FFA 222 Lecture 1

Introduction to Linguistics
Lecture 1
What is Linguistics?
•
Linguistics is a scienti ic study of languages
The main goal of linguistics, like all other intellectual disciplines, is to increase our knowledge and understanding of the world.
Since language is universal and fundamental to all human interactions, the knowledge attained in linguistics has many practical
applications. Linguists, with some training in other appropriate disciplines, are thus prepared to seek answers to questions such as:
• How can a previously unstudied language be analyzed and written?

• How can foreign languages best be taught and learned?
• How can speech be synthesized on a computer or how can a computer be programmed to understand human speech?
• How can the language problems of people with speech abnormalities be analyzed and recti ed?
• How are linguistic issues in legal matters to be handled?
• 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 behaviour?
•
f
fi
Linguistics is the scienti c study of language and its
structure, including the study of grammar, syntax,
morphology, phonology and phonetics. Speci c
branches of linguistics include sociolinguistics,
psycholinguistics, computational linguistics,
comparative and structural linguistics
fi
fi
What is Language?
Linguistic communication
• System of communication -based upon words and the combination of words into sentences.
• Communication by means of language may be referred to as linguistic communication
(verbal communication)
• Language – is an exclusively human property
• Non-linguistic ways of communication are non verbal ways of communication. For example:
• Chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans can exchange different kinds of information by emitting different kinds of
shrieks, composing their faces in numerous ways, and moving their hands or arms in different gestures, but they
do not have words and sentences.
• By moving in certain patterns, bees are apparently able to tell their fellow workers where to nd honey, but
apparently not very much else. Birds sing different songs, whose main functions are to defend their territory or to
attract a mate.
fi
•Henry Sweet, an English phonetician and language scholar, stated: “Language is the expression of
ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words. Words are combined into sentences, this
combination answering to that of ideas into thoughts.”
•The American linguists Bernard Bloch and George L. Trager formulated the following de nition: “A
language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates.”
fi
Language is a system of systems
Mind map
• Language is a system and complex as organs of the human body.

• These various organs are interconnected and work in coordination. Similarly, the systems
of a language function through sound, words and structure.
• While someone says, “My friend is reading a book” he uses language, he uses sounds (m,
ai, f, r, e, n, d, z, r, I’d, I, t], a, b, u, k), words (my, friend, is, reading, a book) and an
accepted sentence pattern (SvVo). He could not communicate if he were to use only of
the elements of language.
• It should be taught and learnt as a system.
• Language is a system of phonetics, grammar and vocabulary, which in themselves are
systems.
Microlinguistics
• Phonetics is the scienti c study of speech sounds. It studies how speech sounds are
articulated, transmitted, and received.
• Phonology is the study of how speech sounds function in a language, it studies the ways
speech sounds are organized. It can be seen as the functional phonetics of a particular
language.
• Morphology is the study of the formation of words. It is a branch of linguistics which
breaks words into morphemes. Grammar of words.
• Syntax deals with the combination of words into phrases, clauses and sentences. It is the
grammar of sentence structure.
• Semantics is the study of meaning in all its formal aspects.
• Pragmatics is the study of language in use. It deals with how speakers use language in
ways which cannot be predicted, how we decode the intended meanin of speakers.
fi
Macrolinguistics
• Sociolinguistics studies the relationship between language and society. How social factors in uence the
structure and use of language.
• Psycholinguistics is the sttudy of Language and mind: the mental structures and processes which are
involved in the acquisition, comprehension and production of language.
• Neurolinguistics is the study of language processing and language representation in the brain.
• Computational linguistics is computational modelling of natural language.
• Cognitive Linguistics is an approach to the analysis of natural language that focuses on language as an
instrument for organizing, processing, and conveying information.
• Applied linguistics is concerned wiith the application of linguistic theories, methods and ndings to the
elucidation of language problems which have arisen in other ares of experience.
• Discourse analysis is the study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which language is
used.
• Stylistics is the study of how literary e ects can be related to linguistic features. It usually refers to the
study of written language, including literary text.
ff
fi
fl
Mind map
Group project
• Use mindmeister to create your mind map of Linguistics.

• You should:
• Include all branches and de nitions.
• Full ll your mindmap after each lecture and seminar classes.
• See the syllabus for the assessment criterias.
fi
fi

FFA 222 Lecture 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

FFA 222 Lecture 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

FFA 222 Lecture 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Introduction to Linguistics

• How can a previously unstudied language be analyzed and written?

• Language is a system and complex as organs of the human body.

• Use mindmeister to create your mind map of Linguistics.

You might also like