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1.0 Mm 2.0 Mm 03 1.0 mm abcdelghOlmnopqrst..111234567890ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 1.5 mm ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890ABCDEFGHLIKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ 2.0 mm abcdefghqklmnopqrstuvwxyz1234567890- DOCUMENT RESUME ED 278 255 FL 016 394 TITLE What Is Linguistics? ERIC Digest. INSTITUTION ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, Washington, D.C. SPONS AGENCY Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC. PUB DATE Dec 86 CONTRACT 400-86-0019 NOTE 4p. PUB TYPE Information Analyses - ERIC Information Analysis Products (071) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC01 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Applied Linguistics; Definitions; Information Sources; *Language Research; *Linguistics; *PsYcholinguistics; *Sociolinguistics; *Structural Analysis (Linguistics); Structural Grammar; Traditional Grammar; Transformational Generative Grammar IDENTIFIERS ERIC Digests ip3 S TRACT Linguistics is the study, of human language,and has several major divisions: formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and applied linguistics. Formal linguisticsis the study of grammar, or the development of theories about howlanguage works 'and is organized. Within formal linguistics thereare three major schools of thought: traditional, structural, and generative/transformational grammar. The principalareas of study within the field,are phonetics, phonology, morphology,syntax, and semantics: Sociolinguistics is the studyof language as a social and cultural phenomenon, and includes the study of language variation, language and Social interaction, language attitudes, and language planning. Psycholinguistics is the study of the relationshipbetween linguistic and psychological behavior, including firstand second language acquisition, the relationship of language and cognition,and the processes by which humans store and retrieve linguistic information. Applied linguistics is concerned with theuse of linguistic research findings for the solution ofpractical problems and for innovation in everyday language matterssuch as language teaching, literacy education, development ofgrammarS and alphabets for unwritten languages, lexicography, legalmatters involving language, and speech synthesis and recognition. (MSE) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best thatcan be made * from t e original document. *************************************************************4******** WHAT IS LINGUISTICS? ERIC CLEARINGHOUSE ON LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS Office of Educational Research and Improvement Washington DC "PERMISSION TO U.S. DEPARTMENT MATERIAL HAS REPRODUCE THIS Ohice of Educational OF EDUCATION BEEN GRANTEDBY Research and EDUCATIONAL Improvement RESOURCES INFORMATION )0"his CENTER (ERIC) document has been received I rom the reproduced as originating it. person or organization 0 Minor changes have been made reproduction quality.. to improve TO THE EDUCATIONAL 6 Points of view RESOURCES ment do notor opiniona statedin this docu INFORMATION necesaarily represent CENTER (ERIC)." OERI positionor policy. official BESI COPY MAILABLE rERICCLEAI9INGHOUSE ON LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS What Is Linguistics? Prepared by the staff of the Center for Applied Linguistics December, 1986 - What is Linguistics? produced by the vocal apparatus (the lung% vocal cord%tongu; teeth, Linguistics is the study of human language.Knowledge of etc.) and provides a framework for their classification. Two practical linguistics, however, is different from knowledge of a language. Just as applications of phonetics are speech synthesis,the reproduction by a person is able to drive a car without understanding the inner workings mechanical means of the sounds produced in human language; and of the en-gine, so, too, can a speaker use a language without any speech recognition, the developing capacity of computers to comprehend conscious knowledge of its internal structure.And conversely, a spoken input. linguist can know and understand the internal structure of a language Phonology.Phonology is concerned with the analysis and without actually speaking it. description of the meaningful sounds uttered in the production of human language, and how those sounds function in different languages. The What Do Linguists Study? letter ''p", for example, can be pronounced in several differentways: an A linguist, then, is not an individual who speaks many languages, English speaker interprets these different pronunciationsas one sound, more accurately called a ''polyglor or a ''bi-" or "multilingual". Rather, whereas a speaker of some other language might interpret the linguists are concerned with the grammar of a language, with the social pronunciations as two