PDF What is language - Harvard University

[Pages:45]Introduc)on To Linguis)cs Adam Szczegielniak

What is Language?

Learning Goals

? What do we know when we know a language ? Crea)vity in language ? Competence/Performance ? What is Grammar ? Language Universals ? Language Development ? Language and Thought

What is Language?

? The ability to use language, perhaps more than any other attribute, distinguishes humans from other animals

? But what does it mean to know a language?

Linguistic Knowledge

? When you know a language, you can speak (or sign) and be understood by others who know that language

? Five-year-olds already know their first language(s)

? The ability to use a language requires profound knowledge that most speakers don't know that they know

Cant help but use language

? Try to not understand what I am saying ? Just as impossible as trying not to be fooled by op)cal

illusions ? You cannot stop blinking or having peripheral vision ? For example: Rota)ng Snakes ? the circular snakes

appear to rotate spontaneously in your peripheral vision as a result of the peripheral driM illusion. No)ce how the movement stops when you look directly at a collec)on of concentric circles. The illusion is probably caused by unconscious rapid eye movements and blinking

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