What is language 01 27 2014 A means of communication and a means of structuring thought Speakers encode meanings into sounds or gestures We accomplish a lot through language Linguistics is the scientific study of language It seeks to answer What do you know when you know a language Our linguistic knowledge is largely unconscious Language utilize a finite set of building blocks and rules You know them without even thinking about them Unconscious and untaught linguistic rules supports the idea that you are predisposed to speaking a language You know the inventory of speech sounds in your language You know the sound patterns in your language i e which sound sequences are possible you know things about words of your language stored in your lexicon mental dictionary you can retrieve words from the lexicon and build other words morphology you know there are constraints on how words can be built you know how to form sentences syntax turning declarative sentences into interrogative sentences taps into unconscious syntactic knowledge you know how to assign meaning to a sentence semantics linguistic competence vs linguistic performance ability to make an infinite sentence performance has human constraint descriptive grammar language as it is actually used Prescriptive grammar linguists description or model of mental grammar underlying a Rules of proper prestigious grammar usage often based on Latin 01 27 2014 01 27 2014