linguistics1

Every normal human being can speak at least one language fluently. Every normal infant is born with the ability to learn a language and usually does so before entering school. This is really quite remarkable, yet most speakers of a language do not stop to analyze what they are doing when they talk. Such inquiry into the actual workings of language is the basis of linguistics, which is the scientific study of language.

A distinction may be drawn between theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics. Theoretical linguistics covers the various types and theories of language analysis. Applied linguistics, on the other hand, refers to the use of linguistic principles and insights in such areas as language teaching, the preparation of dictionaries, speech therapy, teaching the deaf, and helping government planners develop language policies.

Topics Within Linguistics

Linguistics is not concerned with what is proper and what is not. A linguist would find the fact that some people say "He is taller than me" and others say "He is taller than I" interesting. But one would not be judged as wrong or bad English and the other as proper English. Both versions would simply be recorded as different patterns of English speech. Linguistics covers a wide range of topics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, grammar, semantics, and historical linguistics (language change and classification).

Phonetics includes the description and classification of the actual sounds that speakers produce. A phonetic analysis, for example, will describe how the position of the lips differs when producing the i and u sounds and how the t sound in tar differs from the t in star. In the latter case, if a person holds a tissue before his lips and says tar, the paper will move. It should not move when star is pronounced. There is a puff of air after the t in tar that English speakers do not think of or hear when speaking.

This type of description is called articulatory phonetics because it covers the way the vocal organs articulate, or form, the sounds of language. Acoustic phonetics deals with the sound waves of speech and their measurement on instruments such as the sound spectrograph and the oscilloscope.

Phonology concerns itself with those sounds that can convey different meanings as well as how sounds combine with other sounds. The sounds that distinguish meaning are called phonemes. The vowels in sit, sat, and set in the frame s-t each make a difference in meaning. They are phonemes. The two t sounds in tar and star,however, do not make a difference in meaning and are therefore heard as one sound, or phoneme. The tar, star comparison provides a simple example of what linguistics might uncover: The t with the puff of air always occurs at the beginning of a syllable, and the t without a puff of air always occurs elsewhere.

Morphology is the study of how words are formed. Words are said to be made up of morphemes, the smallest units of meaning in a language. Morphemes can be words that stand alone like fish, girl, and dark as well as word particles like -ed, -s, -ness, and pre- that are attached to words to modify their meaning in some way. Internal sound changes as in ring, rang, and rung or mouse and mice are also included in a language's morphology.

Syntax covers how words along with their endings, prefixes, and internal changes combine into phrases and sentences.

Grammar is a term that often includes only the studies of morphology and syntax. This is usually what is meant by "traditional Latin grammar" or "traditional English grammar." Some people use the word grammar to include phonology and semantics as well (see Grammar).

Semantics is concerned with the meanings of words, word particles, and sentences. A semanticist might discover, for example, that in English the -ing ending on verbs means a process that continues in time or takes some time to do (like riding, drinking, knitting). It cannot, therefore, be added to verbs such as know or want, which do not convey the idea of moving through time. It does not make sense to say John is knowing the answer or Mary is wanting the book.