Another issue is that it leaves out sign languages. For one, it leaves out written forms of language. This is a good start, but it has some problems. So let's try a first stab at a definition that captures these facts:Īttempt 1: Language is a set of associations between sounds and meanings. That association, between this sequence of sounds and this meaning, is somehow part of English. So when we put the sounds /d/ + /ɑ/ + /g/ together to say dog, we understand that we're referring to the domesticated canine animal. Because we might remark that these English words have meanings associated with them. So a language is something that has a set of words in it.īut there's more too. And we might also notice that there are words that aren't part of English: for example, plâge, faoi, 你們. Association between form and meaningįirst of all, we might notice that English has certain words: dog, snowman, optimize, empirical, the list goes on. Let's examine each of these qualities by taking a particular language, English, as an example. 1 Sapir is saying that languages are three things: In his 1921 book Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech, Sapir describes languages as "arbitrary systems of symbolism". Let's take a cue from one influential linguist of the early 20th century, Edward Sapir.
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