After passing this subject student will be able to: - define basic linguistic notions and describe their importance in the language system - use relevant metalanguage in order to provide arguments for his or her solutions to specific language problems - interpret the nature of the language as a basic tool for communication and pinpoint the differences between the language and other communication systems (e.g. animal communication systems) - describe language as a system of signs and illustrate types of signs - make connections between the typological classification of languages and their linguistics features.