SYMBOLIC MEANING SYSTEM

• A system in which symbols are the basic means by which

one individual communicates an idea to another.
• Semiotic: concern with the nature of symbols or the study
of signs.
• Sign vehicles are perceivable objects, actions, or events
that stand for or call attention to signaled entities, which
may range from physical objects and perceptual qualities
to non-existent entities and abstract ideas.
• Relation of signifier and signified (Ferdinand de
Saussure).
SIGNS

Icon
• A sign whose sign vehicle and signaled entity are connected by
virtue of a relationship of similarity.
• The sign vehicle resembles its signaled entity; it looks and
sounds like what it represents.

Index
• A sign whose sign vehicle indicates its signaled entity through an
existential relationship.
• The sign vehicle stands in a relationship of spatiotemporal
contiguity with the signaled entity.
• It is tied to the situation of usage in which the signaled entity is
present, and the signaled entity can only be indexed in the
situation of usage.
Symbol
• A sign whose sign vehicle bears an arbitrary
relationship to its signaled entity.
• The relationship does not depend either on a formal
similarity between sign vehicle and signaled entity or
on their contiguous occurrence in the situation of
usage.
• There is no inherent tie between sign vehicle and
signaled entity; they are related arbitrarily solely as a
matter of convention.
WORD AS SYMBOLS

• Words in human languages are symbols whose connection with

the referent entities is purely arbitrary.
• A sign system composed mainly of symbols that are used to
communicate meaning from one mind to another.
• Lexemes or Lexical items: are symbols in human languages that
encode arbitrary but constant relationships between sign
vehicles and signaled entities.
• Semantic features: properties of entities in the nonlinguistic
world of experience or imagination are utilized in forming
concepts and, as a result, the meaning associated with a word is
a conceptual abstraction.
Sound segments of phonemes:

Words are conceptual units in the phonological or pronunciation

system of the language. These abstract mental constructs are
manifested or realized in actual spoken utterances as vocal
sounds.
(Phonemic and phonetic: emic and etic)
WORDS AS SYNTACTIC UNITS
• Words function in a syntactic or grammatical structure of
language.
• Words are categorized into grammatical categories (noun, verb,
adjective etc.)
• Syntactic rules account for the fact that not every combination of
words constitutes a grammatical sentence in English.
• Syntactic rules are mental construct that speakers use to
distinguish and produce combinations of words that are
grammatical sentences.
LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE VERSUS LINGUISTIC PERFORMANCE

Linguistic competence
• Knowledge that a native speaker has of his or her language – that is
knowledge of syntactic, semantic, and phonological units and the
rules for their organization in sentences.
• The ability or capacity of the speaker to produce and understand
sentences that are syntactically, semantically, and phonologically
acceptable.
• Competence is the underlying cognitive ability.
Performance
• Speaker’s actual use of his knowledge in the production and
interpretation of sentences.
• Overt manifestation of cognitive ability in actual behavior.
SEMANTIC ANALYSIS

• Focuses on the referential meaning; the meaning encoded in

word symbols by virtue of their arbitrary association with referent
entities.
• Focuses also on the variety of meanings.
• Social factors in the context of usage:
1) Sender
2) Receiver
3) Message form
4) Message channel
5) Topic code
6) Setting
UNIVERSALS

• Certain characteristics are found in all human societies or in all human languages.
• All languages are at base the same because the human brain is everywhere the
same.
• All humans, therefore, live in the same world, and experience is directly translatable
from one culture to another and from one language to another.
1. All languages use both consonants and vowels.
2. Much of the universals is concentrated on syntax.
3. All languages have some sets of two or more words which mean the same or almost
the same thing.
4. Every language has deictic element; lexical items that shift their meaning depending
on the elementary features of speech situation.
5. Every language has an element that denotes the speaker and one that denotes the
addressee (first and second person).
6. Every human language has proper nouns, singular and plural forms.
7. Sexist language
ANIMAL AND HUMAN COMMUNICATION
• Human s are not just more intelligent but possess a specific type of
mental organization.
• Animals communication system is ordinarily composed of a limited
number of signals, each of which has its own behavioral and emtional
referent.
• Animals not only do not have language in the human sense but also
have been singularly unsuccessful in learning human language when
given an opportunity to do so.
Characteristics of human language
1. Productivity – it is an open system capable of producing almost
infinite number of utterances.
2. Displacement - ability of human to talk about things and events
that are remote in time and space or, in fact may never have
existed.
3. Duality of patterning – with the very limited set of consonants
and vowels, many thousands of words can be formed.
4. Traditional transmission – language is not biologically
transmitted by genes, but socially taught and learned.
PARALANGUAGE AND KINESICS

• Paralanguage is defined as some kind of articulation of the

verbal apparatus or significant lack of it. This can include all
sorts of noises, e.i. hissing, shusshing, and whistling as well as
speed, quality, and pitch of voice.
• Kinesics includes all body movement which communicates
meaning such as physical or physiological action, automatic
reflexes, posture, facial expression, and gesture.