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'''Linguistics''' is the [[science|scientific]] study of [[language]]. Broadly, all [[Linguist|linguist]]s investigate how language itself, rather than particular languages, work. For example, what is similar about the [[grammar]] of [[English language|English]], [[French language|French]] and the [[Berber languages]]?<ref>A group of languages spoken in [[North Africa]]: see the ''[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=90002 Ethnologue]'' database on-line.</ref> How are they different? ''[[Theoretical linguistics|Theoretical]]'' linguists concern themselves with such questions of what is [[linguistic universal|universal]] about this apparent 'instinct' to [[communication|communicate]], and explain what it is that we intuitively 'know' about language.<ref>The view that language is a human 'instinct' comparable to walking or bird flight is most famously articulated in [[Steven Pinker|Pinker]] ([[1994]]).</ref>
[[Image:Spoken-language-naples.jpg|right|thumb|300px|{{#ifexist:Template:Spoken-language-naples.jpg/credit|{{Spoken-language-naples.jpg/credit}}<br/>|}}[[Language]] is arguably what most obviously distinguishes [[human]]s from all other [[species]]. Linguistics involves the study of that system of [[communication]] underlying everyday scenes like this.]]
'''Linguistics''' is the [[science|scientific]] study of [[language]]. Its primary goal is to learn about the [[natural language|'natural' language]] that [[human]]s use every day and how it works. Linguists ask such fundamental questions as: What aspects of language are [[Typological universal|universal]] for all [[human]]s? How can we account for the remarkable [[grammar|grammatical]] similarities between languages as apparently diverse as [[English language|English]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and [[Arabic language|Arabic]]?  What are the rules of grammar that we language users employ, and how do we come to 'know' them?  To what extent is the structure of language related to how we think about the world around us?  A ''linguist'', then, here refers to a linguistics expert who seeks to answer such questions, rather than someone who is multilingual.  


By attempting to find out, other kinds of linguists, such as those working in ''[[applied linguistics]]'', can use this knowledge to improve [[language learning]] or other fields such as [[language education|foreign language teaching]], [[speech therapy]], [[translation]] and [[speech pathology]].<ref>Increasingly, however, applied linguists have been developing their own views of language, which often focus on the language [[learning|learner]] rather than the system itself: see for example Cook ([[2002]]) and the same author's [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA website].</ref> Where evidence is needed or an idea must be tested, both theoretical and applied research often draw on [[descriptive linguistics]], which documents the facts of individual languages; examples include information on a language's [[tense]]s or its range of [[speech]] sounds.  
''[[Theoretical linguistics|Theoretical]]'' linguists are concerned with questions about the apparent human 'instinct' to [[communication|communicate]],<ref>The view that language is an 'instinct' comparable to walking or birdsong is most famously articulated in [[Steven Pinker|Pinker]] (1994).</ref> rather than authorising 'rules' of style or 'correctness' as found in grammar textbooks or popular guides.<ref>A popular recent example is Truss (2003).</ref> For example, *''dog the''<ref>An asterisk (*) indicates that what follows is unacceptable to speakers of that language.</ref> is unacceptable in [[English language|English]], but children recognise as much long before they receive any formal grammatical instruction. It is such recognitions, and the implicit rules they imply, that are of primary concern in linguistics, as opposed to rules as prescribed by an authority.  


The division between theoretical and applied linguistics holds for several 'core' fields, which together constitute the [[grammar]] of a language. <ref>See Aitchison ([[2003]]) for an introduction to these fields and other linguistics topics.</ref>
Although interesting in its own right as one of the directions we follow to learn more about ourselves and the world around us, the study of linguistics is also highly relevant to solving real-life problems. ''[[applied linguistics|Applied]]'' linguists may bring their insights to such fields as [[language education|foreign language teaching]], [[speech therapy]] and [[Translation (language)|translation]].<ref>Increasingly, however, applied linguists have been developing their own views of language, which often focus on the language [[learning|learner]] rather than the system itself: see for example Cook (2002) and the same author's [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA website].</ref> While in [[university|universities]] and research institutions worldwide, scholars are studying the facts of individual languages or the system of language itself to find evidence for [[theory|theories]] or test [[hypothesis|hypotheses]], applied linguists are at work in classrooms, clinics, courts and the highest levels of [[government]]. They use their knowledge to bridge linguistic divides, coax [[speech]] from the mouths of the disabled or [[abuse|abused]], supply [[forensic linguistics|forensic]] evidence in courtroom trials, find out [[language acquisition|how language comes to children]] - in fact, they are everywhere people in need or in conflict over language are to be found.


*''[[Syntax]]'' is the study of how units such as the [[words]] we use combine into [[sentence]]s. Why ''Bill ate the fish'' is acceptable but ''Ate the Bill fish'' is evidence that this field aims to explain.
In virtue of the fact stated in the first paragraph, that the primary goal of linguistics "is to learn about the [[natural language|'natural' language]] that [[human]]s use every day and how it works", we recognize that core areas of linguistics qualify as [[Biology|biological science]], a recognition reinforced by the kinds of questions studiers of linguistics ask and seek answers to, detailed in that first and the succeeding two paragraphs.<ref name=bioling>Di Sciullo AM, Boeckx C. (editors) (2011) ''The Biolinguistic Enterprise: New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199553270. | [http://books.google.com/books?id=aHbNVjpvqU4C&source=gbs_navlinks_s Google Books preview].</ref>


*''[[Phonology]]'' refers to the system speakers use to represent language. For example, ''cat'' is an idea that can be expressed through the utterance [kæt],<ref>Symbols in brackets represent speech sounds using the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]].</ref> letters on a page, hand movements in a [[sign language]], and even the dots and dashes of [[Morse code]]. Though there are a potentially infinite number of ways of producing a [[sound]], shaping a [[letter]] or moving a [[hand]], phonology is interested only in how these group into abstract categories: [k] may be pronounced in several different ways, but English speakers would not consider these to be as different as [k] and [g] - though these sounds a [[Korean language|Korean]] speaker would regard as very similar.  
==The study of linguistics==
**[[Phonetics]] focuses on the physical sounds of speech, so often informs phonological inquiry by showing how the [[pronunciation]]s of sounds are related. However, since the study of articulation (sound production through the movements of the lungs, tongue, etc.), [[speech perception]] (how the brain discerns sounds) and [[acoustics]] (the physical qualities of sounds as movement through air) do not primarily concern themselves with the study of abstract patterns in language, they complement linguistics rather than form a central component.
===Core areas===
Some linguists, such as theoretical syntacticians, focus on one 'core' area. Research may involve developing a model to describe and predict the workings of the system of language itself, rather than explaining how people happen to use language. These 'core' fields together constitute the [[grammar]] of a language - not a list of rules in a book, but components the system requires for communication.
{{Image|Linguistics-illustration-determinerphrase.gif|right|200px|Levels of linguistic knowledge involved in producing the utterance 'the cats'.}}


*''[[morphology (linguistics)|Morphology]]'' examines how linguistic units such as words and their subparts (prefixes, suffixes, roots, etc.) combine together. One example of this might be the observation that while ''walk+ed'' is acceptable, *''ed+walk''<ref>An asterisk * indicates that what follows is unacceptable to speakers of that language.</ref> is not.
====Syntax====
{{main|Syntax}}
''Syntax'' is the study of how units including [[words]] and [[phrases]] combine into [[sentence]]s. For example, why is ''Bill ate the fish'' acceptable but ''Ate the Bill fish'' not? Syntacticians investigate what orders of words make legitimate sentences, how to succinctly account for patterns found across sentences, such as correspondences between active sentences (''John threw the ball'') and passive sentences (''The ball was thrown by John''), and some types of ambiguity, as in ''Visiting relatives can be boring'' (which has two readings!).


