The nature of language and linguistics

The language makes the human being is different and superior to other living beings in the world. 

The language is rule governed, creative, universal, innate, and learned. The language has many functions: to get others to do things, to express emotions or feelings, to make promises, to ask questions, etc.

In the language there are significant differences between oral sounds and written symbols, also between spoken and written syntax or vocabulary.

We believe that there is a connection between a word and the thing it represents.

We think of language in terms of its various functions:

• Language gives expression to our thoughts
• Language is used to trasmit information, also known as its "communicative function"
• Language is used to maintain social intercourse 
• Language provides the raw material for works of literature

Linguistic signs

They are defined as things that stand for or represent something else.

• Ironic: Which resemble the things they represent
• Indexical: Which point to or have a necessary connetion with the things they represent
• Symbolic: Which are only conventionally related to the thing they represent

The rule-governed nature of language

The rules of language act as a kind of constraint on what is possible in a language 

Language Universals, innateness and creativity

Language Universals is the more general set of constraints on language. The shared elements of language are referred to as their principles, while the differences that are displayed in their syntax are known as their parameters. But not all languages express this language universal in the same way.

In the universal grammar, the principles and parameters explain the features that all language share and the syntactic differences which make each language unique.

Animal communication codes

The animals have codes of communication, that communication is indexical and stimulus bound, depending on the necessary presence of concrete stimuli.

Animal communication codes are iconics and natural, but they are not symbolic.

The codes are acquired exclusively through genetic transmission, not learned. While, human language is both, innate and learned.

Language is what distinguishes human beings from other animals 

The nature of grammar