Point 2

Attribute each of the following phrases to either Ferdinand de

Sausurre, Noam Chomsky, or Michael Halliday. What motivates
your response? What does the quote tell you about their
perspective on the study and analysis of language?

1. ‘If we could embrace the sum of word-images stored in the

minds of all individuals, we could identify the social bond that
constitutes language. It is a storehouse filled by the members of
a given community through their active use of speaking, a
grammatical system that has a potential existence in each
brain, or, specifically, in the brains of a group of individuals. For
language is not complete in any speaker; it exists perfectly only
within a collectivity.’

I consider this is a Saussure’s phrases because he’s the one

who talks about language as a system or signs, the signified –
image and the signifier –word. His perspective of language is
describing how language is a set of signs which are members of
a system and defined by their relationships to each other, also
he said that isn’t fixed.

2. ‘It seems clear that we must regard linguistic competence –

knowledge of a language – as an abstract system underlying
behavior, a system constituted by rules that interact to
determine the form and intrinsic meaning of a potentially infinite
number of sentences.’

This is a Noam’s Chomsky phrase because he is the one who

said that “each one of us holds in our heads syntactic expertise
in terms of a set of finite rules which allows us to generate an
infinite number of sentences, many of which we have never
heard before”

He talks about individual language acquisition and how we can

instinctively and express ourselves with a complete rule system
without knowing all those rules.

3. ‘Every text – that is, everything that is said or written –

unfolds in some context of use; furthermore, it is the uses of
language that, over tens of thousands of generations, have
shaped the system. Language has evolved to satisfy human
needs; and the way it is organized is functional with respect to
these needs.’

This is a Halliday’s phrase because in his job talks about

functional grammar that is the way of use of language and how
thought the times language change according to the needs of
the speakers.

4. ‘Linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal

speaker-hearer, in a completely homogeneous speech
community, who knows its language perfectly and is unaffected
by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory
limitations, distractions, shifts of attention and interest, errors
(random or characteristic) in applying his knowledge of the
language in actual performance.’

I consider this as a Chomsky’s phrase because expresses that

we can learn and speak a language because we have an innate
faculty for acquiring it.

5. ‘Language is a system of interdependent terms in which the

value of each term results solely from the simultaneous
presence of the others ... [for example]. To determine what a
five-franc piece is worth one most know: (1) that it can be
exchanged for a fixed quantity of a different thing, e.g. bread;
and (2) that it can be compared with a similar value of the same
system, e.g. a one-franc piece, or with coins of another system
(a dollar, etc.). In the same way a word can be exchanged for
something dissimilar, an idea; besides, it can be compared with
something of the same nature, another word. Its value is
therefore not fixed so long as one simply states that it can be
‘exchanged’ for a given concept.’

I consider this is a Saussure’s idea because he said that signs

are not stable in terms of the relationship between signified and
signifier and they can be exchanged or compare with something
similar from the same nature or different.
6. ‘Spoken and written language, then, tend to display different
KINDS of complexity; each of them is more complex in its own
way. Written language tends to be lexically dense but
grammatically simple; spoken language tends to be
grammatically intricate but lexically sparse’ ... ‘The value of
having some explicit knowledge of the grammar of written
language is that you can use this knowledge, not only to analyze
the texts, but as a critical resource for asking questions about
them.

I consider this phrase belongs to Halliday because he is the one

who talks about the Systemic Functional Linguistic and the
relationship between meaning and context and how
communication could be a very dense process due to the
different aspects to take into account like the mood and
intention of the speaker.

Point 3
Based on the second text ‘Linguistics’ in “Bauer, Laurie; The Linguistic
Student's Handbook” Answer the following question: why is
Linguistics definitely considered a science? In your answer,
involve the other language areas such as semiotics, philology and
literature.

It is a science because it can be demonstrable through study the

different ways of human communication and it describes how
languages and communication are produced, by means of methodic
steps during a systematic investigation. Also linguistic is the study of
the elements of language and their function.
The relationship among linguistic, semiotic, literature and philology is
wide because they involve the connotative and denotative sense that
have the messages in the inside of the structure of a text.
Example: a poem that has a metaphoric sense and in it the
connotation is applied.

Point 4
4. In the following two questions you have to consult and then
explain:
4.1 The concept of ‘double articulation’ is a classic one at identifying
language, please, explain it, and give examples.

According to linguist André Martinet, language can be broken down in

smaller elements on two levels:
  First, a sentence can be broken down into minimal meaningful
units called morphemes. Minimal meaningful units are usually
words, or parts of words. For example, 'bigger' contains two
monemes: one for 'big', and one for 'more'.
 Second, a moneme can be further divided in minimal
phonological units, which have no meaning. Minimal
phonological units are called phonemes, and they often
correspond to letters in English, but not always. The moneme
'letter' contains 6 letters and only 4 phonemes, because 'tt' is
pronounced as one t and "er" is usually pronounced as one
sound. On the contrary, "axis" contains 4 letters and 5
phonemes.

Recuperado de:
https://everything2.com/title/The+double+articulation+of+language

4.2 Human language is different from other semiotic systems,

explain at least three characteristics, that according to Linguistics, are
unique to human language (give references).

Three characteristics that are unique to human language are:

 Language is systematic: Although the language is symbolic,

yet its symbols are arranged in a particular system. All
languages have their system of arrangements. Though symbols
in each human language are finite; they can be arranged
infinitely, that is to say, we can produce an infinite set of
sentences t a finite set “of symbols.
 Language is arbitrary: By the arbitrariness of language, we
mean: there is no inherent or logical relation or similarity
between any given feature of language and its meaning. That is
entirely arbitrary, that there is no direct, necessary connection
between the nature of things or ideas language. Furthermore,
these are at variation in different languages of the world and
have no uniformity.
 Language is a social phenomenon: Language is a set of
conventional communicative signals used by humans for
communication in a community. Language in this sense is a
possession of a social group, an indispensable set of rules which
permits its members to interact with each other to co-operate
with each other: it is a social institution. Language exists in
society; it is a means of nourishing and developing culture and
establishing human relations. It is as a member of society that
a human being acquires a language.
Recuperado de: https://notesread.com/characteristics-of-human-
language/