*''[[Semantics]]'' is studied in many other fields, such as [[philosophy]], but within linguistics it refers to the study of how language conveys meaning. For example, English speakers typically realise that [[Noam Chomsky|Chomsky]]'s famous sentence ''[[Colorless green ideas sleep furiously]]'' is well-formed in terms of word order, but incomprehensible in terms of meaning.<ref>Chomsky, [[1957]]: 15.</ref> Other aspects of meaning studied here include how speakers understand [[ambiguous]] sentences such as ''Visiting relatives can be boring'' depending on [[context]], and the extent to which sentences which are superficially very different, such as ''The wine flowed freely'' and ''Much wine was consumed'', mean similar things.
[[Image:Asl-lecture-in-asl.jpg|right|thumb|250px|{{#ifexist:Template:Asl-lecture-in-asl.jpg/credit|{{Spoken-language-naples.jpg/credit}}<br/>|}}A lecture in [[American Sign Language]]. [[Phonology]] and linguistics generally involve the study not just of [[speech]] but also [[sign language]]; the same system used to represent language, whether by sound or sign, is widely viewed as underlying both. Research into sign language also benefits from the insights of linguists who are themselves native signers.]]
====Phonology====
{{main|Phonology}}
''Phonology'' is the study of the grammatical system speakers use to represent language in the real world, which organises [[syllable]] structure, [[intonation]], [[tone]], and - in [[sign language]]s - [[hand]] movements. A phonologist divides an example of language into its phonological components: for example, English ''cat'' appears as a single syllable arranging the [[phonetic segment|segment]]s [k], [æ]<ref>Pronounced 'ash'.</ref> and [t].<ref>Symbols in square brackets represent speech sounds using the [[International Phonetic Alphabet]]; slanting brackets, as in /kæt/ 'cat', are used to represent [[phoneme]]s - distinct, abstract units that may represent several sounds or written letters.</ref> Although there are potentially infinitely many ways of producing a [[sound]], shaping a [[letter]] or moving a [[hand]], phonologists are interested only in how these group into abstract categories: for example, how and why [k] is often perceived as different from [t], whereas in many languages, other sounds as different as those are not.


*''[[Pragmatics]]'' is the study of how utterances relate to the context they are spoken in. For instance, the sentence ''I have one pencil'' can mean two very different things, depending on whether the speaker has been asked how many pencils they have, or are just confirming that they have at least one. This sort of understanding is not predictable just by knowledge of language; speakers must also know something about the intentions and assumptions of others as they [[Cooperative principle|co-operate]] in communication.
====Phonetics====
{{main|Phonetics}}
''Phonetics'' focuses on the physical sounds of [[speech]]. Phonetics covers [[speech perception]] (how the brain discerns sounds), [[acoustic phonetics|acoustics]] (the physical qualities of sounds as movement through air), and [[articulatory phonetics|articulation]] ([[voice]] production through the movements of the [[lung]]s, [[tongue]], [[lip]]s, and other articulators). This area investigates, for instance, the physical realization of speech and how individual sounds differ across languages and dialects. This research plays a large part in computer [[Speech Recognition|speech recognition]] and synthesis.


It is claimed that there is a [[Universal Grammar]] (UG) that underlies all language and is biologically unique to humans, although precisely what is in UG, where it comes from, and whether a UG exists in any interesting sense are controversial issues in the field.
====Morphology====
{{main|Morphology}}
''[[morphology (linguistics)|Morphology]]'' examines how linguistic units such as words and their subparts (such as prefixes and suffixes) combine. One example of this is the observation that while ''walk+ed'' is acceptable, *''ed+walk'' is not, in English, while in other languages such affixes can be found wholly inside the stems they attach to.


==The Study of Linguistics==
====Semantics====
{{main|Semantics (linguistics)}}
''Semantics'' within linguistics refers to the study of how language conveys meaning.<ref>The term elsewhere has a rather wider application, referring to the study of meaning itself, in fields such as [[philosophy]].</ref> For example, English speakers typically realise that [[Noam Chomsky|Chomsky]]'s famous sentence ''[[Colorless green ideas sleep furiously]]'' is well-formed in terms of word order, but incomprehensible in terms of meaning.<ref>Chomsky, 1957: 15.</ref> Other aspects of meaning studied here include how speakers understand certain types of [[ambiguous]] sentences such as ''A student met every professor'' (a different student, or the same student?), and the extent to which sentences which are superficially very different, such as ''The wine flowed freely'' and ''Much wine was consumed'', mean similar things.<ref>Aitchison (2003: 87-99).</ref>


Intersecting with the 'core' areas of linguistics discussed above are fields arranged around the study of language use and learning:
====Pragmatics====
{{main|Pragmatics}}
''Pragmatics'' is the study of how utterances relate to the context they are spoken in. For instance, the sentence ''I have two pencils'' can mean two very different things, depending on whether the speaker has been asked how many pencils he has, in which case the speaker means he has exactly two, or is just confirming that he has at least two (such as in response to ''Can me and my friend borrow two pencils from you?''), leaving open the possibility that he has more. This sort of understanding is not predictable just by knowledge of language; speakers must also know something about the intentions and assumptions of others to [[Cooperative principle|co-operate]] in communication.


* [[comparative linguistics|Comparative linguistics]] is the goal of comparing and contrasting languages, both for finding [[language universals|universal properties of language]] and to account for a language's development and origins (similar to ''[[historical linguistics]]'').
===Other fields of linguistics===
To factor out circumstances that may obscure fundamental insights, many linguists may choose to focus on language as presumed to occur in an idealised, adult, monolingual [[first language acquisition|native speaker]] - prerequisites often found in mainstream [[generative linguistics]].<ref>'Generative' linguistics' is most strongly associated with Chomsky (1957) and subsequent works.</ref> In contrast, linguists whose research moves away from any of these four criteria may concentrate on fields arranged around the study of language use and learning:


* The study of [[language acquisition]] recognises that the way that language comes to children as a first language and adults as a second language may provide extra insights into the system itself. As this involves all kinds of [[learning]], including in the classroom, this field is highly varied in the range of linguists, both theoretical and applied, who want to know how language emerges from infancy onwards.
* [[Biolinguistics]], an interdisciplinary field encompassing and integrating many of the fields below, explores human natural language’s  basic properties, development in individuals, use in thinking and communicating, brain implementation, genetic underpinnings, and evolutionary origins.<ref name=bioling>Di Sciullo AM, Boeckx C. (editors) (2011) ''The Biolinguistic Enterprise: New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199553270. | [http://books.google.com/books?id=aHbNVjpvqU4C&source=gbs_navlinks_s Google Books preview].</ref>


* [[Historical linguistics]] (or ''diachronic linguistics''), the study of how languages are historically related (e.g. English, French and [[German language|German]] are thought to be descended from a single [[Indo-European (language)|Indo-European]] tongue);
* [[Language acquisition]], theoretical or applied study of how linguistic knowledge emerges in children and adults as first or subsequent languages, whether naturalistically (without instruction) or in the classroom;<ref>'Acquisition' is a highly diverse field; as well as theoretical linguists studying the linguistic system itself through first language development and [[second language acquisition]] (SLA), applied linguists may examine mainly classroom learning and learners' experiences. Also, language teaching practice is the concern of [[language education|education]] specialists outside linguistics. In any one study linguists' backgrounds and research orientations may overlap considerably, and there is little consensus even on fundamentals, such as the extent to which explicit instruction in presumed 'rules' of grammar can truly promote learning.</ref>
 
* [[Cognitive linguistics]], the study of language as part of general [[cognition]];
{{r|Theoretical linguistics}}


* [[Psycholinguistics]], the study of language to find out about how the [[mind]] works;<ref>e.g. Pinker, 1997; Scovel, 1997.</ref>
* [[Psycholinguistics]], the study of language to find out about how the [[mind]] works;<ref>e.g. Pinker, 1997; Scovel, 1997.</ref>
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* [[Sociolinguistics]], the study of how language varies according to cultural context, the speaker's background, and the situation in which it is used;
* [[Sociolinguistics]], the study of how language varies according to cultural context, the speaker's background, and the situation in which it is used;


* [[Clinical linguistics]], the application of linguistics to [[speech-language pathology]].
* [[Stylistics (linguistics)|Stylistics]], the study of how language differs according to use and context, e.g. advertising versus speech-making;
 
* [[linguistic variation|Linguistic variation]], the study of the differences among the languages of the world. This has implications for linguistics in general: if human linguistic ability is very narrowly constrained, then languages must be very similar. If human linguistic ability is unconstrained, then languages might vary greatly.
 
One of the most interesting aspects of language is that all 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 [[maturity|growing up]], with apparently little need for conscious instruction. Non-humans do not. Therefore, there is some basic innate property of humans that causes them to be able to use language. 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.  


* [[Linguistic variation]], the study of the differences among the languages of the world. This has implications for linguistics in general: if human linguistic ability is narrowly constrained, then languages must be very similar. If human linguistic ability is unconstrained, then languages might vary greatly.


== Properties of language ==
* [[Historical linguistics]] (or ''diachronic linguistics''), the study of how languages are historically related (e.g. English, French and [[German language|German]] are thought to be descended from a single [[Indo-European (language)|Indo-European]] tongue). This involves finding [[language universals|universal properties of language]] and accounting for a language's development and origins (see also [[#Historical linguistics|below]] and ''[[comparative linguistics|comparative linguistics]]'').


