Good morning lovely nice to hear your booming
voice I hope you had a great weekend and let
us hope you have a another long weekend coming
right okay today we will have the last session
of the first unit of the course the first
unit of the course said design features of
language.
Design features of language 
in other words in other words what are those
features those characteristics of language
that make it such an efficient such a versatile
medium of communication you can talk in dark
you can talk while running in India we talk
even while eating do not we most family quarrels
happen at the dining table right other animals
cannot it cannot a dog cannot chew the bone
and can also be quarreling with other dogs
okay.
We have we have that kind of so what is you
know so unique about language it is there
in the design of language the way nature has
designed it the way God has designed it language
has some uniqueness and we have been talking
about these unique features we said languages
can you name some features please everybody
one by one it is specific only human beings
have it then species uniform all human beings
have it then that is culturally transmitted
that is we have to be part of a group a family
and orphanage a hostel you know does not matter
which hostel does not matter which family
but you have to be a part of it the child
may be born to a Chinese parents but may be
in America and can learn American English
okay.
Any other feature it varies please it is open
ended it gains words and it loses words on
a daily basis word sounds features anything
else creativity there are lots of other features
you know people count 50 in 16 many of these
features now I am going to talk against myself
I am going to contradict what I told you many
of these features may or may not be unique
to human beings we do not know we do not know
that dog language is not there in all dogs,
dogs cannot talk about you know meat or biriyani
or telangana or you know JE.
There are some features please pay attention
there are some features which are no pay attention
I am going to say the keywords which are indisputably
human language specific please write indisputable
features what are those features we have recorded
dog language and we have found that it does
not have as many variations okay you can do
actually I am going to give you some assignments
you have to do term paper for 30% of the course
okay and you can take one of these things
and you can examine how a dog talks to another
dog after all they do okay.
How the parrot how a bird how they you know
anything any other creature how does it communicate
people have studied and people have studied
her toils people have studied Birds okay there
are those studies or you can study children
how does a multilingual family teach its child
one language or another language you can do
a term paper on some of these things but there
are some three or four features which are
decidedly unique peculiar to human language.
Only human language has it and these are parts
of its structure it is these features it is
these characteristics of natural languages
human languages that make them unique that
make them versatile that make them do what
they do we call them please write structural
features so far we have talked about cultural
features learning features use features okay
now we are talking about structural features
we talked about a whole lot of cultural features
languages culturally transmitted language
varies from village to village from university
to University from hostel to hostel or college
to college we talked about all that.
Today I will take about half an hour telling
you about structural features number one please
write language has the feature of displacement.
Natural languages human languages can talk
about tomorrow can talk about yesterday can
talk about another country can talk about
another age last week I gave you the example
of Gulliver's Travels talks about another
place one has never been to time machine talks
about another time how does that happen that
happens because human languages have something
called please write tense it has the feature
of displacement what does it mean it means
that human languages can go beyond time and
place.
They are not bound hello childrens language
in the beginning you will see children can
only talk about here and now doggy pain book
similarly you know many animals can also talk
only about the present immediate context a
dog can bark at a stranger but a dog cannot
tell its master that the same stranger was
here at the gate looking at your daughter
or your son right no dog can tell its master
no matter how much it loves it because the
dog does not have the capacity to talk about
yesterday. The dog does not have the capacity
to talk about the next street it visited and
had a wonderful bone to chew there it cannot
human languages have how do human languages
have that they have the feature of tense because
of because of tense look at this sentence
you know look at this sentence the baby will
need it tomorrow does the baby need it today
say yes or no please did the baby need it
yesterday no how do we know it will need it
tomorrow because of will even if I remove
me will even if I say the baby will need it
does it mean present does it mean present
or does it mean future obviously future him
the baby is mildly yesterday.
