What is Linguistics? Discuss the branches of Linguistics.

Or.

Discuss the major areas of study in linguistics.

Or.

Analyze the scope of Linguistics.

Linguistics is the scientific and systematic study of human language, i.e. function and structure. Linguistics may be defined as the science of language. In Linguistics, we study two things: language and scientific. Language is a medium of communication. It is the expression of ideas, thoughts and feelings. Scientific indicates objectivity, systematically, exactness, precision and empirical. Knowledge of Linguistics is helpful to learn the internal structure of a language.

Branches of Linguistics

There are three branches of Linguistics:

a) Descriptive Linguistics

b) Historical Linguistics

c) Applied Linguistics

Descriptive Linguistics

It is the study of the structure of language. The branches are:

1. Phonetics

2. Phonology

3. Morphology

4. Syntax

5. Semantics

6. Pragmatics

7. Discourse Analysis

Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of sounds of language, e.g. /p/, /b/, /m/. It deals with how speech sounds are produced by vocal apparatus (lungs, vocal cords, tongue etc)

Morphology

Morphology is the study of the structure of words. It is the study of minimal meaningful unit, i.e. "Morpheme", e.g. Imperfections → Im + perfect + ion + s.

Syntax

Syntax is the combination of words into phrases and sentences, for example,

Car Word

A black car → Phrase

A black car with a powerful engine Phrase

I saw a black car with a powerful engine on the road. → Sentence

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning in language. This is an independent level and has several sub-types, such as word, grammatical, sentence and utterance meaning.

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of language in use in interpersonal communication. Pragmatic or intended meaning of an utterance is often different from its literal meaning, for an example, I am expecting a phone call- this sentence may have variety of meanings. It may be a request to leave the phone line free or it may be a reason for not being able to leave the house. So, context may affect sentence meaning.

Discourse Analysis

Discourse Analysis is the investigation of the structure and patterning of discourse (human speech). It contrasts explicitly with analyses of written language or of contrived examples in linguistic works.

what is linguistic?

Historical Linguistics

It is the study of development in languages in the course of time. There are five branches of historical linguistics:

1. Dialect Geography

2. Linguistic Borrowing

3. Language Family

4. Internal Reconstruction

5. Lexico-statistics

Dialect Geography

The study of variations among regional dialects of a language is termed as dialect geography. The pronunciation of pre-consonantal and final [r] (as in départ, hard, for, either etc.) varies in England and America and its various sections. In England [r] has been lost with the lengthening of the preceding vowel, while in many sections of America [r] remains. This comes under dialect geography.

Linguistic Borrowing

The process of modifying a language by adopting sounds, words or constructions of another language can be termed as linguistic borrowing. Borrowing usually takes place in morphological level. For example, in Bangla words like table, chair, school etc have been borrowed from English. Every language more or less borrows from other languages in order to enrich its word bank.

Reconstruction

When we don't have records of one language, on the basis of information derived from within the language we may reconstruct the form of the older language. This hypothetical procedure is called reconstruction.

Lexico-statistics

The rate of segments of vocabulary loss or percentage of retention maybe used to determine chronological linguistic relationships, i.e. the number of years the related languages have been separated. This is known as lexico-statistics.

Language Family

We can know the origin of a language. For example, we know from this, branch that the origin of the Bangla language is Sanskrit which is the parent language.

Applied Linguistics

It is the application of linguistic theories, descriptions and methods to the solution of language problems. There are several branches of applied linguistics.

1. Language teaching

2. Stylistics

3. Psycholinguistics

4. Sociolinguistics

5. Translation

6. Lexicography

7. Speech Pathology & Therapy 8. Computational Linguistics

9. Language & Advertisement

Language Teaching

Linguistics is very closely related to prominent role in language teaching. It plays a the teaching of a language, whether native or the foreign language. As a matter of fact, linguistics in modern times has revolutionized language teaching. The theoretical knowledge of this discipline helps the language teacher in the teaching of a language.

Stylistics

Stylistics is the extension of linguistics to the study of literature, It is the systematic and scientific study of the literary style. So, stylistics is the study of style in literature. It is the application of linguistics to literary analysis.

Translation

An effective translator must have comprehensive knowledge of this branch to translate effectively.

Lexicography

The knowledge of lexicography helps a lexicographer to write dictionary scientifically, e.g. Oxford or Cambridge dictionary.

Speech pathology & therapy

It analyzes the disorder of spoken or written language. This branch is useful for correcting mother tongue or a foreign language.

Computational Linguistics

It is the study of language using the techniques and concepts of computer science, e.g. machine translation, artificial intelligence.

Language and Advertisement

This branch of applied linguistics helps to make any commercial advert attractive to a wider range of people for selling a product.

Psycholinguistics

It is the study of the relationship between linguistic and psychological behaviour for learning a language, for example, first and second language acquisition and verbal processing of linguistic information.

Sociolinguistics

It is the study of language as a social and cultural phenomenon, for example, language variation in regard to geography