It has been understood since the time of the ancient Greeks that languages tend to be organized around grammatical categories such as noun and verb, nominative and accusative, or present and past. The vocabulary and grammar of a language are organized around these fundamental categories.
* [[Contextual linguistics]] may include the study of linguistics in interaction with other academic disciplines.  


In addition to making substantial use of discrete categories, language has the important property that it organizes elements into recursive structures; this allows, for example, a noun phrase to contain another noun phrase (as in ''the chimpanzee's lips'') or a clause to contain a clause (as in ''I think that it's raining''). Though recursion in grammar was implicitly recognized much earlier (for example by [[Otto Jespersen]]), the importance of this aspect of language was only fully realized after the 1957 publication of [[Noam Chomsky]]'s book ''[[Syntactic Structures]]'',<ref>Chomsky, Noam. 1957. "Syntactic Structures". Mouton, the Hague.</ref> which presented a formal grammar of a fragment of English. Prior to this, the most detailed descriptions of linguistic systems were of phonological or morphological systems, which, especially in English, tend to be closed and admit little creativity.
* [[Anthropological linguistics]] considers the interactions between linguistics and culture.


Chomsky used a [[context-free grammar]] augmented with transformations. Since then, context-free grammars have been written for substantial fragments of various languages (for example [[Generalised phrase structure grammar|GPSG]], for English), but it has been demonstrated that human languages include cross-serial dependencies, which cannot be handled adequately by Context-free grammars. This requires increased power, for example transformations.
* [[Critical discourse analysis]] is where [[rhetoric]] and [[philosophy]] interact with linguistics.


An example of a natural-language clause involving a cross-serial dependency is the Dutch<ref>Bresnan, Joan, Ronald Kaplan, Stanley Peters, and Annie Zaenen. 1982. Cross-serial dependencies in Dutch. ''Linguistic Inquiry'' 13:613-636.</ref><ref> Shieber, Stuart. 1985. Evidence against the context-freeness of natural language. ''Linguistics and Philosophy'' 8:333-344.</ref>
* [[Computational linguistics]] has had a great influence on theories of syntax and semantics, as modelling syntactic and semantic theories on computers constrains the theories to [[Computability theory (computation)|computable]] operations and provides a more rigorous mathematical basis.


:Ik denk dat Jan Piet de kinderen zag helpen zwemmen
Other cross-disciplinary areas of linguistics include [[neurolinguistics]], [[evolutionary linguistics]] and [[cognitive science]].
:I think that Jan Piet the children saw help swim
:'I think that Jan saw Piet help the children swim'
 
The important point is that the noun phrases before the verb cluster (''Jan'', ''Piet'', ''de kinderen'') are identified with the verbs in the verb cluster (''zag'', ''helpen'', ''zwemmen'') in left-right order.
 
This means that natural language formalisms must be relatively powerful in terms of [[generative capacity]], which is to say that they must be able to account for very complex word orders and relations between the words.  On the other hand, formalisms must not be too powerful so as to ''predict'' word orders that do not occur in any language.  Some of the commonly studied formalisms include [[Lexical functional grammar|LFG]], [[Head-driven phrase structure grammar|HPSG]], [[Minimalism (linguistics)|Minimalism]], [[Tree Adjoining Grammar]], and [[Categorial Grammar]].  The formalisms all tend to be too weak or too powerful in various ways, and an important concern for theoretical syntax is to find how to constrain the formalisms to match the languages that we see.
 
==Details on selected divisions and subfields==
===Contextual linguistics===
Contextual linguistics may include the study of linguistics in interaction with other academic disciplines. Whereas in core theoretical linguistics language is studied for its own sake, the interdisciplinary areas of linguistics consider how language interacts with the rest of the world.
 
[[Sociolinguistics]], [[anthropological linguistics]], and [[linguistic anthropology]] are social sciences that consider the interactions between linguistics and society as a whole.
 
[[Critical discourse analysis]] is where [[rhetoric]] and [[philosophy]] interact with linguistics.
 
[[Psycholinguistics]] and [[neurolinguistics]] combine [[medical science]] and linguistics.
 
Other cross-disciplinary areas of linguistics include [[language acquisition]], [[evolutionary linguistics]], [[computational linguistics]] and [[cognitive science]].


===Applied linguistics===
===Applied linguistics===
:''Main article: [[Applied linguistics]]''
Whereas theoretical linguistics is concerned with finding and [[descriptive linguistics|describing]] generalities both within particular languages and among all languages, ''applied linguistics'' takes these results and ''applies'' them to other areas. Often ''applied linguistics'' refers to the use of linguistic research in language teaching, but this is just one sub-discipline:


Whereas theoretical linguistics is concerned with finding and [[descriptive linguistics|describing]] generalities both within particular languages and among all languages, [[applied linguistics]] takes the results of those findings and ''applies'' them to other areas. Often ''applied linguistics'' refers to the use of linguistic research in language teaching, but results of linguistic research are used in many other areas, as well.
* Research in [[language teaching]]: today, 'applied linguistics' is sometimes used to refer to 'second language acquisition', but these are distinct fields, in that SLA involves more theoretical study of the system of language, whereas applied linguistics concerns itself more with teaching and learning. In their approach to the study of learning, applied linguists have increasingly devised their own theories and methodologies, such as the shift towards studying the learner rather than the system of language itself, in contrast to the emphasis within SLA.<ref>The applied linguist [[Vivian Cook]] has, for example, introduced the term ''L2 user'' as distinct from ''L2 learner'' (see Cook's page: [http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/SLA/Multicompetence/MCopener.htm Background to the L2 User Perspective]). The former are active users of the language; the latter those who learn for later use. Cook's view also severs a link to SLA, in that a user's language ability is seen not as an approximation towards native speakers' competence, but as a system in its own right.</ref><ref>See also Wei (2007) for an appeal to focus on the learner rather than the system.</ref>
 
Many areas of applied linguistics today involve the explicit use of computers. [[Speech synthesis]] and [[speech recognition]] use phonetic and phonemic knowledge to provide voice interfaces to computers. Applications of [[computational linguistics]] in [[machine translation]], [[computer-assisted translation]], and [[natural language processing]] are extremely fruitful areas of applied linguistics which have come to the forefront in recent years with increasing computing power. Their influence has had a great effect on theories of syntax and semantics, as modelling syntactic and semantic theories on computers constrains the theories to [[Computability theory (computation)|computable]] operations and provides a more rigorous mathematical basis.


Today, the term 'applied linguistics' is sometimes used to refer to 'second language acquisition"', but these remain distinct fields in that many researchers spend more time on either theoretical or applied research.
* Applied [[computational linguistics]]: two computer applications are [[speech synthesis]] and [[speech recognition]], which use phonetic and phonemic knowledge to provide voice interfaces to computers. [[Machine translation]], [[computer-assisted translation]], and [[natural language processing]] are fruitful areas which have also come to the forefront in recent years.


===Diachronic linguistics===
* [[Clinical linguistics]] entails the application of linguistics to [[speech-language pathology]]. This involves treating individuals whose linguistic development is atypical or impaired.<ref>The most famous case is [[Genie (linguistics)|Genie]], an individual who was deprived of language throughout much of her childhood.</ref> This branch of applied linguistics may also involve treatment of [[specific language impairment]], where one aspect of language develops exceptionally.<ref>Bishop (2006).</ref>  The field has also adopted existing ideas which have have not become 'mainstream' in theoretical linguistics. For example, both ''[[behaviourism]]''<ref>Castagnaro (2006), for review.</ref> and ''[[natural phonology]]''<ref>Grunwell (1997).</ref> have appeared in the literature.


Whereas the core of theoretical linguistics is concerned with studying languages at a particular point in time (usually the present), diachronic linguistics examines how language changes through time, sometimes over centuries. Historical linguistics enjoys both a rich history (the study of linguistics grew out of historical linguistics) and a strong theoretical foundation for the study of [[language change]].
==Approach to studying language==
Modern linguists' methodologies, assumptions and practices differ significantly from those of past generations. One of the most fundamental principles of modern linguistics is that it is [[#Prescription and description|descriptive rather than prescriptive]]: it describes language without judging how people use it. Also, as no language is known to have been written before being spoken, linguists consider [[#Speech versus writing|spoken rather than written language]] to be the primary focus. In language acquisition, most researchers agree that language cannot be acquired through imitation; some aspects must be [[#Innatism|innate]]. Finally, most modern linguistics focuses on language as used today; however, ''[[#Historical linguistics|historical linguistics]]'' remains an important sub-field.