There were a lot of celebration mother sang
a song made a phone call to father or actually
father sang a song made a phone call to mother
who was in the office okay etcetera even if
we do not have yesterday we will know it is
past how shall we know that because there
is Edie there and that is there in all our
languages not just English even in Hindi but
chatocal hasata okay in Telugu how would you
say that in Telugu.
Okay at the child cried mostly okay you do
not need to say yesterday you do not need
to say repu nethikku okay you do not need
tomorrow yesterday the tense does it okay
look at this sentence the director is likely
to meet the Minster has he met no it is future
he may meet so there are elements in language
like tense like adverse like time markers
which help you go beyond the present.
Which help you go beyond here beyond now look
at another sentence the director has lunch
with the actors is it talking about tomorrow
say yes or no make a mistake does the sentence
talk about tomorrow when you say the director
has lunch with the actors about every day
the director has lunch not at home the director
has lunch at wherever he is but he has it
with his actors okay.
But if we said the director had lunch with
the actors then it is past it is yesterday
if you say the director will have lunch with
the actors then it will mean tomorrow it will
means so language has elements in all languages
have it is not that only English has it is
not that only Sanskrit has it is not that
only Telugu has it what you call tribal languages
what you call child language what we call
any language natural language has this ability
to go beyond here and now.
Similarly you know you can talk about distant
places the baby comes you know of people children
often ask where does the baby come from and
many parents you know do not tell them the
truth they tell them baby comes from God our
baby comes from God's home okay so this element
from tells you of a place which is beyond
here which is not here when you say from that
means you are talking about another place
when we say two where do sinners go well sinners
have fun you know they do not suffer many
people say but I do not know I have never
been to hell you know some people say that
sinners go to hell.
And hell is a lot of you know bad place small
rooms no windows no breakfast almost like
hostel okay right or any other hostel for
new or hostels I hear are bad or worse perhaps
anyway you know so but we have never been
to hell have we but we can still talk about
it how do we do that we use words like from
too will may likely and all languages have
this capacity not is not just English so they
can go beyond here and now this is one strong
feature of language okay.
Any doubts any questions shall we go to the
next right look at the next structural feature
language is systemic.
There is a bit of arbitrariness in meaning
you know and we do not know therefore we call
it arbitrary but at the moment you know in
the state of the art today we believe that
meaning has no logical correlation with songs
any word can mean anything and any meaning
can have any word okay I gave you examples
last week that in some language BB his wife
another language BB is mother in Punjabi mother
is addressed as BB but in Hindi or Urdu BB
is wife okay a lot of things can happen.
There is no reason why bottle is called bottle
there is no reason why cake is called cake
there is no reason why X is called X okay
it is arbitrary the connection between meaning
you know as Shakespeare famously said call
rose by any name do you know this line okay
look up Google Shakespeare today you know
sometimes you see these are the great gifts
of mankind before you are 30 before you are
30 like it is a choice you know this will
mean the difference between you and another
student before you are 30 you should have
read at least one play by Shakespeare at least
one play by Kalidasa and Valmiki at least
one novel or a story by Tolstoy you know it
is like you know great gifts of mankind.
Like Mount Everest like sunrise like sunset
these are the gifts of nature okay come back
to it the second feature in languages systemic
meaning and word may be related arbitrarily
we do not know but everything else particularly
the structure is structure is systemic languages
systematic number two now what do you mean
what do you mean when you say something is
systemic you mean two things when something
is systemic it means you can write rules about
it you can predict you can say this will happen
this will not happen you can say this is possible
this is not possible so you have units and
you have rules look at one simple example
in all languages of the world.
Only certain sounds can come together say
for example in English words you can have
a word beginning with P R okay you can say
prayer priest prove prize you can have a word
going with K R you know the sound care letter
may be see so you have crushed Creed cruel
you can have GR great greed okay but you cannot
have a word ending in PR do you have a word
ending in PR in English can you think of a
word that ends in PR that ends in KR that
ends in G R it does not in all languages you
know you can do actually.
