Linguist theory12/22/2023 If human linguistic ability is unconstrained, then languages might vary greatly.īut there are different ways to interpret similarities among languages. The nature of variation is very important to an understanding of human linguistic ability in general: if human linguistic ability is very narrowly constrained by biological properties of the species, then languages must be very similar. Clinical linguistics, the application of linguistic theory to the area of Speech-Language PathologyĪ substantial part of linguistic investigation is into the nature of the differences among the languages of the world.Sociolinguistics, the study of social patterns of linguistic variability.Psycholinguistics, the study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language use.Historical linguistics or Diachronic linguistics, the study of languages whose historical relations are recognizable through similarities in vocabulary, word formation, and syntax. Language acquisition, the study of how language is acquired.Intersecting with these specialty domains are fields arranged around the kind of external factors that are considered. Nevertheless, each area has core concepts that foster significant scholarly inquiry and research. The independent significance of each of these areas is not universally acknowledged, however, and many linguists would agree that the divisions overlap considerably. Discourse analysis, the study of sentences organised into texts.Pragmatics, the study of how utterances are used (literally, figuratively, or otherwise) in communicative acts.Semantics, the study of the meaning of words ( lexical semantics) and fixed word combinations ( phraseology), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences.Syntax, the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences.Morphology, the study of the internal structure of words.Phonology (or phonemics), the study of patterns of a language's basic sounds.Phonetics, the study of the sounds of human language.Linguists may specialize in some subpart of the linguistic structure, which can be arranged in the following terms, from sound to meaning: Linguistic structures are pairings of meaning and sound (or other externalization). There is no discernable genetic process responsible for differences between languages: an individual will acquire whatever language(s) they are exposed to as a child, regardless of their parentage or ethnic origin. Therefore, there is some basic innate property of humans that causes them to be able to use language. The central concern of theoretical linguistics is to characterize the nature of human language ability, or competence: to explain what it is that an individual knows when said to know a language and to explain how it is that individuals come to know languages.Īll humans (setting aside extremely pathological cases) achieve competence in whatever language is spoken (or signed, in the case of sign language) around them when they are growing up, with apparently little need for conscious instruction. Linguistic inquiry is pursued by a wide variety of specialists, who may not all be in harmonious agreement as Russ Rymer flamboyantly puts it: Slightly separate from general linguistics are the sub-fields of phonology, which studies the role of sounds in particular languages, and phonetics, the study of how sounds are produced and perceived.Īpplied linguistics puts linguistic theories into practice in areas such as foreign language teaching, speech therapy, translation and speech pathology. Linguistics compares languages ( comparative linguistics) and explores their histories, in order to find universal properties of language and to account for its development and origins ( historical linguistics). The study of grammar encompasses morphology (formation and alteration of words) and syntax (the rules that determine the way words combine into phrases and sentences). Theoretical (or general) linguistics studies language structure ( grammar), and meaning ( semantics). Linguistics can be theoretical or applied. Someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Related subjects: Linguistics Linguistics
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