In universities in the United States, the non-historic perspective seems to have the upper hand. Many introductory linguistics classes, for example, cover historical linguistics only cursorily. The shift in focus to a non-historic perspective started with [[Ferdinand de Saussure|Saussure]] and became predominant with [[Noam Chomsky]].
===Prescription and description===
:''Main article: [[Linguistic prescriptivism]]''
Linguists seek to clarify the nature of language, to describe how people use it, and to find the underlying grammar that speakers unconsciously adhere to. Linguists do not judge what speech is  better or worse syntactically, correct or incorrect grammatically, and do not try to prescribe future language directions. Nonetheless, some professionals and many amateurs do try to ''prescribe'' rules of language, holding a particular standard for all to follow.


Explicitly historical perspectives include [[historical-comparative linguistics]] and [[etymology]].
Prescription comes in two flavours, those that are linguistically founded and those that are not. For instance, the rule of English that subjects and verbs must ''agree'' (i.e. that when the subject is third-person singular, the verb takes an "s" ending, like "I/you/they run" but "he runs") can be the basis of linguistically founded prescription, so long as the speaker is intending to speak standard American English. Speakers of standard American English ''do'' follow subject-verb agreement, and thus if the intention is to teach that language, this rule should be taught.


==Prescription and description==
However, prescriptivists often stray from this type of linguistically founded recommendation. These prescriptivists tend to be found among the ranks of language educators and journalists, and not in the academic discipline of linguistics. Often considering themselves speakers of the standard form of a particular language, they may hold clear notions of what is right and wrong and what variety of language is most likely to lead the next generation of speakers to 'success'. For example, they may believe that all speakers of what they would call English should follow the same rule of subject-verb agreement, while in fact some varieties of English, which are in a sense distinct languages in their own right, do not do subject-verb agreement the same way. The reasons for their intolerance of non-standard dialects, treating them as "incorrect" , may include distrust of [[neologism]]s, connections to socially-disapproved dialects, or simple conflicts with pet theories.
:''Main article: [[Prescription and description]].''


Research currently performed under the name "linguistics" is purely ''descriptive''; linguists seek to clarify the nature of language without passing value judgments or trying to chart future language directions. Nonetheless, there are many professionals and amateurs who also ''prescribe'' rules of language, holding a particular standard out for all to follow.
Prescriptivists often also make linguistically unfounded recommendations that seem plausibly true, but which have little linguistic evidence to support them. For instance, the rule against leaving a preposition at the end of a clause or sentence (such as in ''I met the professor I wrote to'') is commonly believed to be 'correct' English.<ref>Linguists sometimes refer to this rule as ''preposition stranding'', since in ''I met the professor I wrote to'' the preposition's object (''the professor'' in ''I wrote to the professor'') has been left behind once the object has been moved. When a preposition is also moved to a non-final position, as in ''I met the professor to whom I wrote'', this is called [[pied-piping]] or [[wh-movement]], since words that can move can typically be replaced by words beginning with ''wh-'' (''who'', ''what'', etc.).</ref> However, speakers of English not only use final prepositions frequently, indicating that it is perfectly natural English to do so, but bringing the preposition to the front may result in a sentence that could well sound ridiculous to any native speaker of English.<ref>This rule is famously criticised in a quotation attributed to former [[United Kingdom|British]] [[prime minister]] [[Winston Churchill]]: [http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/churchill.html "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."]</ref>


Prescriptivists tend to be found among the ranks of language educators and journalists, and not in the actual academic discipline of linguistics. They hold clear notions of what is right and wrong, and may assign themselves the responsibility of ensuring that the next generation use the variety of language that is most likely to lead to "success," often the [[acrolect]] of a particular language. The reasons for their intolerance of "incorrect usage" may include distrust of [[neologism]]s, connections to socially-disapproved dialects (i.e., [[basilect]]s), or simple conflicts with pet theories. An extreme version of prescriptivism can be found among censors, whose personal mission is to eradicate words and structures which they consider to be destructive to society.
Descriptive linguists, on the other hand, do not accept the prescriptivists' notion of 'incorrect usage' in a general sense. They aim to describe the usages the prescriptivist has in mind, either as common or deviant from some linguistic norm, as an idiosyncratic variation, or as regularity (a ''rule'') followed by speakers of some other dialect (in contrast to the common prescriptive assumption that "bad" usage is unsystematic). Within the context of [[fieldwork]], [[descriptive linguistics]] refers to the study of language using a descriptivist approach. Descriptivist methodology more closely resembles scientific methodology in other disciplines.


Descriptivists, on the other hand, do not accept the prescriptivists' notion of "incorrect usage." They might describe the usages the other has in mind simply as "idiosyncratic," or they may discover a regularity (a ''rule'') that the usage in question follows (in contrast to the common prescriptive assumption that "bad" usage is unsystematic). Within the context of [[fieldwork]], [[descriptive linguistics]] refers to the study of language using a descriptivist approach. Descriptivist methodology more closely resembles scientific methodology in other disciplines.
===Speech versus writing===
 
[[Image:Writing-pen-english.jpg|right|thumb|250px|{{#ifexist:Template:Writing-pen-english.jpg/credit|{{Spoken-language-naples.jpg/credit}}<br/>|}}Linguistics examines all forms of language, but the written word is considered at best an incomplete representation of a linguistic system. Linguists generally consider that more fundamental insights can be gleaned into the nature of language by analysing natural, spontaneous speech, rather than assuming the primacy of writing.]]
==Speech versus writing==
Languages have only been written for a few thousand years, but have been [[spoken language|spoken]] (or [[sign language|signed]]) for much longer. The [[Written language|written word]] may therefore provide less of a window onto how language works than the study of [[speech]], even assuming that the [[culture]] which the language forms part of has a [[writing system]] - the majority of the world's languages remain unwritten. Furthermore, the study of written language can play no part in investigating [[first language acquisition]], since infants are obviously yet to become literate. Overall, language is held to be an evolutionary adaptation, whereas writing is a comparatively recent invention. Spoken and signed language, then, may tell us much about human evolution and the structure of the [[mind]].
Languages have only been written for a few thousand years, but have been [[spoken language|spoken]] (or [[sign language|signed]]) for much longer. The [[Written language|written word]] may therefore provide less of a window onto how language works than the study of [[speech]], even assuming that the [[culture]] which the language forms part of has a [[writing system]] - the majority of the world's languages remain unwritten. Furthermore, the study of written language can play no part in investigating [[first language acquisition]], since infants are obviously yet to become literate. Overall, language is held to be an evolutionary adaptation, whereas writing is a comparatively recent invention. Spoken and signed language, then, may tell us much about human evolution and the structure of the [[mind]].


Of course, linguists also agree that the study of written language can be worthwhile and valuable. For linguistic research that uses the methods of [[corpus linguistics]] and [[computational linguistics]], written language is often much more convenient for processing large amounts of linguistic data. Large corpora of spoken language are difficult to create and hard to find, and are typically [[transcription (linguistics)|transcribed]] and written. Additionally, linguists have turned to text-based discourse occurring in various formats of [[computer-mediated communication]] as a viable site for linguistic inquiry. Writing, however, brings with it a number of problems; for example, it often acts as a historical record, preserving words, phrases, styles and spellings of a previous era. This may be of limited use for studying how language is used at the present time.
Of course, linguists also agree that the study of written language can be worthwhile and valuable. For linguistic research that uses the methods of [[corpus linguistics]] and [[computational linguistics]], written language is often much more convenient for processing large amounts of linguistic data. Large corpora of spoken language are difficult to create and hard to find, and are typically [[transcription (linguistics)|transcribed]] and written. Additionally, linguists have turned to text-based discourse occurring in various formats of [[computer-mediated communication]] as a viable site for linguistic inquiry. Writing, however, brings with it a number of problems; for example, it often acts as a historical record, preserving words, phrases, styles and spellings of a previous era. This may be of limited use for studying how language is used at the present time.


