Understanding Language Functions

How do linguists understand language to be?

• Inborn

• Learned

• Universal

• Constitutive

• Recognitive

What are the main functions of a language?

• Constitutive

• Social

• Communicative

• Emotive

• General

What is a "phatic" function of a language?

• Enhancing vocabulary skills.
• Improving grammar accuracy.
• Facilitating language translation.
• Maintaining social relationships.

What is a "metalinguistic" function of a language?

• supports social relations

• describes language rules

• expresses distinctive functions

• maintains historicak relations

How are language rules explained as a "metalinguistic" function?

• by means language itself

• via historical relations

• through social relations

• using distinctive functions

What are the main properties of linguistic signs?

• Present distinctive functions

• Introduce constitutive relations

• represent concrete objects

• include series of sounds

• support social relations

"Language is a system of communication by speaking, writing, or making signs" according to…

• Oxford dictionaries
• Merriam-Webster
• Collins English Dictionary
• Cambridge dictionaries

Who determined the distinction between language and speech?

• Ferdinand de Saussure
• Noam Chomsky
• B.F. Skinner
• Lev Vygotsky

Who stated that "a human language is the distinctive quality of mind"?

• B. F. Skinner
• N. Chomsky
• Ludwig Wittgenstein
• Ferdinand de Saussure

Language is "what makes us human", according to…

• R.L.Trask
• Ferdinand de Saussure

• M.Halliday

• N.Chomsky