What Is Language? PDF
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Summary
This document introduces a different approach to defining language, focusing on the knowledge speakers have of their language. It argues that understanding speaker knowledge is essential for understanding language. This approach will be explored in detail throughout the semester.
Full Transcript
What is Language? ¡ Instead of trying to give a simple definition for “language”, we will take a different approach. We will say that language is at the very least the answer to the following question: ÷ What do you KNOW when you know a language? ¡ Why is this question essential? Understanding...
What is Language? ¡ Instead of trying to give a simple definition for “language”, we will take a different approach. We will say that language is at the very least the answer to the following question: ÷ What do you KNOW when you know a language? ¡ Why is this question essential? Understanding speaker knowledge is essential for understanding language because all speakers have knowledge of their language. ¡ We will spend most of the semester looking at the answer to this question What is Language? ¡ Often linguistic knowledge is “implicit”. Speakers don’t realize they have this knowledge unless you point it out. ¡ For example, maybe you never thought about our ungrammatical sentence before: Me wants some chocolate right now. ÷ But it. still you know there is some problem(s) with