===Innatism===
One of the most interesting aspects of language is that normally, young [[children]] acquire whatever language is spoken (or signed, in the case of [[sign language]]) around them when they are [[maturity|growing up]], without apparently being 'taught' the language. By contrast, other [[animal]]s, even highly intelligent [[primate]]s that are closely related to humans, need very intensive training to produce even minimally language-like behaviour.<ref>Furthermore, the anthropological linguist [[Charles Hockett]] advanced the theory that a collection of ''design features'', such as 'creativity' (speakers can produce novel utterances) collectively made language unique to humans. Some other species may make use of one or two of these (such as 'use of sound signals'), but never enough to use language (Hockett (1960); Aitchison (2003: 13-20). See also the phonetician [http://www.phon.ox.ac.uk/~jcoleman/design_features.htm John Coleman's webpage] comparing different species according to design features.</ref> Additionally, since children understand and produce utterances which they have never previously experienced, and since they appear to reject ill-formed sentences even at an early age,<ref>Chomsky (1957) strongly emphasised that this 'creative' aspect of language entailed that language could not simply be a product of a child's responses to their environment  - a view usually associated with [[behaviourism]] and applied to language in Skinner (1957). Chomsky (1959) is a highly critical review of that work that was instrumental in moving linguistics away from such 'behaviourist' analyses of language use.</ref> it has been widely concluded that the infant [[brain]] must in some way be ready to acquire any language. 'Nativist' linguists argue that such a system, presumably specified in our [[gene]]s,<ref>e.g. Pinker (1994) makes an analogy between language and [[spider]]s' [[web]]s: spiders spin webs because their genes compel them to, though without the right environment no webs will appear. To that can be added that each web would be different, though following the same basic, innately guided webspinning template.</ref> must also account for why all languages are fundamentally similar.<ref>The linguist [[Joseph H. Greenberg]] famously identified a series of [[universal]]s of language (Greenberg, 1966); namely, 'laws' that seem to apply to all linguistic communication. One example is that all languages appear to have [[noun]]s and [[verb]]s, even though a language without verbs would be communicatively adequate (e.g. ''[[nominalized English]]'').</ref><ref>Ironically, neither Greenberg nor Hockett, whose work provided such important evidence for the 'nativist' position, themselves supported such a view. Greenberg was a [[typology|typologist]] and [[empirical linguistics|empirical linguist]] interested in [[historical linguistics]] and what the similarities between languages suggested about the nature of language itself; his work has been seen as [[functionalism|functionalist]] in its principles. Hockett was firmly in the pre-Chomskyan [[structuralism|structuralist]] camp, and vigorously attacked the emerging school of generativism throughout his career. See [[William Croft]]'s [http://www.unm.edu/~wcroft/Papers/JHGobit.pdf obituary for Joseph H. Greenberg] and a copy of the ''[[New York Times]]'' obituary for Charles F. Hockett at [http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0011b&L=linganth&P=723 linguistlist.org].</ref>
===Historical linguistics===
Whereas the core of theoretical linguistics is concerned with studying languages at a particular point in time (usually the present), ''[[historical linguistics]]'' (or ''diachronic linguistics'') examines how language changes through time, sometimes over centuries. Historical linguistics enjoys both a rich history (the study of linguistics grew out of historical linguistics) and a strong theoretical foundation for the study of [[language change]].


==History of linguistics==
In universities in the USA, the non-historic perspective seems to have the upper hand. Many introductory linguistics classes, for example, cover historical linguistics only cursorily. The shift in focus to a non-historic perspective started with [[Ferdinand de Saussure|Saussure]] and became predominant with [[Noam Chomsky]].


{{Main|History of linguistics}}
In [[popular culture]], one aspect of linguistics which is particularly popular is [[etymology]], the study of [[word]] origins. This is related to historical linguistics, in that a word's history is traced over time, but does not form a central component of modern language study; linguistics is more concerned with patterns of change over time and what this has to contribute to an understanding of the nature of language itself.


People have studied language in one way or another for thousands of years. However, until the 20th century, many of the most famous insights into the way language works involved explaining the grammar of particular languages, or describing sound changes over time. However, such work laid the foundations for an extension of linguistic inquiry into the universals of language. For example, the early [[grammarian]] {{Unicode|[[Pāṇini]]}}'s (c. [[520 BC|520]] – [[460 BC]]) examination of [[Sanskrit]] produced several insights into the nature of grammar, such as the [[morpheme]], which remain highly relevant in modern research. However, until the 1950s, few scholars had sought to identify the properties of the system of language itself - those parts common to all languages and all speakers.  
==History of linguistics==
{{main|History of linguistics}}
Questions about language, its origins and nature have been a centre of interest in many civilizations.<ref>For example, the early Indian [[grammarian]] {{Unicode|[[Pāṇini]]}}'s (ca 520–460 BCE) examined [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] and produced several insights into the nature of grammar, such as the [[morpheme]], which remain highly relevant in modern research.</ref> From ancient times until the 18th century, insights into language mainly involved explaining the grammar of particular languages, such as [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]], or describing changes over time.


Today, theoretical linguistics has resulted very much from the work of [[Noam Chomsky]] and his contempories. This produced [[explicit]] theories of grammar <ref>Chomsky, N. (1957). ''[[Syntactic Structures]].'' The Hague: Mouton.</ref><ref>Chomsky, N. and M. Halle (1968) ''[[The Sound Patterns of English]].'' New York: Harper and Row.</ref> - namely, systems that required no reference to other kinds of knowledge. For example, whereas a casual and inexact definition of a [[noun]] is 'a person, place or thing', Chomsky's syntactic theories could distinguish a noun from any other sort of linguistic unit without recourse to the prior knowledge of what a person, place or thing ''is''. This sort of approach to uncovering the components of language as distinct from other kinds of knowledge, rather than investigating the history of and relationships between particular languages, is one way of separating modern linguistics from its precursors.
Some aspects of modern linguistics can be traced to the [[Swiss people|Swiss]] linguist [[Ferdinand de Saussure]]. He was the first to rigorously define ''language'' and therefore define what linguistics is, and also introduced the idea of language as a ''system'' or ''structure'', which would heavily influence the field. Saussure's work was an early example of how the primary purpose of linguistics became to explain how languages work at one given moment of time and establish how languages work through both [[empirical linguistics|empirical evidence]] and [[theory|theoretical]] reasoning. Elsewhere, a primary concern with describing and preserving the grammars of diverse languages continued well into the twentieth century.


From the 1950s, [[Noam Chomsky]] and his contemporaries initiated new methods in linguistics, producing [[explicit]] theories of grammar<ref>Chomsky (1957); [[The Sound Pattern of English|Chomsky and Halle]] (1968).</ref>  - namely, systems that required no reference to other kinds of knowledge. Parallel to this 'Chomskyian' focus on the nature of the linguistic system, concerns about how language was used in society began to mature. In this way, from the 1960s [[William Labov]] was a pioneer in studies of [[sociolinguistics]].


==Footnotes==
==Footnotes==
<div class="references-2column">
{{reflist|2}}[[Category:Suggestion Bot Tag]]
<references/>
</div>
 
==References==
*Aitchison, J. (2003). ''Teach Yourself Linguistics.'' London: Hodder. 6th edition. ISBN 0-07-142982-4.
*Chomsky, N. (1957). ''Syntactic Structures.'' The Hague: Mouton.
*Cook, V.J. (2002). ''Portraits of the L2 User.'' Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
*Pinker, S. (1994). ''The Language Instinct.'' New York: William Morrow & Company. ISBN 0060958332 (Harper Perennial Modern Classics reprint, [[2000]]).
*Pinker, S. (1999). ''How the Mind Works''. New York: Norton.
*Scovel, T. (1997). ''Psycholinguistics''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 
===Further reading===
*{{cite book |last=Aitchison |first=Jean |title=Linguistics: An Introduction |origyear=1995 |edition=2nd |year=1999 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |location=London}}
*{{cite book |last=Adrian |first=Akmajian |others=et al |title=Linguistics |year=2001 |publisher=MIT Press |id=ISBN 0-262-51123-1}}
*{{cite book |last=Griniewicz |first=Sergiusz |coauthors=Elwira M. Dubieniec |title=Introduction To Linguistics |edition=2nd |year=2004 |publisher=Białystok, WSFiZ |pages=91}}
* Hudson, G. (2000)  ''Essential Introductory Linguistics''. Oxford: Blackwell.
* Lyons, John (1995), ''Linguistic Semantics'', Cambridge University Press. (ISBN 0-521-43877-2)
* Napoli, Donna J. (2003) ''Language Matters. A Guide to Everyday Questions about Language''. Oxford University Press.
* O'Grady, William D., Michael Dobrovolsky & Francis Katamba [eds.] (2001), ''Contemporary Linguistics'', Longman. (ISBN 0-582-24691-1) - Lower Level
* Taylor, John R. (2003), ''Cognitive Grammar'', Oxford University Press. (ISBN 0-19-870033-4)
* Trask, R. L. (1995)  ''Language: The Basics''. London: Routledge.
* Ungerer, Friedrich & Hans-Jorg Schmid (1996), ''An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics'', Longman. (ISBN 0-582-23966-4)
 
