Practice question · Match the pairs
Match each design feature to the question it answers about a system.
- Duality of patterning
- Displacement
- Discreteness
- Reflexiveness
- Can the system be used to talk about itself?
- Can it refer to what is not here and now?
- Is the signal categorical or a gradient?
- How does a small inventory produce unlimited messages?
Hints
- Each feature answers a different question about capacity or scope.
- The feature that lets this very sentence exist is reflexiveness.
Show the answer
- Duality of patterning → How does a small inventory produce unlimited messages?
- Displacement → Can it refer to what is not here and now?
- Discreteness → Is the signal categorical or a gradient?
- Reflexiveness → Can the system be used to talk about itself?
Why
Reflexiveness is the one students overlook, and this lesson is an instance of it, an entire discipline is only possible because language can take itself as an object.
Practise Design Features: What Makes Language Language
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More questions on Design Features: What Makes Language Language
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