LANGUAGE ORIGINS

Małgorzata Szulc-Kurpaska

Definition of language

Language is many things – a system of
communication, a medium for thought, a
vehicle for literary expression, a social
institution, a matter for political
controversy, a catalyst for nation
building.

(O’Grady, M. Dobrovolsky and F. Katamba,

1997:1)

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Human invention



The ‘la-la’ theory



The ‘bow-wow’ theory



The ‘pooh-pooh’ theory



The ‘ding-dong’ theory



The ‘yo-he-ho’ theory
(the yo-heave-ho’ theory)

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Contributions to language

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

Johann Peter Suessmilch



A Prussian clergyman
- children can learn the language of the
Hottentots and adults cannot
(the critical age hypothesis)
- grammars of languages are regular
(universality of linguistic properties

Contributions to language

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

Jean Jacques Rousseau



Empiricist, a founder of the Romantic
movement

- the first words were names of individual
things
- the first sentences were one-word
sentences
- general and abstract words were invented
later as they were ‘different parts of
speech’

Contributions to language

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

Johann Herder



A German philosopher, rationalist



- language and thought are inseparable



- man is born with the capacit for both



- language ability is innate

Functions of language



Communicative (interpersonal, social)
-transactional (knowledge, skills,
information)
-interactional (emotions, feelings,
attitudes)



- Representative (descriptive,
ideational)

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Functions of language



The emotional function



The social function

-Phatic communion (Bronisław Malinowski)



The phonetic function



The performative function



The historical function



The mental function



The identifying function

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Properties of language



The vocal auditory channel



Arbitrariness



Semanticity



Cultural transmission



Spontaneous use



Turn taking



Duality (double articulation)

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Properties of language



Displacement



Structure dependence
-

An old lady wearing a funny hat gave a bunny a carrot

-She gave a bunny a carrot (REPLACE)
-A carrot was given to a bunny by an old lady wearing a
funny hat (MOVE AROUND)
-An old lady gave a bunny a carrot and an old man gave
a bunny a carrot
-An old lady and an old man gave a bunny a carrot
(DELETE)



Creativity (productivity)

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The types of languages

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

Isolating, analytic or root languages

- All words are invariable: there are no
endings
- Grammatical endings through word
order (Chinese, Vietnamese)

The types of languages

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

Inflecting, synthetic or fusional
languages



- grammatical relationships by changing the
internal structure of words (inflectional
endings)



(Latin, Greek, Arabic)

The types of languages

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

Agglutinative or agglutinating
languages
Words are built up out of a long
sequence of units, each expressing a
grammatical meaning in a one-to-one
way.

(Turkish, Finnish, Japanese)

Slajd z punktami



Punkt 1



Podpunkt (wcisnij tab zeby wciac)



Punkt 2 (kolejne punkty dodajesz
enterem)

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Slajd z punktami



Punkt 1



Podpunkt (wcisnij tab zeby wciac)



Punkt 2 (kolejne punkty dodajesz
enterem)

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Slajd z punktami



Punkt 1



Podpunkt (wcisnij tab zeby wciac)



Punkt 2 (kolejne punkty dodajesz
enterem)

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Slajd z punktami



Punkt 1



Podpunkt (wcisnij tab zeby wciac)



Punkt 2 (kolejne punkty dodajesz
enterem)

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Slajd z punktami



Punkt 1



Podpunkt (wcisnij tab zeby wciac)



Punkt 2 (kolejne punkty dodajesz
enterem)

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Slajd z punktami



Punkt 1



Podpunkt (wcisnij tab zeby wciac)



Punkt 2 (kolejne punkty dodajesz
enterem)

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Slajd z punktami



Punkt 1



Podpunkt (wcisnij tab zeby wciac)



Punkt 2 (kolejne punkty dodajesz
enterem)

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