Please write you can do a term paper on possible
sound combinations in Telugu and I will give
you 30 on 30 actually I will give you 31 on
30 if you brought good examples and just made
a list these sounds are possible at the beginning
these are the end nothing else finish I am
not asking you to go for complicated you know
swim in Vijayawada is Vijayawada going to
be part of Telangana or Andhra thank God okay
yeah great place you know.
Except you know that they ruined the river
there it was the mightiest best river in India
the Krishna but anyway you know we will talk
about that later okay so you know there are
constraints you cannot have anything anywhere
you can have only certain combinations at
the beginning only certain combinations at
the end in English you have words that end
in RK give me a word hark Park dark part bark
come on give me some more please this side
okay right.
But you have no word that begins with RK do
you have a word in English which begins with
RK I do not know if you do it please tell
me you have you can have words in English
ending in LK give me milk bulk we would not
say chalk because we are talking about speech
not writing in chalk L is silent okay so bulk
milk hulk sulk hulk walk again nearly silent
yeah silk lovely really you know the best
that China gave to India right similarly we
can rewards ending in NK give me words drank
sink tank crank bank again the most important
place monk okay.
Blink but can you have a word beginning with
NK in English these things differ from language
to language if you have you heard of a language
called Swahili where is it is spoken Africa
which part of every guy is a huge thing is
like Andhra okay no you can say Eastern Central
Africa Nigeria Uganda Kenya Tanzania you see
you should also sometimes look at these things
these are the markets you these are the people
these are the country's communities you have
to be friends with okay.
Look at many other countries you know they
have huge presence there India during the
British time had a presence in Africa but
not now China is the dominant player in Africa
all roads construction building construction
power plants Chinese are building and they
are doing a fantastic job that is where the
next generation of challenges for structural
mechanical aerospace and chemical engineers
in this country lie okay.
So learn about them learn about the culture
and answer those challenges these are challenging
not just of Africa these are the challenges
of mankind how can you create high efficiency
low cost engineering devices okay so there
is language called Swahili where a word can
begin with NK okay but not in and in any case
see there is some kind of symmetry there is
some kind of mirror image all languages have
constraints on what is possible in one place
but not in another what is possible in another
place but not in one that is what we mean
when you say languages systemic there are
constraints okay Let us go further let us
see.
Meaning also depends on combination when you
say when you talk about structural feature
when you talk about structural features you
have prepositions you have tenses okay how
do you pronounce this word preposition how
do you pronounce this word preposition you
know you have pre positions you have tenses
which help you when you see something is systemic
that means it has constraints it has rules
it has units okay.
Similarly because of these constraints we
can say if the meaning is not just the property
of words meaning is the property of combination
of words look at this thing or combination
of units you have KIL sound and LIK the same
sounds in the first pair does it mean the
same thing yes or no please KIL an LIK look
at the screen KIL and LIK you know I am talking
of pronunciation not a spelling kill has the
same sound LIK has the same sound but do they
have the same meaning yes or no because in
human languages unlike other languages that
we know of meaning is the property not just
of units but of the please right combination
of units.
The way they combine the same words same sounds
same syllables combined differently they will
mean different thing okay said tell and let
have the same sounds but do they mean the
same thing they do not they have different
meanings or words look at the this phrase
hope in the soul it comes from church okay
we go pray we you know it is temple you know
we need Newton said even if there is no God
let us invent one because it keeps us from
suicide it keeps us from depression it brings
us hope that God will rescue us tomorrow.
So hope in the soul they have the same words
as soap in the hole but do they mean the same
thing do they mean they do not worry about
spelling you know worry about pronunciation
hope in the soul and soap in the hole okay
similar sounds matching words matching sounds
do they mean the same thing they do not one
talks about prayer church temple the other
talks about bathroom cleaning etcetera okay
all look at this John kicked Mary bad this
should not happen and Mary kicked bad sorry
Mary kicked John even bad should not happen
but do they mean the same thing.