===Advanced texts===
* [[Gilles Fauconnier|Fauconnier, Gilles]]
** (1995), ''Mental Spaces'', 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press. (ISBN 0-521-44949-9)
** (1997), ''Mappings in Thought and Language'', Cambridge University Press. (ISBN 0-521-59953-9)
** & [[Mark Turner (cognitive scientist)|Mark Turner]] (2003), ''The Way We Think'', Basic Books. (ISBN 0-465-08786-8)
*** Rymer, p. 48, quoted in Fauconnier and Turner, p. 353
* [[Geoffrey Sampson|Sampson, Geoffrey]]  (1982), ''Schools of Linguistics'', Stanford University Press. (ISBN 0-8047-1125-9)
* Sweetser, Eve (1992), ''From Etymology to Pragmatics'', repr ed., Cambridge University Press. (ISBN 0-521-42442-9)
 
===Popular books about linguistics===
* Bloomfield, Leonard. ''Language''.
*[[Anthony Burgess|Burgess, Anthony]]
** (1964), ''[[Language Made Plain]]
** (1992), ''[[A Mouthful of Air]]
* Deacon, Terrence (1998), ''The Symbolic Species'', WW Norton & Co. (ISBN 0-393-31754-4)
* Deutscher, Guy, Dr. (2005), ''The Unfolding of Language'', Metropolitan Books (ISBN 0-8050-7907-6) (ISBN 978-0-8050-7907-4
* Harrison, K. David. (2007) When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge. New York and London: Oxford University Press.
* Hayakawa, Alan R & S. I. (1990), ''Language in Thought and Action'', Harvest. (ISBN 0-15-648240-1)
* [[Steven Pinker|Pinker, Steven]]
** (2000), ''[[The Language Instinct]]'', repr ed., Perennial. (ISBN 0-06-095833-2)
** (2000), ''Words and Rules'', Perennial. (ISBN 0-06-095840-5)
* Rymer, Russ (1992), ''Annals of Science'' in "[http://newyorker.com/ The New Yorker]", 13th April
* Sapir, Edward. ''Language''.
* [[Saussure, Ferdinand de]]. ''[[Course in general linguistics|Cours de linguistique générale]]''.
* White, Lydia (1992), ''Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition''.
 
===Other References===
* Aronoff, Mark & Janie Rees-Miller (Eds.) (2003) ''The Handbook of Linguistics''. Blackwell Publishers. (ISBN 1-4051-0252-7)
* Asher, R. (Ed.) (1993) ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics''. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 10 vols.
* Bright, William (Ed) (1992)  ''International Encyclopedia of Linguistics''. Oxford University Press. 4 Vols.
* Brown, Keith R. (Ed.) (2005) ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'' (2nd ed.). Elsevier. 14 vols.
* Bussmann, H. (1996)  ''Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics''. Routledge (translated from German).
* [[David Crystal|Crystal, David]]
** (1987) ''The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language''.  Cambridge University Press.
** (1991) ''A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Blackwell.  (ISBN 0-631-17871-6)
** (1992) ''An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Language and Languages''.  Oxford: Blackwell.
* Frawley, William (Ed.) (2003) ''International Encyclopedia of Linguistics'' (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
* Malmkjaer, Kirsten (1991) ''The Linguistics Encyclopaedia''. Routledge (ISBN 0-415-22210-9)
* Trask, R. L.
**  (1993) ''A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics''.  Routledge.  (ISBN 0-415-08628-0)
**  (1996) ''Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology''. Routledge.
** (1997) ''A student's dictionary of language and linguistics''.
** (1999) ''Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics''. London: Routledge.
*Pinker, S. (1999). ''How the Mind Works''. New York: Norton.
*Scovel, T. (1997). ''Psycholinguistics''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 
==External links==
{{Wikibookspar|Wikiversity|School of Linguistics}}
* [http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-fields.cfm Subfields according to the Linguistic Society of America]
* [http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/index.htm Glossary of linguistic terms] and [http://www.sil.org/linguistics/glossary_fe/ French<->English glossary] at [[SIL International]]
* [http://www.unizar.es/departamentos/filologia_inglesa/garciala/bibliography.html "Linguistics" section] of A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism and Philology, ed. J. A. García Landa (University of Zaragoza, Spain)
 
== See also ==
<div class="references-2column">
* [[List of basic linguistic topics]]
* [[List of cognitive science topics]]
* [[List of linguistic topics]]
* [[Anthropological linguistics]]
* [[Cognitive linguistics]]
* [[Cognitive science]]
* [[Computational linguistics]]
** [[Machine translation]]
** [[Natural language processing]]
** [[Speaker recognition]] (authentication)
** [[Speech processing]]
** [[Speech recognition]]
** [[Speech synthesis]]
* [[Concept Mining]]
* [[Corpus linguistics]]
* [[Critical discourse analysis]]
* [[Cryptanalysis]]
* [[Decipherment]]
* [[Descriptive linguistics]]
* [[Ecolinguistics]]
* [[Evolutionary linguistics]]
* [[Forensic linguistics]]
* [[Glottometrics]]
{{Col-2-of-2}}
* [[History of linguistics]]
* [[Historical-comparative linguistics]]
* [[Integrational linguistics]]
* [[Intercultural competence]]
* [[Language acquisition]]
* [[Language attrition]]
* [[Language engineering]]
* [[Lexicography]]/[[Lexicology]]
* [[Linguistic typology]]
* [[Metacommunicative competence]]
* [[Neurolinguistics]]
* [[Orthography]]
* [[Second language acquisition]]
* [[Semiotics]]
* [[Sociocultural linguistics]]
* [[Stratificational linguistics]]
* [[Structuralism]]
* [[Text linguistics]]
* [[Writing system]]s
</div>
 
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Language is arguably what most obviously distinguishes humans from all other species. Linguistics involves the study of that system of communication underlying everyday scenes like this.

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Its primary goal is to learn about the 'natural' language that humans use every day and how it works. Linguists ask such fundamental questions as: What aspects of language are universal for all humans? How can we account for the remarkable grammatical similarities between languages as apparently diverse as English, Japanese and Arabic? What are the rules of grammar that we language users employ, and how do we come to 'know' them? To what extent is the structure of language related to how we think about the world around us? A linguist, then, here refers to a linguistics expert who seeks to answer such questions, rather than someone who is multilingual.

Theoretical linguists are concerned with questions about the apparent human 'instinct' to communicate,[1] rather than authorising 'rules' of style or 'correctness' as found in grammar textbooks or popular guides.[2] For example, *dog the[3] is unacceptable in English, but children recognise as much long before they receive any formal grammatical instruction. It is such recognitions, and the implicit rules they imply, that are of primary concern in linguistics, as opposed to rules as prescribed by an authority.

Although interesting in its own right as one of the directions we follow to learn more about ourselves and the world around us, the study of linguistics is also highly relevant to solving real-life problems. Applied linguists may bring their insights to such fields as foreign language teaching, speech therapy and translation.[4] While in universities and research institutions worldwide, scholars are studying the facts of individual languages or the system of language itself to find evidence for theories or test hypotheses, applied linguists are at work in classrooms, clinics, courts and the highest levels of government. They use their knowledge to bridge linguistic divides, coax speech from the mouths of the disabled or abused, supply forensic evidence in courtroom trials, find out how language comes to children - in fact, they are everywhere people in need or in conflict over language are to be found.

In virtue of the fact stated in the first paragraph, that the primary goal of linguistics "is to learn about the 'natural' language that humans use every day and how it works", we recognize that core areas of linguistics qualify as biological science, a recognition reinforced by the kinds of questions studiers of linguistics ask and seek answers to, detailed in that first and the succeeding two paragraphs.[5]

The study of linguistics

Core areas

Some linguists, such as theoretical syntacticians, focus on one 'core' area. Research may involve developing a model to describe and predict the workings of the system of language itself, rather than explaining how people happen to use language. These 'core' fields together constitute the grammar of a language - not a list of rules in a book, but components the system requires for communication.

PD Image
Levels of linguistic knowledge involved in producing the utterance 'the cats'.

Syntax

For more information, see: Syntax.

