What is linguistics?

Linguistics is the scientific study of

language.
The word ‘language’ here means
language in general, not a particular
language.
According to Robins (1985),
linguistics
is concerned with human language as a universal and recognizable
part of the human behaviour and of the human faculties perhaps one
of the most essential to human life as we know it, and one of the most
farreaching of human capabilities in relation to the whole span of
mankind’s achievements.
Why scientific?
Because
1. Linguists study language
systematically.
2. They apply the scientific method by:
A.making observations,
B.testing hypotheses, and
C.developing theories.
Linguistics involves
an analysis of language form,
language meaning, and language in
context.
The science of language encompasses
more than sounds, grammar, and
meaning.
When you study linguistics, you are at
the crossroads of every discipline.
Linguistics as a science

Scientific approaches
in the study of
linguistics
1. Objectivity:
Objectivity means judgment based
on observable phenomena and
uninfluenced by emotions or
personal prejudices.
Objective study of language is
hindered by various cultural, social
and historical misconceptions about
certain languages.
2. Consistency:
 allows no contradictory remarks or
statements, requires that all parts of
analysis be consistent with the
whole
A linguist tries to answer:
How did languages begin and
what were the very earliest
languages like?
How have languages changed
over time? What makes
languages change?
How is it that we learn our own
language as children without
anybody teaching us?
• How do we speak, and how do we understand
what people mean?
• How are languages organized and what is the
best way to describe their organization?
Scope of linguistics
What does linguistics study?
The scope of Linguistics is huge.
It covers a wide range of fields and
topics.
Phonetics
Phonetics studies the production,
transmission and reception of
speech sounds;
Phonology with the way sounds are
used in individual languages.
Morphology: the study of the formation of
words
Morphology is the study of the structure of
words.
Morphologists study minimal units of
meaning, called morphemes, and investigate
the possible combinations of these units in a
language to form words.
For example, the word "imperfections" is composed of
four morphemes:
im perfect ion s
The root, perfect, is transformed from an adjective into
a noun by the addition of -ion, made negative with im,
and pluralized by s.
Syntax: the study sentences formation
Syntax is the level at which we
study how words combine to form
phrases, phrases combine to form
clauses, and clauses join to make
sentences.
Syntax studies the rules for placing
the elements in the sentence such
as the nouns/noun phrases,
verbs/verb phrases, and adverbial
phrases.
Syntax also attempts to describe
how these elements function in the
sentence, i.e. what is their role in
the sentence.
The word ‘boy’ is a noun. However,
in each of the following sentences, it
functions in different roles:
(a) The boy likes cricket.
(b) The old man loved the boy.
In sentence (a), it functions as the
subject of the sentence.
In sentence (b), it functions as the
object.
A sentence should be both grammatical and
meaningful.

‘Colourless green ideas sleep

furiously’ is grammatically correct
but it is not meaningful.
Semantics
Semantics is a sub-discipline of
Linguistics which focuses on the
study of meaning.
Semantics
deals with the level of meaning in
language. It attempts to analyse the
structure of meaning in a language,
e.g. how words similar or different
are related;
tries to give an account of both word
and sentence meaning,
It may be easy to define the
meanings of words such as ‘tree’ but
not so easy to define the meanings
of words such as ‘love’ or similar
abstract things.
Pragmatics
is simply defined as the branch of
linguistics dealing with language in
use and the contexts in which it is
used.
David Crystal
"Pragmatics studies the factors that
govern our choice of language in
social interaction and the effects of
our choice on others."
 Semantics vs. Pragmatics
Language Internal Language external (society)

Linguistic Meaning Communication

What expressions mean What speakers mean

What is said What is implied

Language itself The use of language

 Branches of linguistics
Theoretical Computational Anthropological
Linguistics Linguistics Linguistics

Linguistics
Phonology,
Socio-linguistics morphology, Psycholinguistics
syntax, semantics,
pragmatics

Neurolinguistics Applied Historical

Linguistics linguistics