In one case John will be arrested in the other
case Mary will be said Wow well done so you
but you know that you know let alone a restaurant
let alone law do they mean the same thing
say yes or no please let so John kicked Mary
and Mary kicked John have the same words but
they have drastically different meanings why
do they have different meanings please tell
me because they are combined differently earlier
it is ABC now it is CBA okay.
It can be lots of you know permutations lots
of combinations are possible I gave you last
week the example of this famous sentence how
punctuation how pause can change the meaning
when you say a woman without her man is nothing
how many men believe that well you will okay
a woman without her man is nothing how many
men believe that okay I see lots of hands
going up you know in other seminars here maybe
you are frightened of camera but I ask this
question at the research is called a seminar
recently there were 400 people at least 300
hands went up.
That a woman without her man is nothing you
see the meaning the same words differently
combined can give you different meanings it
is not the property of other like animal languages
it is not the property of you know a lot of
other kinds of modes of communication it is
in human languages that units alone do not
have meaning units have part of the meaning
of course but a lot depends upon how these
units are combined how these units are put
together.
It is the because of this structural property
that language can also be ambiguous please
right these are all structural property 
it can be ambiguous what do you mean by ambiguous
what is the meaning of the word ambiguous
it can have more than one meaning not sure
do you mean X or do you mean Y okay it can
have you know look at this sentence baby swallows
fly what does it mean 
right so if you take baby as the noun are
you together now I am talking complex things
you will have to be mentally awake not only
physically awake okay.
If you if you if you if you mean baby as known
then it has one meaning who swallows the fly
baby swallow baby eats the fly by mistake
of course or baby does not mind okay babies
are emancipated creatures do they do a lot
of things okay but if baby is an adjective
then it has another meaning that is then swallow
is a bird and it is not the big swallow but
the baby swallow the little swallow the small
swallow flies then fly is not a noun now what
does it become now it is a verb baby swallows
fly.
So you know language can be ambiguous it can
give you different kinds of meanings depending
upon what you intend that is how poetry is
written that is how jokes and puzzles and
a whole lot of interesting thing which are
not there on the menu of a restaurant you
know which are slightly unpredictable which
gives you poetry which give you music happens
you know but for these things do not happen
look at the next phrase when you say son of
Pharaoh's daughter look at this phrase please.
Son of Pharaoh's daughter who is the grandchild
the he or she who is the grandchild is it
the son or daughter it is he if you mean it
this way sorry pardon me 
if you mean it this way then this is the grandchild
Pharaoh's daughter has a son so Pharaoh is
the grandparent daughter is the parent and
son is the grandchild but if you mean it this
way then who is the grandchild the daughter
she is the grandchild because this is the
grandparent.
This is the parent and this is the grandchild
depend upon what you intend how you mean how
you bracket or take a sentence like flying
planes can be dangerous visiting relatives
can be nuisance okay borrowing friends can
be a nuisance you know friends who borrow
your mobile phone friends who borrow your
money but never returned friends who borrow
your cigarette do not buy their own okay they
can be annoyed or borrowing friends taking
somebody else's friend.
So you know flying planes what do you mean
the act of flying the planes or the planes
that are already in the sky so you know the
ambiguity can come into the sentence because
of these things and depends upon how you mean
it look at the next sentence policemen words
talk were asked were ordered to stop drinking
at midnight who was drinking policemen two
or three interpretations were are possible
policemen were drinking and they were told
do not drink somebody else was drinking and
policemen were told you boot them and take
their drinks away okay.
Or when were with the dead drinking midnight
or the order came at midnight what is possible
policemen were ordered to a stop drinking
at midnight where the order at midnight are
where they expected to a stop at midnight
allow at other hours the whole lot of ambiguity
is possible even ordinary sentences and why
is this possible it is possible because please
the most you know singular feature the most
distinctive unique feature of language even
if language did not have anything else if
it had this feature the language would be
a unique system of unique medium of communication.