Syntax is the study of how units including words and phrases combine into sentences. For example, why is Bill ate the fish acceptable but Ate the Bill fish not? Syntacticians investigate what orders of words make legitimate sentences, how to succinctly account for patterns found across sentences, such as correspondences between active sentences (John threw the ball) and passive sentences (The ball was thrown by John), and some types of ambiguity, as in Visiting relatives can be boring (which has two readings!).

(CC) Photo: Nick Thompson
A lecture in American Sign Language. Phonology and linguistics generally involve the study not just of speech but also sign language; the same system used to represent language, whether by sound or sign, is widely viewed as underlying both. Research into sign language also benefits from the insights of linguists who are themselves native signers.

Phonology

For more information, see: Phonology.

Phonology is the study of the grammatical system speakers use to represent language in the real world, which organises syllable structure, intonation, tone, and - in sign languages - hand movements. A phonologist divides an example of language into its phonological components: for example, English cat appears as a single syllable arranging the segments [k], [æ][6] and [t].[7] Although there are potentially infinitely many ways of producing a sound, shaping a letter or moving a hand, phonologists are interested only in how these group into abstract categories: for example, how and why [k] is often perceived as different from [t], whereas in many languages, other sounds as different as those are not.

Phonetics

For more information, see: Phonetics.

Phonetics focuses on the physical sounds of speech. Phonetics covers speech perception (how the brain discerns sounds), acoustics (the physical qualities of sounds as movement through air), and articulation (voice production through the movements of the lungs, tongue, lips, and other articulators). This area investigates, for instance, the physical realization of speech and how individual sounds differ across languages and dialects. This research plays a large part in computer speech recognition and synthesis.

Morphology

For more information, see: Morphology.

Morphology examines how linguistic units such as words and their subparts (such as prefixes and suffixes) combine. One example of this is the observation that while walk+ed is acceptable, *ed+walk is not, in English, while in other languages such affixes can be found wholly inside the stems they attach to.

Semantics

For more information, see: Semantics (linguistics).

Semantics within linguistics refers to the study of how language conveys meaning.[8] For example, English speakers typically realise that Chomsky's famous sentence Colorless green ideas sleep furiously is well-formed in terms of word order, but incomprehensible in terms of meaning.[9] Other aspects of meaning studied here include how speakers understand certain types of ambiguous sentences such as A student met every professor (a different student, or the same student?), and the extent to which sentences which are superficially very different, such as The wine flowed freely and Much wine was consumed, mean similar things.[10]

Pragmatics

For more information, see: Pragmatics.

Pragmatics is the study of how utterances relate to the context they are spoken in. For instance, the sentence I have two pencils can mean two very different things, depending on whether the speaker has been asked how many pencils he has, in which case the speaker means he has exactly two, or is just confirming that he has at least two (such as in response to Can me and my friend borrow two pencils from you?), leaving open the possibility that he has more. This sort of understanding is not predictable just by knowledge of language; speakers must also know something about the intentions and assumptions of others to co-operate in communication.

Other fields of linguistics

To factor out circumstances that may obscure fundamental insights, many linguists may choose to focus on language as presumed to occur in an idealised, adult, monolingual native speaker - prerequisites often found in mainstream generative linguistics.[11] In contrast, linguists whose research moves away from any of these four criteria may concentrate on fields arranged around the study of language use and learning:

  • Biolinguistics, an interdisciplinary field encompassing and integrating many of the fields below, explores human natural language’s basic properties, development in individuals, use in thinking and communicating, brain implementation, genetic underpinnings, and evolutionary origins.[5]
  • Language acquisition, theoretical or applied study of how linguistic knowledge emerges in children and adults as first or subsequent languages, whether naturalistically (without instruction) or in the classroom;[12]
  • Theoretical linguistics [r]: Core field of linguistics, which attempts to establish the characteristics of the system of language itself by postulating models of linguistic competence common to all humans. [e]
  • Sociolinguistics, the study of how language varies according to cultural context, the speaker's background, and the situation in which it is used;
  • Stylistics, the study of how language differs according to use and context, e.g. advertising versus speech-making;
  • Linguistic variation, the study of the differences among the languages of the world. This has implications for linguistics in general: if human linguistic ability is narrowly constrained, then languages must be very similar. If human linguistic ability is unconstrained, then languages might vary greatly.
  • Computational linguistics has had a great influence on theories of syntax and semantics, as modelling syntactic and semantic theories on computers constrains the theories to computable operations and provides a more rigorous mathematical basis.

Other cross-disciplinary areas of linguistics include neurolinguistics, evolutionary linguistics and cognitive science.

Applied linguistics

Main article: Applied linguistics

Whereas theoretical linguistics is concerned with finding and describing generalities both within particular languages and among all languages, applied linguistics takes these results and applies them to other areas. Often applied linguistics refers to the use of linguistic research in language teaching, but this is just one sub-discipline:

  • Research in language teaching: today, 'applied linguistics' is sometimes used to refer to 'second language acquisition', but these are distinct fields, in that SLA involves more theoretical study of the system of language, whereas applied linguistics concerns itself more with teaching and learning. In their approach to the study of learning, applied linguists have increasingly devised their own theories and methodologies, such as the shift towards studying the learner rather than the system of language itself, in contrast to the emphasis within SLA.[14][15]

Approach to studying language

Modern linguists' methodologies, assumptions and practices differ significantly from those of past generations. One of the most fundamental principles of modern linguistics is that it is descriptive rather than prescriptive: it describes language without judging how people use it. Also, as no language is known to have been written before being spoken, linguists consider spoken rather than written language to be the primary focus. In language acquisition, most researchers agree that language cannot be acquired through imitation; some aspects must be innate. Finally, most modern linguistics focuses on language as used today; however, historical linguistics remains an important sub-field.

Prescription and description

Main article: Linguistic prescriptivism

Linguists seek to clarify the nature of language, to describe how people use it, and to find the underlying grammar that speakers unconsciously adhere to. Linguists do not judge what speech is better or worse syntactically, correct or incorrect grammatically, and do not try to prescribe future language directions. Nonetheless, some professionals and many amateurs do try to prescribe rules of language, holding a particular standard for all to follow.

Prescription comes in two flavours, those that are linguistically founded and those that are not. For instance, the rule of English that subjects and verbs must agree (i.e. that when the subject is third-person singular, the verb takes an "s" ending, like "I/you/they run" but "he runs") can be the basis of linguistically founded prescription, so long as the speaker is intending to speak standard American English. Speakers of standard American English do follow subject-verb agreement, and thus if the intention is to teach that language, this rule should be taught.

However, prescriptivists often stray from this type of linguistically founded recommendation. These prescriptivists tend to be found among the ranks of language educators and journalists, and not in the academic discipline of linguistics. Often considering themselves speakers of the standard form of a particular language, they may hold clear notions of what is right and wrong and what variety of language is most likely to lead the next generation of speakers to 'success'. For example, they may believe that all speakers of what they would call English should follow the same rule of subject-verb agreement, while in fact some varieties of English, which are in a sense distinct languages in their own right, do not do subject-verb agreement the same way. The reasons for their intolerance of non-standard dialects, treating them as "incorrect" , may include distrust of neologisms, connections to socially-disapproved dialects, or simple conflicts with pet theories.

Prescriptivists often also make linguistically unfounded recommendations that seem plausibly true, but which have little linguistic evidence to support them. For instance, the rule against leaving a preposition at the end of a clause or sentence (such as in I met the professor I wrote to) is commonly believed to be 'correct' English.[20] However, speakers of English not only use final prepositions frequently, indicating that it is perfectly natural English to do so, but bringing the preposition to the front may result in a sentence that could well sound ridiculous to any native speaker of English.[21]

Descriptive linguists, on the other hand, do not accept the prescriptivists' notion of 'incorrect usage' in a general sense. They aim to describe the usages the prescriptivist has in mind, either as common or deviant from some linguistic norm, as an idiosyncratic variation, or as regularity (a rule) followed by speakers of some other dialect (in contrast to the common prescriptive assumption that "bad" usage is unsystematic). Within the context of fieldwork, descriptive linguistics refers to the study of language using a descriptivist approach. Descriptivist methodology more closely resembles scientific methodology in other disciplines.

Speech versus writing

(CC) Photo: Nick Thompson
Linguistics examines all forms of language, but the written word is considered at best an incomplete representation of a linguistic system. Linguists generally consider that more fundamental insights can be gleaned into the nature of language by analysing natural, spontaneous speech, rather than assuming the primacy of writing.

