Linguistics

Linguistics/Introduction
Language is all around us. Language allows us to share

complicated thoughts, negotiate agreements, and make
communal plans. Our learning, our courting, our fighting
all are mediated by language.
You can think of language as atechnology humans
manipulate their bodies to produce sounds, gestures, and
appearances that encode messages using a shared system.
How then does the technology of language work?
Answering this question is surprisingly hard; our language
skills are automatic and therefore hard to reflect upon.
Nevertheless, throughout the centuries, scholars have
devised ways to study human language, although there is
still much more research to be done and many mysteries to
explore. The field of scholarship that tries to answer the
question "How does language work?" is calledlinguistics,
and the scholars who study it are calledlinguists.[1]
How do linguists learn about language?

Linguistics is ascience.[2]This means that linguists answer questions about language
by observing the behavior of language users.
Astronomy has its enormous telescopes, particle physics has its supercolliders, biology
and chemistry have intricate and expensive apparatus, all for learning about their
particular facets of the world. Modern linguists go straight to the source by observing
language users in action. One of the charms of linguistics is that the data is all around
you; you need nothing more than a patient ear and an inquiring mind to do original
linguistic research of your own. But you need not start from scratch generations of
linguists before you have laid a fairly stable groundwork for you to build on.
Throughout the history of linguistics, the primary source of data for linguists have
been thespeech, writing, and intuitionsof language users around them.
This is not the only way one could imagine learning about language. For example, one
could study respected authorities. But this approach raises an obvious question: how
did the respected authorities learn what they knew? If each language were invented
by an ancient sage, who determined once and for all how that language worked, the
authoritative approach would have great appeal. We would go to the writings of the
Founding Sage of Danish, for example, and to the writings of the sage's immediate
disciples, to find out the Original Intent, much as American judges refer to the
Constitution. But, as far as we can tell, this isnothow most languages come to be. We
have ancient authorities in plenty, but in most cases these authorities were merely
trying to codify the practices of the people who seemed to them most skillful in the
use of language. In other words, these authorities were themselves scientific linguists
of a sort: they observed language users and tried to describe their behavior.
Phonetics
Phonetics(pronounced/fntks/, from theGreek:,phn,
'sound, voice') is a branch oflinguisticsthat comprises the study of the
soundsof humanspeech, orin the case ofsign languagesthe
equivalent aspects of sign.[1]It is concerned with the physical properties
of speech sounds or signs (phones): their physiological production,
acoustic properties, auditory perception, and neurophysiological status.
Phonology, on the other hand, is concerned with the abstract,
grammaticalcharacterization of systems of sounds or signs.
The field of phonetics is a multilayered subject oflinguisticsthat
focuses on speech. In the case of oral languages there are three basic
areas of study:
Articulatory phonetics: the study of the production of speech sounds by
the articulatory and vocal tract by the speaker.
Acoustic phonetics: the study of the physical transmission of speech
sounds from the speaker to the listener.
Auditory phonetics: the study of the reception and perception of speech
sounds by the listener.
These areas are inter-connected through the common mechanism of
sound, such as wavelength (pitch), amplitude, and harmonics.
Vowels and Consonants for Linking
To understand linking, it is important

to know the difference between
vowel sounds and consonant sounds.
Here is a table of English vowels and
a
e
i
o
u
v consonants:
o
w
e
l
s
c b c d f g h j k l mn p q r s t v w x y z
o
n
s
o
n
a
n
t
s
The table shows thelettersthat are

vowels and consonants. But the important
thing in linking is thesound, not the letter.
Often the letter and the sound are the
same, but not always.
For example, the wordpayends with:
the consonantlettery
the vowelsounda
Here are some more examples:
uniform
honest
begins with the letter
begins with the sound
Lexicology
Lexicologyis the part oflinguisticswhich studieswords. This may

include their nature and function assymbols,[1]theirmeaning, the
relationship of their meaning toepistemologyin general, and the
rules of their composition from smaller elements (morphemes
such as the English-edmarker for past orun-for negation; and
phonemesas basic sound units). Lexicology also involves relations
between words, which may involvesemantics(for
example,lovevs.affection),derivation(for
example,fathomvs.unfathomably), usage andsociolinguistic
distinctions (for example,fleshvs.meat), and any other issues
involved in analyzing the wholelexiconof a language.
The term first appeared in the 1970s, though there were
lexicologists in essence before the term was coined.
Computational lexicologyas a related field (in the same way
thatcomputational linguisticsis related tolinguistics) deals
with the computational study of dictionaries and their contents.
An allied science to lexicology islexicography, which also studies
words, but primarily in relation with dictionaries it is concerned
with the inclusion of words in dictionaries and from that
perspective with the whole lexicon. Sometimes lexicography is
considered to be a part or a branch of lexicology, but properly

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Linguistics/Introduction

Language is all around us. Language allows us to share

How do linguists learn about language?

Vowels and Consonants for Linking

To understand linking, it is important

The table shows thelettersthat are

begins with the letter

begins with the sound

Lexicologyis the part oflinguisticswhich studieswords. This may

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