What is linguistics?

Linguistics is defined as the scientific study of language .It is the systematic study of
the elements of language and the principles governing their combination and
organization. Linguistics provides for experimentation with the elements or aspects
of language that are actually in use by the speech community.
Linguistics has two major aims:
i. to study the nature of language and establish a theory of language and
ii. to describe a language and all languages by applying the theory established.
SCIENTIFIC NATURE OF LINGUISTICS

 Linguistics is based on observation and the data collected thereby from the
users of the language, a scientific analysis is made by the investigator and at
the end of it he comes out with a satisfactory explanation relating to his field
of study.
Linguistics tries to answer the basic
questions:

 What is language?
 How does language work?
 What do all languages have in common?
 What range of variation is found among languages?
 How does human language differ from animal language?
 How does a child learn to speak?
 How does one write down and analyze an unwritten language?
 Why do languages change?
 To what extent are social class differences reflected in language?
What is a linguist?

 Linguists are experts need not be fluent in languages, though they must have
a wide experience of different types of languages. It is more important for
them to analyse and explain linguistics phenomena such as the Turkish vowel
system, or German verbs, than to make themselves understand in Istanbul or
Berlin. They are skilled, objective observer rather than participants-
consumers of languages rather than producers.
What is traditional grammar?

 The term traditional grammar refers to the collection of prescriptive rules

and concepts about the structure of language that is commonly taught in
schools.
 Traditional grammar defines what is and is not correct in the English
language, not accounting for culture or modernizing in favor of maintaining
tradition.
How does linguistics differ from
traditional grammar?
 1. Linguistics is descriptive, not prescriptive. Linguists are interested in what
is said, not what they think ought to be said. They describe language in all its
aspects, but do not prescribe rules of ‘correctness’.
 Linguistics takes a descriptive approach to language: it tries to explain things
as they actually are, not as we wish them to be. When we study language
descriptively, we try to find the unconscious rules that people follow when
they say things. The schoolbook approach to language is typically
prescriptive. It tries to tell you how you should speak and write.
How does linguistics differ from
traditional grammar?
 2. Linguistics regard the spoken language as primary, not the written. In the
past, grammarians have overstressed the importance of the written word,
partly because of its permanence.
 Linguists look first at the spoken word, which preceded the written
everywhere in the world. Moreover, most writing systems are derived from
the vocal sounds. Linguists regard spoken and written forms as belonging to
different, though overlapping systems, which must be analyzed separately:
the spoken first, then the written.
How does linguistics differ from
traditional grammar?
 3. Linguistics does not force languages into a Latin based framework. In the
past, many traditional textbooks have assumed unquestioningly that Latin
provides a universal framework into which all languages fit, and countless
schoolchildren have been confused by meaningless attempts to force English
into foreign patterns.
 Linguists are opposed to the notion that any one language can provide an
adequate framework for all the others. They are trying to set up a universal
framework. And there is no reason why this should resemble the grammar
Latin, or the grammar of any other language arbitrarily selected from the
thousands spoken by humans.
 The scope of Linguistics
 Linguistics cover a wide range of topics:
 Phonetics
 Phonology
 Morphology
 Syntax
 Semantics
 Pragmatics
 Sociolinguistics
 Psycholinguistics
 Applied Linguistics
 Computational Linguistics
 Stylistics
 Philosophical Linguistics
 Anthropological Linguistics



 In the centre is Phonetics, the study of human speech sound.
 A good knowledge of phonetics is useful for a linguist. Explain?

 Phonetics is a basic background knowledge, rather than part of linguistics

itself. Phoneticians are concerned with the actual physical sounds, the raw
material out of which language is made. They study the position of the
tongue, teeth and vocal cords during the production of sound, and record and
analyze the sound wave.
 Linguists are more interested in the way in which language is patterned.
They analyze the shape or form of these patterns rather than the physical
substance out of which the units of language are made. The famous Swiss
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, expressed the difference well when he
compared language with a game of chess. The linguist is interested in the
various moves which the chessmen make and how they are aligned on the
board. It does not matter whether the chessmen are made of wood or ivory.
Their substance does not alter the rules of the game.
 is surrounded by (sound patterning), the study of the
sound systems of languages and the function of sounds. Then is
surrounded by . The term is used to refer to both the
arrangement and the form of words (grammar and morphology). It is that
part of language which links together the sound patterns and the meaning.
(study of meaning) is placed outside . ,
and are the ‘bread and butter’ of linguistics. Together they
constitute the grammar of a language.
 Around the central grammatical hub comes , which deals with
how speakers use language in ways which cannot be predicted from linguistic
knowledge alone.
Branches of linguistics which link
language with the external world: -
 Psycholinguistics (the study of language and mind)
 Sociolinguistics (the study of language and society)
 Applied linguistics (the application of linguistics to language teaching)
 Computational linguistics (the use of computers to stimulate language and its
workings)
 Stylistics (the study of language and literature)
 Anthropological linguistics (the study of language in cross-cultural settings)
 Philosophical linguistics (the link between language and logical thought
 Historical Linguistics (The study of language change or language development
over time, also know as diachronic linguistics).

 Synchronic linguistics is the analysis of language at a single point in time and

is usually dealt with before diachronic linguistics.