Introduction to Linguistics
What is Linguistics?
Linguistics is the science of language, including
the sounds or signs, words, and grammar rules. Words in languages are
finite, but sentences are not. It is this creative aspect of human
language that sets it apart from animal languages, which are essentially
responses to stimuli.
The rules of a language, also called grammar, are learned as one acquires a language. These rules include phonology, the sound system, morphology , the structure of words, syntax,
the combination of words into sentences, semantics, the ways in which
sounds and meanings are related, and the lexicon, or mental dictionary
of words. When you know a language, you know words in that language,
i.e. sound units or signs that are related to specific meanings.
However, the sounds or signs and meanings of words are arbitrary. For
the most part, there is no relationship between the way a word is
pronounced (or signed) and its meaning.
The Branches of Linguistics
1. Micro Linguistics
Micro
linguistic is narrower view. It is concerned internal view of language itself
(structure of language systems) without related to other sciences and without
related how to apply it in daily life. Some fields of micro linguistic:
Phonetics - the study of the acoustics and sounds of languages
A phonetician might, for example, look at how stress manifests in a language.
In English, the stressed word in a normal sentence is louder and higher pitched: “ANna likes bananas.” If we ask a question though, it’s pronounced with a lower pitch: “ANna likes bananas?”
Phonology - the study of sound systems and how they pattern
For example, in English, there are many examples of t's in the middle of words that sound quite different from t's at the beginning or end of words. Listen to the t's in "toted" and you’ll hear that they don’t sound the same. The first t
is pronounced with a puff of air (put your hand in front of your mouth
to check this) but the second is not and it sounds like the d in “coded.” This sound is called a tap because your tongue taps the roof of your mouth briefly and it is very similar to the tapped r sound in languages like Spanish or Japanese (this leads to misperceptions of the English middle t as an r for speakers of these languages).
Syntax - the study of sentence structure
English and many western European languages have a
phenomenon called “wh-movement.” wh-words are the question words who,
which, what, where, when, why, and how. Think about the sentence “I eat
an apple” as a possible response to the question “What do you eat?” The word what corresponds to apple, but it shows up at the beginning of the sentence.
In many languages, though, the wh-word corresponds to
the same position as the word it refers to. For example, in Chinese you
would say “I eat apple” in response to “You eat what?” We say then that in languages like English, wh-movement has occurred and the structure is: “What do you eat what?”
A lot of other properties of a language are predicted by whether it has
wh-movement or not, but we’ll have to leave those to another time!
Semantics - the study of meaning and formalizing it into a logical form
English and many western European languages have a
phenomenon called “wh-movement.” wh-words are the question words who,
which, what, where, when, why, and how. Think about the sentence “I eat
an apple” as a possible response to the question “What do you eat?” The word what corresponds to apple, but it shows up at the beginning of the sentence. In many languages, though, the wh-word corresponds to the same position (called in-situ) as the word it refers to. For example, in Chinese you would say “I eat apple” in response to “You eat what?” We say then that in languages like English, wh-movement has occurred and the structure is:
In
English, the wh-word moves to the front of the sentence (why “do”
appears in questions is another issue that I don’t have room to tackle
here). A lot of other properties of a language are predicted by whether
it has wh-movement or not, but we’ll have to leave those to another time
2. Macro Linguistics
Macro
linguistic is broadest view of language. It is concerned external view of
language itself with related to other sciences and how to apply it in daily
life. Some fields of micro linguistic:
a. Stylistics, the study of linguistic
factors that place a discourse in context.
b. Developmental linguistics, the study
of the development of linguistic ability in an individual, particularly the
acquisition of language in childhood.
c. Historical linguistics or Diachronic
linguistics, the study of language change.
d. Language geography, the study of the
spatial patterns of languages.
e. Evolutionary linguistics, the study
of the origin and subsequent development of language.
f. Psycholinguistics, the study of the
cognitive processes and representations underlying language use.
g. Sociolinguistics, the study of
social patterns and norms of linguistic variability.
h. Clinical linguistics, the
application of linguistic theory to the area of Speech-Language Pathology.
i. Neurolinguistics, the study of the
brain networks that underlie grammar and communication.
j. Biolinguistics, the study of natural
as well as human-taught communication systems in animals compared to human
language.
I hope that this article can help you and if I make a mistake I am sorry. :)