The ambiguity comes to language because of
the duality of structure please write you
know these when we talk about structural features
we say it has the capacity for displacement
it is systematic it can be ambiguous all this
because all this because language has dual
structure not just one not just linear you
know by Luke dual structure we mean it can
be this way okay it can also be this way it
has not only linear structure it also has
vertical structure okay every time you select
a sound say for example.
when you say you take P now S is not possible
what is possible after P in English A any
vowel some consonants but not K not possible
here but K it we take it from a class we take
it from a class you either have P or you have
K or you have T or you have X or you have
Y but not everything so you have one vertical
structure okay and you have the other linear
structure when you say P you can either take
a consonant you can either have a run or you
have A or you have a vowel okay take a word
take the world okay.
When you say A then after all you can only
have something which is countable you cannot
say all water can you please yes or no we
cannot.
After we can say book after all we can say
boy after a we can say building but if it
is and then we can say apple egg elephant
okay each choice you we have this kind of
a structure if this then that and we have
this kind of a structure either this or that
okay if X then Y here if X then not Y you
make a choice this is called please write
this is called a paradigm can you catch it
can cut the camera catch it please yeah okay
this is called a paradigm a Latin word its
class this is the class from each class you
take on.
So for example look at the earlier sentence
baby swallows fly baby is either a noun or
an adjective it cannot be both what do you
mean it tell me please do you mean it has
not known or do you mean it has an adjective
if you mean it has not known then the next
word is a verb but if you mean it as an adjective
then the next word is a noun so you know these
constraints these are Exception list constraints
on choices.
And you constantly make every time you speak
you make a multi level choice at the level
of songs at the level of words at the level
of sentences at the level of below sounds
you have linear structure if you choose it
then Y then Z then this but if you choose
X then not Y not Z you make choice from the
class and you make choice from the combination
okay class related many people call it is
right this is called paradigmatic choice I
will write it can I write here.
Linear choices sorry a vertical choices paradigmatic
choice you take from a paradigm you take from
a class okay paradigmatic choice or vertical
choice vertical choice says from each class
take only one and then what you choose will
determine what comes next but the other choice
is called please write same tag matic choice
you know same tag linear same tag matic choice
or horizontal okay many people call it choice
of a class and many people call it choice
of combination.
Constantly all along no matter what we speak
even if you speak only one word somebody says
asks you are you are you free this evening
and you say yes it is a whole lot of paradigmatic
and integral you know and syntagmatic choice
when you say yes it means yes I am free okay
when you say no you mean no I am not free
what is the syntagmatic paradagrammatic choice
here it is either yes or please complete it
know.
What is the syntagmatic choice yes I am free
no I am not free okay the smallest possible
sentences or the longest possible sentence
no matter how big or small how long a short
your utterance the choices are there all across
and that is what gives ambiguity if you if
you mean son of Pharaoh's daughter is ambiguous
this is because what is the relationship of
son is this the head of the phrase if this
is the head of the phrase then this is the
parent if this is not the head of the phrase
then this is not the parent you know.
So you have to decide constantly when you
speak and because your mind your brain is
so versatile it does not know parent has sat
down and has told you today's son you know
like you got coaching for JE like we got coaching
for a lot of other things nobody sat down
and told you today I am going to tell you
about paradigmatic choices tomorrow I will
tell you or syntagmatic choices no a child
and his brain as a child is born or even before
the child is born the child observes and finds
that all along take any sentence you like
okay.
When you say language can be ambiguous then
you decide language is a noun after that require
an auxiliary verb auxiliary verb can be either
can or may you decide to take can but when
you say take can then you require another
verb you can say can go can be can happen
you simply cannot say language can ambiguous
can you say that you cannot because a word
like can a word like can demand a word like
can demand another verb here you can see can
go can happen can live can die can fail can
pass but you cannot simply say x can IIT.
