Language The particular form of words and speech used by the people
of a country, area or social group.
The method of human communication using spoken or
written words.
The style or types of words used by a person or group.
A major attribute distinguishing us from the rest of the
animal kingdom.
Yule’s characteristics of human language
Displacement Ability to use language to talk about times, places
and people.
It also enables us to say things which we know to be
false.
Arbitrariness This means that there is no natural, inherent
relationship between the signs we produce
and their meaning.
Iconicity Resemblance between the sign and its meaning.
Onomatopoeia When language tries to mirror or “echo” the sounds
made by animals and objects.
Enables languages to evolve, existing signs
can come to mean new things, and new
signs can be introduced for existing things.
Productivit y Allows us to continuously create new utterances,
combining the “building bricks” of language in ever
new ways.
Cultural transmission
This refers to how languages are acquired by our
children. There is no genetic component which would
enable a child to simply start speaking. Children need
to be exposed to a language in order to acquire it.
Cognitive skill.
