What is language?
A language is a system of relatively arbitrary symbols and grammatical symbols that change over time
and that members of a community share and use for several purposes: to interact with each other, to
communicate their ideas, emotions and intentions, and to transmit their culture from generation to
generation
A language is a system…
 Spoken languages use a system of ____Sound units___(phonemes) as their basic building blocks.
 Can make _words__ sentences_  speeches, stories, conversations
 Called “__heirarchial_______” languages – at each level there are rules as to what units
are “allowed” to be combined.
 cw – not allowed b/c of the vowel rule
 ASL also has rules:
 Rule of Dominance – Dominant hands moves
 Rule of Symmetry – both hands move in same way or mirror image
 “test”
 Certain movements are rarely/not used.
 Never move outside  in (every morning)
Of relatively arbitrary symbols
 A symbol is a word/sign that represents something else
 Some of these are iconic
 Woosh, splat….chair, boat
 But most languages are made up of arbitrary symbols
 green, laugh, school
…and grammatical signals
 A grammatical signal shows how words are _related to each other.
 There are two types:
 In English _word order is important (who does what to whom)
 John looked at Peter has a different meaning than Peter looked at John
 ASL changes the forms of the signs themselves or inflects the verbs to show the
subject-object relationship
 J-O-H-N rt john LOOK-at-lf P-E-T-E-R lf
or
_______t_
 P-E-T-E-R lf, J-O-H-N rt john-LOOK-AT-peter
 Not all symbol orderings are accepted as correct
 English: looked John Peter
 ASL: rt-LOOK-AT-lf
J-O-H-N-rt
P-E-T-E-R-lf
...that change across time
 Vocabulary changes very quickly – especially slang
 Groovy, far-out, awesome, cool, rad, sweet, bad, mint, wicked…
Your examples:
 Purpose of slang:
 Binds people together
 Creates a boundary to keep people out
 Vocabulary changes to keep pace with changes in technology.
 What are some new terms that have emerged over the last 5-10 years related to
computers and their use?
 Languages change to meet the needs of the people who use them.
 ASL creates new signs by:
 Compounding (home + work)
 Changes made to existing signs (help)
 Lexicalized fingerspelling (loan signs)
 Three reasons why a word/sign changes:
 Easier (Brother/sister)
 More efficient ( know, see you later)
 New word (Facebook_)
 Languages sometimes borrow from other languages to meet these changing needs.
(Language contact)
 Lexical borrowing – form changes
 English - Pizza, bouquet
 ASL signs for other countries
 Fingerspelling (English influence on ASL)
that members of a community share…
 Members of a language community must agree about the meanings of the symbols (words/signs)
and how to use them in order for communication to take place.
 This is why you can’t make up signs…no one will understand you.
 Applies to sub-groups within the larger community as well
To interact with each other, to communicate their ideas, emotions, and
intentions…
 Dr. Jane Goodall – Koko
 Could sign 500 words and “communicate” her wants but…
 Couldn’t generate her own conversation…couldn’t express her thoughts, ideas, emotions,
etc.
 Meta-language – humans have it, animals do not
And to transmit their culture from generation to generation
 Does language influence our culture or does culture influence our language? YES!
 Eskimos – 100 words for snow
 Hopi Indians – time is organic
 Native Americans – don’t have words for the future tense
 Language connects us to things that are important to us and pushes us away from what
we don’t like.
 In our American culture, how many words do we have for money?
Ex.
 In our American culture, what do we call someone whose child has died?