linguistics.doc

Chapter1Introduction
1.1Whatislinguistics?
Linguisticsisgenerallydefinedasthescientificstudyoflanguage.
1.2Mainbranches(scope)oflinguistics
1.2.1phonetics:
Thestudyofsoundswhichareusedinlinguisticcommunicationiscalledphonetics.
2.2.2phonology:
Thestudyofhowsoundsareputtogetherandusedincommunicationiscalledphonology.
2.2.3morphology:
Thestudyofthewayinwhichmorphemesarearrangedtoformwordsiscalledmorphology.
2.2.4syntax:
Thestudyofhowmorphemesandwordsarecombinedtoformsentencesiscalledsyntax.
2.2.5semantics:
Thestudyofmeaninginisolationfromcontextsiscalledsemantics.
2.2.6pragmatics:
Thestudyofmeaningincontextofuseiscalledpragmatics.
2.2.7Sociolinguistics:
Thestudyoflanguagewithreferencetosocietyiscalledsociolinguistics.
2.2.8Psycholinguistics:
Thestudyoflanguagewithreferencetotheworkingsofmindiscalledpsycholinguistics.
2.2.9:Appliedlinguistics:
Appliedlinguisticsistheapplicationoflinguisticmethodsandfindingstoanumberofareas.
2.1Definition
Languageisasystemofarbitraryvocalsymbolsusedforhumancommunication.
2.2DesignFeaturesofHumanLanguage
1)Arbitrariness:therearenodirectorintrinsiclinksbetweenformandmeaningorbetweenthesignalandthemessage.
2)Duality:
Itismeantthepropertyofhavingtwolevelsofstructure:lowerlevelandhigherlevel
3)creativity
Itreferstotheabilitythatweallhavetoconstructandunderstandanindefinitelylargenumberofwordsandsentencesinournativelanguage,includingsentencesthatwehaveneverheardbefore.
4)displacement
Displacementmeansthatlanguagecanbeusedtotalkaboutthethingsthatexistinourworldofexperienceorintheworldofimagination.
5)CulturalTransmission
Itmeansthatlanguageisnotgeneticallypasseddownfromonegenerationtoanother.Rather,languagehastobelearnedthroughcommunication.
3.Someimportantdistinctionsinlinguistics
3.1Prescriptivevsdescriptive
Ifalinguisticstudyaimstodescribeandanalyzethelanguagepeopleactuallyuse,itissaidtobedescriptive.
Ifthelinguisticstudyaimstolaydownrulesforcorrectandstandardbehaviourinusinglanguage,itisprescriptive.
3.2Synchronicvsdiachronic
Thedescriptio