or more sounds.It is phonological analysis and isychological aspects of language us; and with the relationships such as this that allows the foreign language teacherto pinpoint and among 'languages, both historical and in the present. As in any correct students' pronunciation difficulties in the foreign language complex field, there are .; weral major divisions within the field of classroom linguistics. Morphology. Morphology is the study of the structure of words. Morphologists study minimal meaning units, or morpheme% and Formal Linguistics investigate the possible combinations of these units in a language to Formal linguistics is the study of grammar, or the development of form words.For example, the word "imperfections" is composed of theories as to how language works and is organized. Formal linguists four morphemes:im+perfect+ion+s.The root, "perfecr, is compare grammars of different language% and by identifying and transformed from an adjective into a noun by the addition of "ion", made studying the elements common among them seek to discover the most negative with "im" and pluralized by "e% efficient way to describe language in general. The ultimate goal of this Syntax.Syntax is the study of the structure of sentences. process isa "universal grammar"--the development of a theory to Syntacticians describe how words combine into phrases and clauses and , explain how the human brain processes language. Within formal how these combine to form sentences. For example, "I founda coin -linguistic% there are three main schools of thought yesterday is embedded as a relative clause in "The coin which I found Traditional. The traditional approach to grammar is the one that is yesterday is quite valuable."Syntacticians describe the rules for probably most familiar to the majority of us. A typical definition in a converting the first sentence into the second. traditional grammar is "A noun is a person, place, or thing." "Adjective Semantics. Semantics is the study of meaning in language. The clause," "noun clause," "complement," and "part of speech" are other goal of semantic study is to explain how sequences of languageare familiar terms from traditional grammars. matched with their proper meanings and placed in certain environments Structural. Structurallinguistics,a principally American by speakers of the language. A demonstration of the importance of , phenomenon of the 1940'% was heavily influenced by the work of B.F. meaning to the grammar of a language is the following well-known Skinner. Of the areas of linguistic study to be described be:ow, example from Chomsky (1957):Colorless green ideas sleep furiously. stincturalists are principally concerned with phonology, morphology and This is a grammatical sentence; but because semanticcomponents have syntax.Structuralists exclude meaning from the study of language, been ignored, it is meaningless in ordinary usage. focusing instead on linguistic forms and their,arrangement. "Phoneme," "morpheme," "form class" and "constituent" are terms typically used in Sociolinguistics itructural grammars. Sociolinguistics isthe study of language as a social and cultural Cenerativelliiinsformational. The generativeAransformational approach phenomenon.Studies of language variation, language and social , to the -description of language, was introduced in 1957 with the interaction, language attitudes and language planningare major publication Of Isloam Chomsky's Syntactic Structures.Generative divisions within the subfield of sociolinguistics. approaches, inelude meaning in the study: of larignage, and look for Language Variation. Language variation isa term used to patteinCa relationships between 764" !struCtUres* Of meaning -and describe the relationship between the use of linguistic forms, geography, "surface" structures Of linguistic forms actually used by the speaker. and certain social categories, such as social class, ethnicgroup, age, sex, Sine.eChomsky's original pioposalkin 1957, there have been nuineroui occupation, function, and style. The combination of these various eiabOrations :and, alternative theorieri.(SoMe'diseusied by Newtheyer. factors in speech result in an individual's idiolect, or particular and 1986):SO'thei 644; a iitinibei, Of aPPrOachek are being'discUsied.. idiosyncratic manner of speech. When a variety of language iishared by -The.: following are thelprificiPalareal nf, study, within formal a group of speakers,ii is known as a dialect.A dialect, whether standard or non7standard, includes the full range of elements used to rhonetki. Phonetica, is' the studi of the sounds of language and produce and prekent speech: pronunciation, grammar, and interactive PhOnetics describes hOW,sPe' ech sounds are features.In this respect, dialect should be distinguished front accent,' -. A er for Applied Linguistics (C '"7411_§,224:4
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