We are all intimately familiar with at least one language, yet few of us ever stop to consider what we know about it. The words of a language can be listed in a dictionary, but not all the sentences.
    Speakers use a finite set of rules to produce and understand an infinite set of sentences. These rules comprise the grammar of a language. It includes the sound system and the way in which sounds and meanings are related.
    This linguistic knowledge is, however, different from linguistic behavior. If you woke up one morning and decided to stop talking, you would still have the knowledge of your language.
    Language is a tool of communication. But if language is defined merely as a system of communication, then language is not unique to humans. A basic property of human language is its creative aspect.
    參考答案
    雖然我們?nèi)巳酥辽偻〞砸婚T(mén)語(yǔ)言，但很少有人會(huì)靜心思考一下對(duì)語(yǔ)言了解什么。語(yǔ)言的詞匯可以在詞典中列出，但并非所有句子都能為詞典所收入。
    說(shuō)話者可以運(yùn)用一組數(shù)量有限的規(guī)則來(lái)表達(dá)與理解數(shù)量無(wú)限的句子。這些規(guī)則組成了語(yǔ)言的語(yǔ)法體系。語(yǔ)法包括音系以及語(yǔ)音和語(yǔ)義之間聯(lián)系的規(guī)則。
    然而，語(yǔ)言知識(shí)有別于語(yǔ)言行為。某天早晨你醒來(lái)后決定不說(shuō)話，你仍然具有你所操語(yǔ)言的知識(shí)。
    語(yǔ)言是交際的工具。但如果語(yǔ)言的定義僅僅是一種交際系統(tǒng)，那語(yǔ)言便不是人類(lèi)的專(zhuān)有品。人類(lèi)語(yǔ)言的一個(gè)基本屬性是創(chuàng)造性。