竹子的特征
世界杯射手榜Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION
Session A
Language合格党员 is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols ud for human communication. Language is a means of verbal communication. It is 挽留人的情话instrumental in that communicating by speaking or writing is a purpoful act. 学生谈话记录
It is social and conventional in that language is a social miotic and communication can only take place effectively if all the urs share a broad understanding of human interaction including such associated factors as nonverbal cues, motivation, and socio-cultural roles. Language learning and u are determined by the intervention of biological, cognitive, psychosocial, and environmental factors.Other definitions：Language is a symbolic form of communication that involves, on the one hand, the comprehension of words and ntences and, on the other, the expression of feelings, thoughts, and ideas. The basic units of language are phonemes, morphemes, and words.
from Encyclopedia Britannica
Language is the systematic communication by vocal symbols. It is a universal characteristic of the human species. Nothing is known of its origin, although scientists have identified a gene that clearly contributes to the human ability to u language. Scientists generally hold that it has been so long in u that the length of time writing is known to have existed (7,900 years at most) is short by comparison. Just as languages spoken now by peoples of the simplest cultures are as subtle and as intricate as tho of the peoples of more complex civilizations, similarly the forms of languages known (or hypothetically reconstructed) from the earliest records show no trace of being more “primitive” than their modern forms.
from The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia
人类特有的一种符号系统。当作用于人与人的关系的时候，它是表达相互反应的中介；当作用于人和客观世界的关系的时候，它是认知事物的工具；当作用于文化的时候，它是文化信息的载体。
from 《中国大百科全书·语言文字卷》by许国璋
Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols.
from 含有雨字的诗句Language (1921) by Sapir
A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group co-operates.
from Outline of Linguistic Analysis (1942) by B Bloch& G L Trager
…a t (finite or infinite) of ntences, each finite in length and constructed out of a finite t of elements.
from Syntactic Structures (1957) by N. Chomsky
Language is the method of human communication using spoken or written words.
from Macmillan English Dictionary
团花
拔牙的危害Language is a system of communication consisting of sounds, words and grammar, or the system of communication ud by the people of a particular country or profession.
from Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
Language is the u of a system of communication which consists of a t of sounds or written symbols.
from Collins COBUILD English Dictionary for Advanced Learners
Language is a system of communication by written or spoken words, which is ud by the people of a particular country or area.
from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Language is the u by human beings of voice sounds, and often written symbols reprenting the sounds, in organized combinations and patterns in order to express and communicate thoughts and feelings.
from The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
Language is a human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, feelings and desires by means of a system of sounds and sound symbols.
from Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English1984
As Bertrand Rusll once obrved: “No matter how eloquently a dog may bark, he cannot tell you that his parents were poor but honest.” So what makes human language so complicated and flexible, so unrestrained by the immediate context and so capable of creating new meanings, in a word, so distinctive from languages ud by other species? The features that define our human languages can by called DFESIGN FEATURES (by Charles F Hockett—originally 12 features). The following are the frequently discusd ones.
arbitrariness duality creativity displacement interchangeability reflectiveness cultural transmission
Instructor prents the Design features of language on the Bb.
1. Arbitrariness
An example: river—江、河—fleuve (into the a)/eiviere (branch)
The widely accepted meaning of this feature, which was discusd by Saussure, first refers to the fact that the forms of linguistic signs bear no natural relationship to their meaning.
