Language is an encoding of the different ideas of its speakers conveyed in utterances.
Arbitrariness of the Sign - there is no logical intrinsic relationship between sound pattern and concept (not applicable in some cases, but generally true)
Although some features (i.e., morphological, syntactical) can be easy to imagine for a given language, in practice, these do not exist, possibly because of how humans construct and use languages. We favor simplicity.
For exploration: Grice’s Maxims of Conversation
Jakobson’s Functions of Language . Each function is characterized with a message that has a particular focus
- Referential - focuses on context and describes a situation or state.
- Poetic - focuses on the message for its own sake (i.e., calling attention to how it is used)
- Emotive - focuses on the Sender and their own self-expression
- Conative - focuses on the Receiver directly, can be characterized by imperatives or vocatives
- Phatic - focuses on the Channel; it is using language for the sake of interaction and to start, facilitate, and stop interaction with others
- Metalingual - focuses on the Code; it is using language that describes itself.

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