You can say x can enter IIT x can exit IIT
x can destroy IIT x can give great gifts to
IIT but when you say can and when you choose
an auxiliary verb then except in one or two
situations you have to have a main verb but
the choice is constantly there can is not
the can is not the only auxiliary verb in
this class what are the other verbs may might
give me my good should shall well would ought
must need many in Telugu what are the choices
come on may take a minute please.
Write a list of auxiliary force in Telugu
do you know Telugu those who know okay in
your mother tongue I mean those who know Hindi
please write it in Hindi is it that only English
has of ordinary verbs of this kind do you
have something like can in Hindi hey Annie
of course different but something like I do
not say exactly you know but you know unit
performing the same function was some kaitha
ho saktha ha who not cha hee ha ho jana cha
hee ha ho sakatha okay.
Yeah so do we have similar elements in your
mother tongue please take a minute and write
please take a minute and write you can do
a term paper on these things please write
you can do a term paper on auxiliary or modal
auxiliary verbs can code shall hood in your
mother tongue okay in all our languages in
all natural languages we have these things
okay and we constantly make choices.
When you came to IIT you had a flow ma tho
medical colledge ja saktha tha hara mujko
tho filaments ko jute jana jaye ha ka boring
jaga ha okay but anyway because you are you
know parents are happy and we need jobs so
you know you come take anything if flying
planes can be done dangerous if flying is
a noun if flying is gerund then planes his
object but if flying is the adjective not
grounded planes but flying planes grounded
planes are not dangerous flying planes can
be dangerous they can fall upon you okay.
We have we constantly make choices from the
class and once we make these choices here
one we see we say can are made then we are
also under obligation to take a particular
word here after can we told you cannot take
a noun can you take a knowledge here can you
say I can teach her can you say I can film
you cannot say I can film you can say I can
see if film I can watch a film I can make
a film okay I can hate a film you know you
have to have things like that .
So language constantly has a dual structure
please read the book I have given you some
of these concepts can be difficult for us
to understand the first time but not difficult
if you give sufficient time or talk to me
at length it let us summarize.
I will stop this unit here the first unit
design features of language we talked about
lots of features we said languages especially
specific what does it mean please only human
only he was a biological gift to human beings
like flying his to birds swimming is to fish
crawling is to reptiles okay next language
is species uniform what does it mean only
human beings sorry all human beings rich or
poor you know je or otherwise IIT Madras or
IIT Bombay does not matter okay.
They all have language is culturally transmitted
what do you mean we learn it only after we
hear it only after we see it used language
has variations what does it mean come on please
making mistake does not matter there is no
punishment changes from place to place yeah
it is not the same you know it differs from
village to village class to class in India
caste to cast the same village to cast is
picking two kinds of language is it true of
Telugu it is true of tamil it is true of Hindi
it is true of mightily it is true you know
many languages.
In India we have more cost than class a specific
language region to region job to job ok then
language is broken it is primarily vocal writing
is a representation of language is open ended
what do you mean yeah you can add you can
lose gain and lose words ok language is arbitrary
what do you mean no logical connection between
meaning and word and the object correct language
is creative you can always say new things
in new ways you can make old words mean new
things.
Language is systematic that means it has units
and rules combinations and permutations and
meaning depends upon these structures these
combinations and permutations language has
the feature of displacement what does it mean
it can go beyond time and place beyond here
and now language has dual structure what do
you mean it has a class structure and it has
a combination structure paradigmatic and syntagmatic
structure wow you are engines lovely this
is the test okay.
Name the design feature is applied below even
the best of parrots cannot utter a complex
sentence or a new world species specific many
great poets have come even from backward castes
and poorer classes.
Species uniform lovely done and not have the
same songs but not the same meaning our combinations
lovely really mother is called differently
in different languages vary your arbitrary
you know meaning as though similarly work
out some examples for each of these features
I'm going to mail this these PPT slides to
you work out these features you will have
this as part of your quiz next month okay
any questions thanks have a good day please.
