What is Linguistics?
Each human language is a complex of knowledge and abilities enabling speakers of the language to communicate with each other, to express ideas, hypotheses, emotions, desires, and all the other things that need expressing. Linguistics is the study of these knowledge systems in all their aspects.
Because language is such a central feature of being a human, Linguistics has intellectual connections and overlaps with many other disciplines in the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences. Some of the closest connections are with Philosophy, Literature, Language Pedagogy, Psychology, Sociology, Physics (acoustics), Biology (anatomy, neuroscience), Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Health Sciences (Aphasia, Speech Therapy).
The main purpose of the study of Linguistics in an academic environment is the advancement of knowledge. However, because of the centrality of language in human interaction and behavior, the knowledge gained through the study of linguistics has many practical consequences and uses.
Linguistics is the study of language - how it is put together and how it functions. Various building blocks of different types and sizes are combined to make up a language. Sounds are brought together and sometimes when this happens, they change their form and do interesting things. Words are arranged in a certain order, and sometimes the beginnings and endings of the words are changed to adjust the meaning. Then the meaning itself can be affected by the arrangement of words and by the knowledge of the speaker about what the hearer will understand. Linguistics is the study of all of this.
Linguists are people who study linguistics.
"Linguistics is concerned with human language as a universal and recognizable part of human behavior and of the human abilities." Raja T. Nasr (1984).
"Linguistics is competence as being a persons potential to speak a language, and his or her linguistics performance as the realization of that potential." Monica Crabtree & Joyce Powers (1994).
There are various branches of linguistics which are given their own name, some of which are described below:
1. -General linguistic, generally describes the concepts and categories of a particular language or among all language. It also provides analyzed theory of the language.
-Descriptive linguistic describes or gives the data to confirm or refute the theory of particular language explained generally.
2. 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
Phonetics is the study of the sounds of speech. It includes understanding how sounds are made using the mouth, nose, teeth and tongue, and also understanding how the ear hears those sounds and can tell them apart. A study of phonetics involves practicing producing (sometimes exotic) sounds, and figuring out which sound you heard. The wave form of each sound can be analysed with the help of computer programs. In sign language, phonetics refers to the the possible shapes, movements and use of physical space.
-Phonology
Phonology makes use of the phonetics in order to see how sounds or signs are arranged in a system for each language. In phonology, it matters whether sounds are contrastive or not, that is, whether substituting one sound for another gives a different, or "contrastive," meaning. For example in English, [r] and [l] are two different sounds - and the words "road" and "load" differ according to which of these sounds is used. But in some languages, [r] and [l] are variations of the same sound. They could never make a meaning difference in words that differ by only that sound. Phonologists describe the contrastive consonants and vowels in a language, and how pronunciation is affected by the position of the sound in the word and the sounds that are nearby. They are also interested in syllables, phrases, rhythm, tone, and intonation.
-Morphology
Morphology looks at how individual words are formed from smaller chunks of meaningful units called morphemes. For example, the English word 'untied' is really made up of three parts, one refering to the process of reversing an action (un-), one indicating the action of twisting stringlike things together so they stay (tie), and the last indicating that the action happened in the past (-d). Many languages have a much more complex way of putting words together. Morphology interacts in important ways with both phonology (bringing sounds together can cause them to change) and syntax, which needs to pay attention to the form of a word when it combines it with other words.
-Syntax
Syntax is the study of how phrases, clauses and sentences are constructed and combined in particular languages. Writing a grammar requires defining the rules that govern the structure of the sentences of the language. Such rules involve both the order of words, and the form of words in their various possible positions. There are common patterns among even unrelated languages, and many linguists believe this is the result of general principles which apply to most, if not all, languages. For example, languages where the direct object generally follows the verb have a lot of things in common, in contrast to the things in common held by languages in which the direct object generally precedes the verb.
-Semantic
Semantics is the study of how meaning is conveyed through signs and language. Linguistic semantics focuses on the history of how words have been used in the past. General semantics is about how people mean and refer in terms of likely intent and assumptions. These three kinds of semantics: Formal, Historical, and General-Semantics are studied in many different branches of science (methods of studying meaning vary widely). Understanding how facial expressions, body language, and tone affect meaning, and how words, phrases, sentences, and punctuation relate to meaning are examples of Semantics. Denotations are the literal or primary meaning[s] of [a] word[s]. Connotations are ideas or feelings that a word invokes for a person in addition to its literal or primary meaning. During the 19th century, Philosopher John Stuart Mill defined semantic meaning with the words "denotation" and "connotation".[2] The original use of "meaning" as understood early in the 20th century occurred through Lady Welby, after her daughter translated the term "semantics" from French.
-Pragmatics
Pragmatics is the study of how context affects meaning. The two primary forms of context important to pragmatics are linguistic context and situation context.
þ Linguistic context is how meaning is understood without relying on intent and assumptions. In applied pragmatics, for example, meaning is formed through sensory experiences, even though sensory stimulus cannot be easily articulated in language or signs. Pragmatics, then, reveals that meaning is both something affected by and affecting the world. Meaning is something contextual with respect to language and the world, and is also something active toward other meanings and the world. Linguistic context becomes important when looking at particular linguistic problems such as that of pronouns.
þ Situation context refers to every non-linguistic factor that affects the meaning of a phrase. An example of situation context can be seen in the phrase "it's cold in here", which can either be a simple statement of fact or a request to turn up the heat, depending on, among other things, whether or not it is believed to be in the listener's power to affect the temperature.
-Discourse analysis
Discourse analysis looks at bigger chunks of language - texts, conversations, stories, speeches, etc. Different types of these use language differently, and there can even be differences in how a language is used based on the genre. For example, "Once upon a time" is an appropriate start to a fairy tale, but not to a news story on the evening news. Discourse features can also show important principles of organization such as which players in a story have key roles and which just have bit parts.
3. 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:
-Historical Linguistics
Historical Linguistics is the study of how languages have changed over time. Some changes happen because of slow (maybe incremental) changes within the language, such as in pronunciation or in the meaning of a word. Other changes happen because of contact with speakers of other languages. The most well know example of this is "borrowing," but language contact can cause other types of change as well. It can be interesting to compare phonology, syntax and word lists of similar or geographically close languages to see how similar they are. Some linguists then use this information to figure out the past of the languages, such as when two languages split from each other. Combined with other known facts about the speakers of the language, it can lead to important discoveries about their history.
-Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the study of society and language. Sociolinguists may use surveys to examine in which contexts a language is used (e.g. market, home, school, workplace) and the attitudes to each language (particularly in multilingual contexts). They may look at ways that variation in a particular language correlates with social factors such as speaker age, ethnic identity, location, etc.
CONCLUDING :
As we are learn language, we learn to classify. In linguistics, we use language to classify language and this is by no means an easy task. However scientific we may try to be, we carry to our study many of the experiences and attitudes we absorbed as we acquired our mother tongue. Because of this we can never be as objective about language as we can be about the objects we classify by means of language.
-Sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the study of society and language. Sociolinguists may use surveys to examine in which contexts a language is used (e.g. market, home, school, workplace) and the attitudes to each language (particularly in multilingual contexts). They may look at ways that variation in a particular language correlates with social factors such as speaker age, ethnic identity, location, etc.
