Chapter 1 Invitations to Linguistics1.1Why study language？1。Language is very essential to human beings.2。In language there are many things we should know。3。For further understanding, we need to study language scientifically。1.2What is language？1。3Design features of languageThe features that define our human languages can be called design features which can distinguish human language from any animal system of communication.1。3。1Arbitrariness1.3.2 Duality1。3。3CreativityCreativity means that language is resourceful because of its duality and its recursiveness. Recursiveness refers to the rule which can be applied repeatedly without any definite limit. The recursive nature of language provides a theoretical basis for the possibility of creating endless sentences。1。3.4Displacement1.4Origin of language1。The bow-wow theoryIn primitive times people imitated the sounds of the animal calls in the wild environment they lived and speech developed from that。2。The pooh—pooh theoryIn the hard life of our primitive ancestors ， they utter instinctive sounds of pains, anger and joy which gradually developed into language。3。The “yo—he-ho” theoryAs primitive people worked together ， they produced some rhythmic grunts which gradually developed into chants and then into language。1.5Functions of languageAs is proposed by Jacobson, language has six functions：1. Referential： to convey message and information;2。Poetic： to indulge in language for its own sake；3. Emotive: to express attitudes, feelings and emotions;4. Conative： to persuade and influence others through commands and entreaties；5。Phatic: to establish communion with others；6。Metalingual： to clear up intentions， words and meanings.What is contextualism？“Contextualism” ...
