the
form, it is impossible to predict the meaning, and vice versa. Arbitrariness also exists at the
level of the grammatical and the phonological structure of particular languages in so far as each
language has its own set of rules.
However, there are some infrequent words in all languages which have sounds that seem to
“echo” the sounds of the objects or actions they indicate. Words such as ‘cuckoo’, ‘murmur’,
‘crash’ and ‘splash’ are called onomatopoeic. The relationship between the form and the
meaning of such words is non-arbitrary because they do seem to reflect properties of the non-
linguistic world. Nonetheless, in most languages, the onomatopoeic words are relatively rare
and the vast majority of words are, in fact, non- onomatopoeic.
,5. Productivity
Productivity refers to the creative capacity of language users to produce and understand an
infinite number of utterances and sentences. All language-systems enable their users to
construct and interpret indefinitely large numbers of utterances that they have never heard or
read before. For instance, children are able, at a quite early age, to produce utterances they
have never heard before. (This is proof that language is not learnt solely by means of imitation
and mechanical memorisation). Similarly, adults facing new situations can manipulate their
linguistic resources to produce new expressions which cope with these situations.
This property is seen as one of the design features of human language as it contrasts with the
unproductive systems of communication of animals. Thus, it would be misleading to say that
the communication-system used by the bees for indicating the source of nectar has the property
of productivity because they produce indefinitely many different signals (varying with respect
to the vibrations of their body and the angle they adopt in relation to the sun). Actually, there is
continuous variation in the signals, a non-arbitrary link between the signal and the message,
and the system cannot be used by the bees to convey other messages than the distance and the
direction of the source of nectar.
What should be stressed, though, is the fact that language creativity is not random or
unconstrained. It is rather rule-governed. That is, the native speakers of a language are free to
act creatively but within the limits set by the rules of the grammar.
6. Displacement
Displacement is another suggested defining property of human language, when this is
contrasted with the properties of other semiotic systems. It consists in the fact that language
can be used to refer to contexts different from the immediate situation of the speaker.
Unlike other systems of communication, human language can be used to refer to past or future
actions. Animal language is generally related to specific situations as danger or hunger. Thanks
to this property, speakers can use language to talk about imaginary things and places, create
fiction and describe possible future world.
7. Duality
By duality (also called double articulation after the French linguist André Martinet) is meant
the property of having two abstract levels of structure:
1) The primary level (higher level): At this level, language is organised as a sequence of
meaningful units (such as morphemes and words).
2) The secondary level (lower level): Language, here, is organised as a sequence of
elements (such as sounds in spoken language) which do not have any meaning in themselves,
but combine to form units of meaning.
It is because the smaller, lower-level elements are meaningless whereas the larger, higher-
level units are generally meaningful that the elements are considered as secondary and the units
as primary. All communication-systems have such primary units; but these units are not
necessarily made up of elements of the secondary level.
We can say that this duality of levels is one of the most economical features of human
language because with a limited number of elements, we can produce an extremely large
number of units.
,8. Discreteness
Discreteness is opposed to continuity, or continuous variation. In the case of language,
discreteness is a property of the secondary level. The elements have definable boundaries, with
no gradation or continuity between them. Discreteness is especially used in phonetics and
phonology for sounds which have clear-cut boundaries within the stream of speech. So, any
sound is treated as discrete and distinct from the other.
There is a distinction in meaning between “fast” and “vast” because in English /f/ and /v/ are
different. The difference between the /f/ and /v/ sounds is not very important, but when the
sounds are used in the language, the occurrence of one rather than the other is meaningful.
9. Cultural transmission
This property refers to the fact that the ability to speak a particular language is transmitted from
generation to generation by a process of environmental learning, and not genetically. That is,
unlike physical characteristics, we do not inherit the language we speak from our parents.
Parental genes have nothing to do with the acquisition of the language.
This cultural transmission is crucial in the process of the human language acquisition.
Children growing up in isolation cannot produce language instinctively.
, University of Saad Dahleb (Blida) November 2009
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences- Department of English Mrs YERBOUB
First Year (L.M.D.)
Module: Introduction to Linguistics
Lecture 02: What is Language?
It is practically difficult to agree upon one single definition of language. Therefore, we shall
attempt to clarify the term ‘language’ in relation to ‘linguistics’.
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. What exactly is meant by ‘language’? We
may notice here that the word ‘language’ is used in singular form without the indefinite article.
Thus, one should not confuse ‘language’ with ‘a language’ or ‘languages’. French, for instance,
makes a clear distinction between the two words: the word ‘langage’ is used to refer to
language in general whereas the word ‘langue’ is applied to particular languages like English,
Chinese and Spanish. The latter are human languages which are spoken by groups of people
and are also called ‘natural languages’. In fact, philosophers, psychologists and linguists
commonly make the point that it is the possession of language which most clearly distinguishes
man from other animals.
In his/her study of language, the linguist is primarily concerned with the general aspects
which are universally shared by all natural languages. John Lyons, a well-known linguist,
clarifies at this point that “What the linguist wants to know is whether all natural languages
have something in common not shared by other systems of communication, human or non-
human, such that it is right to apply to each of them the word ‘language’ and to deny the
application of the term to other systems of communication.”
Some Definitions of Language
There are so many definitions of language. However, it is not easy to find a complete
definition as each one stresses some aspect or another of language. That is why we shall quote
some statements about language made by well-known linguists in order to discuss the different
properties of language they try to demonstrate.
1) Sapir’s definition (1921): “Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of
communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.”
2) Bloch and Trager’s definition (1942): “A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols
by means of which a social group co-operates.”
3) Hall’s definition (1968): Language is “the institution whereby humans communicate and
interact with each other by means of habitually used oral-auditory arbitrary symbols.”
4) Chomsky’s definition (1957): “From now on I will consider a language to be a set (finite or
infinite) of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite set of elements.”
No matter how the above definitions differ in the perspective from which they conceive of
language, most of them seem to agree on the fact that languages are systems of symbols
designed for the purpose of communication.
To conclude, we shall quote the following more or less comprehensive definition suggested
by Richards and Schmidt in the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied
Linguistics (2002):
“The system of human communication which consists of the structured arrangement of sounds
(or their written representation) into larger units, e.g. morphemes, words, sentences, utterances.
In common usage it can also refer to non-human systems of communication such as the
“language” of bees, the “language” of dolphins.”
