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    What Is Linguistics?

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    Dean Wynx
    Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It involves describing and explaining how languages work, how they are acquired and processed in the brain, and how they are used socially. The main divisions of linguistics are formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and applied linguistics. Formal linguistics studies the structures and systems of language, sociolinguistics examines language in its social and cultural context, psycholinguistics investigates language processing in the brain, and applied linguistics applies linguistic findings to areas like language teaching.

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    What Is Linguistics?

    Uploaded by

    Dean Wynx
    29 views33 pages
    Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It involves describing and explaining how languages work, how they are acquired and processed in the brain, and how they are used socially. The main divisions of linguistics are formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and applied linguistics. Formal linguistics studies the structures and systems of language, sociolinguistics examines language in its social and cultural context, psycholinguistics investigates language processing in the brain, and applied linguistics applies linguistic findings to areas like language teaching.

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    Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It involves describing and explaining how languages work, how they are acquired and processed in the brain, and how they are used socially. The main divisions of linguistics are formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and applied linguistics. Formal linguistics studies the structures and systems of language, sociolinguistics examines language in its social and cultural context, psycholinguistics investigates language processing in the brain, and applied linguistics applies linguistic findings to areas like language teaching.

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    29 views33 pages

    What Is Linguistics?

    Uploaded by

    Dean Wynx
    Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It involves describing and explaining how languages work, how they are acquired and processed in the brain, and how they are used socially. The main divisions of linguistics are formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and applied linguistics. Formal linguistics studies the structures and systems of language, sociolinguistics examines language in its social and cultural context, psycholinguistics investigates language processing in the brain, and applied linguistics applies linguistic findings to areas like language teaching.

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    You are on page 1of 33

    What is

    linguistics?
    The discipline which studies
    human language
    (Widdowson 1996)

    What is human language?

    What does its study involve?


    Scientific study of language
    (Boey 1975)

    Language analysis is done


    scientifically
    Done within the framework of some general
    theory of language structure
    A social science that shares common
    ground with other social sciences such
    as psychology, anthropology, sociology
    and archaeology

    May influence other


    disciplines – English
    communication studies,
    computer science
    A cognitive science

    ultimately concerned with


    how the human brain
    functions
    To describe and explain the complexities of
    language
    O
    B Not concerned with the prescriptive rules
    J of language
    E
    To discover the universals concerning
    C
    language
    T
    I
    Common elements of all languages
    V
    E
    S To place the elements in a theoretical framework
    that will describe all languages and determine what
    cannot occur in a language.
    Scope

    • shared social
    code
    langue • the abstract
    system
    Ferdinand de
    • particular
    Saussure
    actualities of
    parole individual
    utterance
    Scope

    • changes in
    diachronic language over
    time
    Ferdinand de
    Saussure
    synchronic • changes in
    language at a
    particular time
    Scope

    • the knowledge that native speakers


    have of their language as a system
    competence of abstract formal relations
    • knowledge of grammatical form, of
    syntax

    Noam
    Chomsky
    performanc • the actual behavior of native
    e speakers
    knowing a Linguistics is
    language essentially the
    Competence means more Linguistic form is study of how
    includes both than knowing functionally languages
    knowledge and the form but motivated mean, how
    ability knowing the they are
    functions too functionally
    informed
    Knowledge:
    linguistic competence

    Ability:
    the executive branch of competence
    which enables us to achieve meaning
    by putting our knowledge to work
    Communicative competence

    Linguistic Sociolinguistic Discourse Strategic Pragmatic


    competence competence competence competence competence
    Major divisions of linguistics
    1. Formal linguistics

    the study of the structures and processes of


    language, that is, how language works and is
    organized

    studies the structures of different languages,


    and by identifying and studying the elements
    common among them, seek to discover the
    most efficient way to describe language in
    general
    Three main schools of thoughts in formal linguistics:

    traditional • prescribes rules of correct or


    prescriptive preferred usage

    • concerned with phonology, morphology, and syntax


    Structural • focuses on the physical features of utterances with little
    linguistics regard for meaning or lexicon
    • divide words into form classes

    • traced a relationship between the


    Generative/ "deep structure" of sentences (what
    is in the mind) and their "surface
    transformational
    structure" (what is spoken or
    written).
    Five areas of study in formal linguistics

    Phonetics
    Phonology
    Morphology
    Syntax
    Semantics
    2. Sociolinguistics

    the study of language


    as a social and
    cultural phenomenon
    Major divisions

    Language
    variation describes the relationship
    between the use of
    linguistic forms and
    factors such as geography,
    social class, ethnic group,
    age, sex, occupation,
    function, or style
    Major divisions

    Language
    and social
    interaction
    Function of language in the real world
    Subfields

    Discourse analysis - Ethnography of


    examines the way in communication -
    Pragmatics – how which sentences uses the tools of
    relate in larger anthropology to
    contexts affect linguistic units, such
    meaning study verbal
    as conversational interaction in its
    exchanges or written social setting
    texts
    Subfields

    Language attitudes – Language planning - the


    attitudes of people process of implementing
    towards varieties of major decisions regarding
    languages and the people which languages should be
    who speak them used on a societal scale
    3. Psycholinguistics

    the study of the relationship between


    linguistic and psychological behavior

    Psycholinguists study first and second


    language acquisition and how humans
    store and retrieve linguistic information
    3. Psycholinguistics

    Language acquisition – how


    humans acquire language

    Verbal processing – involves


    speaking, understanding,
    reading and writing
    4. Applied Linguistics

    Findings of linguistics can be applied to the


    solution of some problems as well as to
    innovations in everyday areas involving language:

    Teaching methodologies, Literacy programs


    Language planning, Developing teaching
    methodologies for non-native speakers,
    Developing alphabets and grammars for unwritten
    languages
    The Relevance
    of Linguistics
    1. A teachers who has been exposed to linguistics will
    be more aware of the nature of language and how
    it works.
     A language teacher becomes more competent in
    his job
    2. Linguistics can provide a rigorous description of the
    language to be taught as well as the native
    language.
     The more comprehensive, the clearer the
    description, the more insights it will provide as
    the basis for the preparation of language
    teaching materials
    3. Linguistics can be the source of assumptions and
    has certain implications for language teaching
     Assumptions should be put to the test in actual
    teaching situations
    Linguistics and language
    teaching
    Is linguistics a creation of the 20th century?
     Linguistics in the context of language teaching is
    represented as a development of our time.
     The word linguistics was first used in England in
    1837
     Henry Sweet and Otto Jespersen, linguistics
    scholars, have tried to infuse the findings of
    linguistics into language teaching for nearly a
    hundred years
    Western Europe
     There were attempts to make language teaching
    reforms
    1. Henry Sweet – How to teach a Foreign Language
    (1904)
    USA
     Linguistics came into language teaching only at the
    beginning of the WWII.
     Linguists were asked to produce teaching materials
    and methods of language learning
     Leonard Bloomfield – Outline Guide for the
    Practical Study of Foreign Languages (1942)
     Block and Trager – Outline of Linguistic Analysis
    (1942)
     Audio-lingual Method – used after the war

     Paul Roberts (1956) – Patterns of English

     Robert Lado (1957) – Linguistics Across Cultures

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