The sounds and meaning of words are related in an arbitrary fashion. That is, if you had never heard the word "grammar", you would not, by its sounds, know what it meant. Language, then, is a system that relates sounds with meanings, and when you know a language, you know this linguistic system.
The linguistic knowledge, or linguistic competence, is different from linguistic behavior, known as linguistic performance. If you woke up one morning and decided to stop talking, you would still have the knowledge of your language. If you do not know the language, you cannot speak it; but if you know the language, you may choose not to speak.
词音与词义的联系是任意划定的。这就是说，倘若你从未听到过“语法”这个词，你便无法从这个词的发音上知晓它的词义。因此，语言是一种将语音与语义联系在一起的体系。当你会讲某种语言时，你便有了这个体系的知识。
这种语言知识，或者叫作语言能力，有别于语言行为，或者叫做语言操作。某天早晨你醒来后决定不说话了，而你仍然具有所操语言的知识。如果你没有这种语言知识，你便不会说这种语言。但是如果你有这种语言知识，你却可以选择不说这种语言。
Language is a tool of communication. But if language is defined merely as a system of communication, then language is not unique to humans. We know birds, bees, crabs, spiders, whales, and most other creatures communicate in some way.
However, there are certain characteristics of human language not found in the communication systems of any other species. A basic property of human language is its creative aspect, that is, a speaker's ability to combine the basic linguistic units to form an infinite set of "well-formed", or grammatical, sentences, most of which are novel, never before produced or heard. The grammar of human language can generate infinite messages, a property unique to the human species.
语言是交际的工具。但是如果语言的定义仅仅是一种交际系统，那么语言便不是人类的专有品。我们知道，大部分生物如鸟、蜜蜂、蟹、蜘蛛、鲸等，都有某种交际方式。然而，人类语言的某些特征却是任何其他物种的交际系统所不具备的。人类语言的一个基本属性是创造性，即说话者的语言创造能力，也就是说，说话者能够将语言的基本单位组合起来，生成无限多的符合语法规则的句子，而大部分生成的句子却是说话者自己从未说过或从未听到过的新句子。人类语言的语法系统可以生成无限多的语言信息，这就是人类所特有的物种属性。
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