3 Language as a tool to manage the common ground The most important device by which common grounds can be maintained and changed is language. The idea that language is such a device has been a very fruit-ful one in linguistics, and there are many important properties of language that can be understood under this perspective.

What Is Not (Human) Language • Some features of human language: – Discreteness: the ability to combine linguistic units to make larger units of meaning – Creativity: the ability to create and understand never-before-uttered sentences – Displacement: the ability to talk about things that are not physically present

Language feature Definition or explanation Example General effect (you must decide on the specific effect relative to the text) Rhyme The ends of words have the same sound. Usually at the ends of lines in poetry, but may be internal (within a line). That second day they hunted me From hill to plain, from shore to sea. Then Billy who was silly

Design Features of Language Language Miscellania. Common Misconceptions. Misconception Language obeys prescriptive grammar. Correction Language obeys one’s mental grammar. Prescriptive grammars attempt to shape language. Prescriptive grammars involve largely arbirary rules. Darrell Larsen Introduction to Linguistics.

• Every human speaks a language every day, but a clear majority does not either read or write. • Biological priority: spoken language is natural, whereas written is artificial. Written language can be said as man-made in the sense that every human child acquires spoken language without any conscious learning.

The language of advertisements aims at precise, clear, pointed, and arresting communication. Like all communicative endeavours, in advertising, getting the message across is of prime importance. However, the use of language in advertising is of a particular character because the advertiser cannot afford to be delinquent or uncritical.

Language Structure Noun : a p e r s o n , p l ac e , t h i n g , i d e a Simple sentence : c o n t ai n s o n e c l au s e w i t h a s u b j e c t an d v e r b Verb : an ac t i o n o r s t at e Compound sentence : c o n t ai n s t w o i n d e p e n d e n t c l au s e s t h at

4 | Grammar and language structures Teacher resource: textual features Juxtaposition Words, phrases or clauses placed next to each other to add more information to the principal thing being described, leaving it up to the reader to establish connections and impose meaning. It also serves to contrast two things in