Languages have only been written for a few thousand years, but have been spoken (or signed) for much longer. The written word may therefore provide less of a window onto how language works than the study of speech, even assuming that the culture which the language forms part of has a writing system - the majority of the world's languages remain unwritten. Furthermore, the study of written language can play no part in investigating first language acquisition, since infants are obviously yet to become literate. Overall, language is held to be an evolutionary adaptation, whereas writing is a comparatively recent invention. Spoken and signed language, then, may tell us much about human evolution and the structure of the mind.

Of course, linguists also agree that the study of written language can be worthwhile and valuable. For linguistic research that uses the methods of corpus linguistics and computational linguistics, written language is often much more convenient for processing large amounts of linguistic data. Large corpora of spoken language are difficult to create and hard to find, and are typically transcribed and written. Additionally, linguists have turned to text-based discourse occurring in various formats of computer-mediated communication as a viable site for linguistic inquiry. Writing, however, brings with it a number of problems; for example, it often acts as a historical record, preserving words, phrases, styles and spellings of a previous era. This may be of limited use for studying how language is used at the present time.

Innatism

One of the most interesting aspects of language is that normally, young children acquire whatever language is spoken (or signed, in the case of sign language) around them when they are growing up, without apparently being 'taught' the language. By contrast, other animals, even highly intelligent primates that are closely related to humans, need very intensive training to produce even minimally language-like behaviour.[22] Additionally, since children understand and produce utterances which they have never previously experienced, and since they appear to reject ill-formed sentences even at an early age,[23] it has been widely concluded that the infant brain must in some way be ready to acquire any language. 'Nativist' linguists argue that such a system, presumably specified in our genes,[24] must also account for why all languages are fundamentally similar.[25][26]

Historical linguistics

Whereas the core of theoretical linguistics is concerned with studying languages at a particular point in time (usually the present), historical linguistics (or diachronic linguistics) examines how language changes through time, sometimes over centuries. Historical linguistics enjoys both a rich history (the study of linguistics grew out of historical linguistics) and a strong theoretical foundation for the study of language change.

In universities in the USA, the non-historic perspective seems to have the upper hand. Many introductory linguistics classes, for example, cover historical linguistics only cursorily. The shift in focus to a non-historic perspective started with Saussure and became predominant with Noam Chomsky.

In popular culture, one aspect of linguistics which is particularly popular is etymology, the study of word origins. This is related to historical linguistics, in that a word's history is traced over time, but does not form a central component of modern language study; linguistics is more concerned with patterns of change over time and what this has to contribute to an understanding of the nature of language itself.

History of linguistics

For more information, see: History of linguistics.

Questions about language, its origins and nature have been a centre of interest in many civilizations.[27] From ancient times until the 18th century, insights into language mainly involved explaining the grammar of particular languages, such as Sanskrit, or describing changes over time.

Some aspects of modern linguistics can be traced to the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. He was the first to rigorously define language and therefore define what linguistics is, and also introduced the idea of language as a system or structure, which would heavily influence the field. Saussure's work was an early example of how the primary purpose of linguistics became to explain how languages work at one given moment of time and establish how languages work through both empirical evidence and theoretical reasoning. Elsewhere, a primary concern with describing and preserving the grammars of diverse languages continued well into the twentieth century.

From the 1950s, Noam Chomsky and his contemporaries initiated new methods in linguistics, producing explicit theories of grammar[28] - namely, systems that required no reference to other kinds of knowledge. Parallel to this 'Chomskyian' focus on the nature of the linguistic system, concerns about how language was used in society began to mature. In this way, from the 1960s William Labov was a pioneer in studies of sociolinguistics.

Footnotes

  1. ↑ The view that language is an 'instinct' comparable to walking or birdsong is most famously articulated in Pinker (1994).
  2. ↑ A popular recent example is Truss (2003).
  3. ↑ An asterisk (*) indicates that what follows is unacceptable to speakers of that language.
  4. ↑ Increasingly, however, applied linguists have been developing their own views of language, which often focus on the language learner rather than the system itself: see for example Cook (2002) and the same author's website.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Di Sciullo AM, Boeckx C. (editors) (2011) The Biolinguistic Enterprise: New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199553270. | Google Books preview.
  6. ↑ Pronounced 'ash'.
  7. ↑ Symbols in square brackets represent speech sounds using the International Phonetic Alphabet; slanting brackets, as in /kæt/ 'cat', are used to represent phonemes - distinct, abstract units that may represent several sounds or written letters.
  8. ↑ The term elsewhere has a rather wider application, referring to the study of meaning itself, in fields such as philosophy.
  9. ↑ Chomsky, 1957: 15.
  10. ↑ Aitchison (2003: 87-99).
  11. ↑ 'Generative' linguistics' is most strongly associated with Chomsky (1957) and subsequent works.
  12. ↑ 'Acquisition' is a highly diverse field; as well as theoretical linguists studying the linguistic system itself through first language development and second language acquisition (SLA), applied linguists may examine mainly classroom learning and learners' experiences. Also, language teaching practice is the concern of education specialists outside linguistics. In any one study linguists' backgrounds and research orientations may overlap considerably, and there is little consensus even on fundamentals, such as the extent to which explicit instruction in presumed 'rules' of grammar can truly promote learning.
  13. ↑ e.g. Pinker, 1997; Scovel, 1997.
  14. ↑ The applied linguist Vivian Cook has, for example, introduced the term L2 user as distinct from L2 learner (see Cook's page: Background to the L2 User Perspective). The former are active users of the language; the latter those who learn for later use. Cook's view also severs a link to SLA, in that a user's language ability is seen not as an approximation towards native speakers' competence, but as a system in its own right.
  15. ↑ See also Wei (2007) for an appeal to focus on the learner rather than the system.
  16. ↑ The most famous case is Genie, an individual who was deprived of language throughout much of her childhood.
  17. ↑ Bishop (2006).
  18. ↑ Castagnaro (2006), for review.
  19. ↑ Grunwell (1997).
  20. ↑ Linguists sometimes refer to this rule as preposition stranding, since in I met the professor I wrote to the preposition's object (the professor in I wrote to the professor) has been left behind once the object has been moved. When a preposition is also moved to a non-final position, as in I met the professor to whom I wrote, this is called pied-piping or wh-movement, since words that can move can typically be replaced by words beginning with wh- (who, what, etc.).
  21. ↑ This rule is famously criticised in a quotation attributed to former British prime minister Winston Churchill: "This is the sort of English up with which I will not put."
  22. ↑ Furthermore, the anthropological linguist Charles Hockett advanced the theory that a collection of design features, such as 'creativity' (speakers can produce novel utterances) collectively made language unique to humans. Some other species may make use of one or two of these (such as 'use of sound signals'), but never enough to use language (Hockett (1960); Aitchison (2003: 13-20). See also the phonetician John Coleman's webpage comparing different species according to design features.
  23. ↑ Chomsky (1957) strongly emphasised that this 'creative' aspect of language entailed that language could not simply be a product of a child's responses to their environment - a view usually associated with behaviourism and applied to language in Skinner (1957). Chomsky (1959) is a highly critical review of that work that was instrumental in moving linguistics away from such 'behaviourist' analyses of language use.
  24. ↑ e.g. Pinker (1994) makes an analogy between language and spiders' webs: spiders spin webs because their genes compel them to, though without the right environment no webs will appear. To that can be added that each web would be different, though following the same basic, innately guided webspinning template.
  25. ↑ The linguist Joseph H. Greenberg famously identified a series of universals of language (Greenberg, 1966); namely, 'laws' that seem to apply to all linguistic communication. One example is that all languages appear to have nouns and verbs, even though a language without verbs would be communicatively adequate (e.g. nominalized English).
  26. ↑ Ironically, neither Greenberg nor Hockett, whose work provided such important evidence for the 'nativist' position, themselves supported such a view. Greenberg was a typologist and empirical linguist interested in historical linguistics and what the similarities between languages suggested about the nature of language itself; his work has been seen as functionalist in its principles. Hockett was firmly in the pre-Chomskyan structuralist camp, and vigorously attacked the emerging school of generativism throughout his career. See William Croft's obituary for Joseph H. Greenberg and a copy of the New York Times obituary for Charles F. Hockett at linguistlist.org.
  27. ↑ For example, the early Indian grammarian Pāṇini's (ca 520–460 BCE) examined Sanskrit and produced several insights into the nature of grammar, such as the morpheme, which remain highly relevant in modern research.
  28. ↑ Chomsky (1957); Chomsky and Halle (1968).
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