Linguistics: The scientific study of language and its structure, including the study

of grammar, syntax, and phonetics. It studies how language 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. How words are arranged in a certain order.
Linguistics is the study of all of this.
 What distinguishes human language from other animal communication
systems?
What features are common to all human languages?
 How are the modes of linguistic communication (speech, writing, sign
language) related to each other?
 How is language related to other types of human behavior?
 There are various branches of linguistics: Phonetics, Phonology,
Morphology, Semantics, Syntax, Grammar, Discourse analysis etc.
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 and listening to sounds.
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.
 Morphology studies how individual words are formed from smaller chunks
of meaningful units called morphemes. For example, the English word 'un-
tie-d' is really made up of three parts, one referring to the process of
reversing an action (un-), one indicating the action of twisting string like
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 is the study of words. Morphemes are the minimal units
of words that have a meaning and cannot be subdivided further. ...
An example of a free morpheme is "bad", and an example of a bound
morpheme is "ly." It is bound because although it has meaning, it cannot
stand alone. Mis-man-age-ment
What are Morphemes?
Definition
A "morpheme" is a short segment of language that meets three basic criteria:
1. It is a word or a part of a word that has meaning.
2. It cannot be divided into smaller meaningful segments without changing
its meaning or leaving a meaningless remainder.
3. It has relatively the same stable meaning in different verbal environments.
Free and Bound Morphemes
There are two types of morphemes-free morphemes and bound morphemes.
"Free morphemes" can stand alone with a specific meaning, for
example, eat, date, weak. "Bound morphemes" cannot stand alone with
meaning. Morphemes are comprised of two separate classes called (a) bases
(or roots) and (b) affixes.
A "base," or "root" is a morpheme in a word that gives the word its principle
meaning. An example of a "free base" morpheme is woman in the
word womanly. An example of a "bound base" morpheme is -sent in the
word dissent.
Affixes
An "affix" is a bound morpheme that occurs before or after a base. An affix
that comes before a base is called a "prefix." Some examples of prefixes
are ante-, pre-, un-, and dis-, as in the following words:
antedate
prehistoric
unhealthy
disregard
An affix that comes after a base is called a "suffix." Some examples of suffixes
are -ly, -er, -ism, and -ness, as in the following words:
happily
gardener
capitalism
kindness
Derivational Affixes
An affix can be either derivational or inflectional. "Derivational affixes" serve
to alter the meaning of a word by building on a base. In the examples of
words with prefixes and suffixes above, the addition of the
prefix un- to healthy alters the meaning of healthy. The resulting word
means "not healthy." The addition of the suffix -er to garden changes the
meaning of garden, which is a place where plants, flowers, etc., grow, to a
word that refers to 'a person who tends a garden.' It should be noted
that all prefixes in English are derivational. However, suffixes may be either
derivational or inflectional.
Inflectional Affixes
There are a large number of derivational affixes in English. In contrast, there
are only eight "inflectional affixes" in English, and these are all suffixes.
English has the following inflectional suffixes, which serve a variety of
grammatical functions when added to specific types of words. These
grammatical functions are shown to the right of each suffix.
-s noun plural
-'s noun possessive
-s verb present tense third person singular
-ing verb present participle/gerund
-ed verb simple past tense
-en verb past perfect participle
-er adjective comparative
-est adjective superlative

English Grammar and Syntax defines the two as follows: Grammar is a set of
rules that set forth the correct standard of usage in a language. ... Syntax is the
study of sentences and their structure, and the constructions within
sentences. Syntax tells us what goes where in a sentence.
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.

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.
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between words,
phrases and other bits of language and on how these words and phrases connect
to the world. Semantics is the study and analysis of how language is used
figuratively and literally to produce meaning. Colourless green ideas sleep
furiously. Deer, Husband from Husbondi.
IPA is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the
Latin alphabet. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the
late 19th century as a standardized representation of the sounds of spoken
language.
The IPA is designed to represent only those qualities of speech that are part
of oral language: phones, phonemes, intonation and the separation of words and
syllables. IPA symbols are composed of one or more elements of two basic types,
letters and diacritics. For example, the sound of the English letter ⟨t⟩ may be
transcribed in IPA with a single letter, [t], or with a letter plus diacritics, [t̺ʰ],
depending on how precise one wishes to be. ᶦOften, slashes are used to signal
broad or phonemic transcription; thus, /t/ is less specific than, and could refer to,
either [t̺ʰ] or [t], depending on the context and language. Occasionally letters or
diacritics are added, removed or modified by the International Phonetic
Association. As of the most recent change in 2005, there are 107 letters, 52
diacritics and four prosodic marks in the IPA.
Primary and Secondary Stress (accent) : If any word contains more than
one syllable, the most important syllable is marked with a vertical bar [ᶦ] above it.
The second most important syllable is marked with secondary stress below the
syllable. For e.g. [ᶦ ]
Etymology: is the study of the history of words. By extension, the phrase "the
etymology of [a word]" means the origin of a particular word. ... In this way, word
roots in European languages, for example, can be traced all the way back to the
origin of the Indo-European language family. a chronological account of the birth
and development of a particular word or element of a word, often delineating its
spread from one language to another and its evolving changes in form and
meaning.
Lexicology is the part of linguistics that studies words. This may include
their nature and function as symbols, their meaning, the relationship of their
meaning to epistemology in general, and the rules of their composition from
smaller elements (morphemes such as the English -ed marker for past or un- for
negation; and phonemes as basic sound units). Lexicology also involves relations
between words, which may involve semantics (for example, love vs. affection),
derivation (for example, fathom vs. unfathomably), use and sociolinguistic
distinctions (for example, flesh vs. meat), and any other issues involved in
analyzing the whole lexicon of a language.
 Lingua Franca: A lingua franca is any language used for communication
between people who do not share a native language. It can be a mixed language
such as a pidgin or creole used for communication between language groups.
Lingua franca is a functional term, independent of any linguistic history or
language structure. A lingua franca is also known as a bridge language, common
language, trade language, auxiliary language, or link language. It is a language
or dialect systematically used to make communication possible between groups
of people who do not share a native language or dialect, particularly when not
one of the speakers' native languages.
First Language: Second Language: Foreign Language: Language Acquisition:
Dialect: