Linguistics

This article is about the eld of study. For the journal,

see Linguistics (journal).
Linguist redirects here. For other uses, see Linguist
(disambiguation).

study of other aspects of human language, such as social, cultural, historical and political factors.[13] The study
of cultural discourses and dialects is the domain of
sociolinguistics, which looks at the relation between linguistic variation and social structures, as well as that
[1]
[2] of discourse analysis, which examines the structure of
Linguistics is the scientic study of language,
conversations.[14] Research on language through
specically language form, language meaning, and texts and
language in context.[3] The earliest activities in the historical and evolutionary linguistics focuses on how landescription of language have been attributed to the 4th guages change, and on the origin and growth of languages,
century BCE Indian grammarian Pini, who was an particularly over an extended period of time.
early student of linguistics[4][5] and wrote a formal de- Corpus linguistics takes naturally occurring texts and
scription of the Sanskrit language in his Adhyy.[6]
studies the variation of grammatical and other features
Linguistics analyses human language as a system for relat- based on such corpora. Stylistics involves the study
ing sounds (or signs in signed languages) and meaning.[7] of patterns[15]of style: within written, signed, or spoken
Phonetics studies acoustic and articulatory properties of discourse. Language documentation combines anthrothe production and perception of speech sounds and non- pological inquiry with linguistic inquiry to describe lanspeech sounds. The study of language meaning, on the guages and their grammars. Lexicography covers the
other hand, deals with how languages encode relations be- study and construction of dictionaries. Computational
tween entities, properties, and other aspects of the world linguistics applies computer technology to address questo convey, process, and assign meaning, as well as to man- tions in theoretical linguistics, as well as to create appliage and resolve ambiguity. While the study of semantics cations for use in parsing, data retrieval, machine translation, and other areas. People can apply actual knowledge
typically concerns itself with truth conditions, pragmatics
of a language in translation and interpreting, as well as in
[8]
deals with how context inuences meanings.
language education the teaching of a second or foreign
Grammar is a system of rules which governs the form language. Policy makers work with governments to imof the utterances in a given language. It encompasses plement new plans in education and teaching which are
both sound[9] and meaning, and includes phonology (how based on linguistic research.
sounds or gestures function together), morphology (the
formation and composition of words), and syntax (the Areas of study related to linguistics include semiotics (the
formation and composition of phrases and sentences from study of signs and symbols both within language and without), literary criticism, translation, and speech-language
words).[10]
pathology.
In the early 20th century, Ferdinand de Saussure distinguished between the notions of langue and parole in his
formulation of structural linguistics. According to him,
parole is the specic utterance of speech, whereas langue 1 Nomenclature
refers to an abstract phenomenon that theoretically denes the principles and system of rules that govern a
Before the 20th century, the term philology, rst attested
language.[11] This distinction resembles the one made by
in 1716,[16] was commonly used to refer to the science
Noam Chomsky between competence and performance,
of language, which was then predominantly historical in
where competence is individuals ideal knowledge of a
focus.[17][18] Since Ferdinand de Saussure's insistence on
language, while performance is the specic way in which
the importance of synchronic analysis, however, this foit is used.[12]
cus has shifted[19] and the term philology is now generThe formal study of language has also led to the ally used for the study of a languages grammar, history,
growth of elds like psycholinguistics, which explores and literary tradition, especially in the United States[20]
the representation and function of language in the mind; (where philology has never been very popularly considneurolinguistics, which studies language processing in the ered as the science of language).[21]
brain; and language acquisition, which investigates how
Although the term linguist in the sense of a student of
children and adults acquire a particular language.
language dates from 1641,[22] the term linguistics is
Linguistics also includes non-formal approaches to the rst attested in 1847.[22] It is now the common academic
1

2 VARIATION AND UNIVERSALITY

term in English for the scientic study of language.

ple within a certain domain of specialization. Registers

Today, the term linguist applies to someone who studies and discourses therefore dierentiate themselves through
language or is a researcher within the eld, or to some- the use of vocabulary, and at times through the use of
one who uses the tools of the discipline to describe and style too. People in the medical fraternity, for example,
may use some medical terminology in their communicaanalyse specic languages.[23]
tion that is specialized to the eld of medicine. This is
often referred to as being part of the medical discourse,
and so on.

Variation and universality

While some theories on linguistics focus on the dierent varieties that language produces, among dierent sections of society, others focus on the universal properties
that are common to all human languages. The theory of
variation therefore would elaborate on the dierent usages of popular languages like French and English across
the globe, as well as its smaller dialects and regional permutations within their national boundaries. The theory
of variation looks at the cultural stages that a particular
language undergoes, and these include the following.

2.1

Lexicon

The lexicon is a catalogue of words and terms that are

stored in a speakers mind. The lexicon consists of words
and bound morphemes, which are parts of words that
can't stand alone, like axes. In some analyses, compound words and certain classes of idiomatic expressions and other collocations are also considered to be
part of the lexicon. Dictionaries represent attempts at
listing, in alphabetical order, the lexicon of a given language; usually, however, bound morphemes are not included. Lexicography, closely linked with the domain
of semantics, is the science of mapping the words into
an encyclopedia or a dictionary. The creation and addition of new words (into the lexicon) is called coining or neologization,[24] and the new words are called
neologisms.
It is often believed that a speakers capacity for language
lies in the quantity of words stored in the lexicon. However, this is often considered a myth by linguists. The
capacity for the use of language is considered by many
linguists to lie primarily in the domain of grammar, and
to be linked with competence, rather than with the growth
of vocabulary. Even a very small lexicon is theoretically
capable of producing an innite number of sentences.

2.2

Discourse

A discourse is a way of speaking that emerges within a

certain social setting and is based on a certain subject
matter. A particular discourse becomes a language variety when it is used in this way for a particular purpose,
and is referred to as a register.[25] There may be certain lexical additions (new words) that are brought into
play because of the expertise of the community of peo-

2.3 Dialect
A dialect is a variety of language that is characteristic
of a particular group among the language speakers.[26]
The group of people who are the speakers of a dialect
are usually bound to each other by social identity. This is
what dierentiates a dialect from a register or a discourse,
where in the latter case, cultural identity does not always
play a role. Dialects are speech varieties that have their
own grammatical and phonological rules, linguistic features, and stylistic aspects, but have not been given an ofcial status as a language. Dialects often move on to gain
the status of a language due to political and social reasons.
Dierentiation amongst dialects (and subsequently, languages too) is based upon the use of grammatical rules,
syntactic rules, and stylistic features, though not always
on lexical use or vocabulary. The popular saying that "a
language is a dialect with an army and navy" is attributed
as a denition formulated by Max Weinreich.
Universal grammar takes into account general formal
structures and features that are common to all dialects
and languages, and the template of which pre-exists in
the mind of an infant child. This idea is based on the theory of generative grammar and the formal school of linguistics, whose proponents include Noam Chomsky and
those who follow his theory and work.
We may as individuals be rather fond of
our own dialect. This should not make us think,
though, that it is actually any better than any
other dialect. Dialects are not good or bad, nice
or nasty, right or wrong they are just dierent from one another, and it is the mark of a
civilised society that it tolerates dierent dialects just as it tolerates dierent races, religions and sexes. [27]

2.4 Structures
Linguistic structures are pairings of meaning and form.
Any particular pairing of meaning and form is a
Saussurean sign. For instance, the meaning cat is represented worldwide with a wide variety of dierent sound
patterns (in oral languages), movements of the hands and
face (in sign languages), and written symbols (in written
languages).

2.5

Relativity

Linguists focusing on structure attempt to understand the

rules regarding language use that native speakers know
(not always consciously). All linguistic structures can be
broken down into component parts that are combined according to (sub)conscious rules, over multiple levels of
analysis. For instance, consider the structure of the word
tenth on two dierent levels of analysis. On the level of
internal word structure (known as morphology), the word
tenth is made up of one linguistic form indicating a
number and another form indicating ordinality. The rule
governing the combination of these forms ensures that the
ordinality marker th follows the number ten. On the
level of sound structure (known as phonology), structural
analysis shows that the n sound in tenth is made differently from the n sound in ten spoken alone. Although most speakers of English are consciously aware of
the rules governing internal structure of the word pieces
of tenth, they are less often aware of the rule governing
its sound structure. Linguists focused on structure nd
and analyse rules such as these, which govern how native
speakers use language.
Linguistics has many sub-elds concerned with particular
aspects of linguistic structure. The theory that elucidates
on these, as propounded by Noam Chomsky, is known
as generative theory or universal grammar. These subelds range from those focused primarily on form to those
focused primarily on meaning. They also run the gamut
of level of analysis of language, from individual sounds,
to words, to phrases, up to cultural discourse.
Sub-elds that focus on a structure-focused study of language:
Phonetics, the study of the physical properties of
speech sound production and perception
Phonology, the study of sounds as abstract elements in the speakers mind that distinguish meaning
(phonemes)

3
Stylistics, the study of linguistic factors (rhetoric,
diction, stress) that place a discourse in context
Semiotics, the study of signs and sign processes
(semiosis), indication, designation, likeness, analogy, metaphor, symbolism, signication, and communication.

2.5 Relativity
As constructed popularly through the "SapirWhorf Hypothesis", relativists believe that the structure of a particular language is capable of inuencing the cognitive
patterns through which a person shapes his or her world
view. Universalists believe that there are commonalities between human perception as there is in the human
capacity for language, while relativists believe that this
varies from language to language and person to person.
While the SapirWhorf hypothesis is an elaboration of
this idea expressed through the writings of American linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, it was
Sapirs student Harry Hoijer who termed it thus. The 20th
century German linguist Leo Weisgerber also wrote extensively about the theory of relativity. Relativists argue
for the case of dierentiation at the level of cognition
and in semantic domains. The emergence of cognitive
linguistics in the 1980s also revived an interest in linguistic relativity. Thinkers like George Lako have argued that language reects dierent cultural metaphors,
while the French philosopher of language Jacques Derrida's writings have been seen to be closely associated
with the relativist movement in linguistics, especially
through deconstruction[28] and was even heavily criticized
in the media at the time of his death for his theory of
relativism.[29]

2.6 Style

Morphology, the study of morphemes, or the internal structures of words and how they can be modi- Stylistics is the study and interpretation of texts for aspects of their linguistic and tonal style. Stylistic analysis
ed
entails the analysis of description of particular dialects
Syntax, the study of how words combine to form and registers used by speech communities. Stylistic features include rhetoric,[30] diction, stress, satire, irony, digrammatical phrases and sentences
alogue, and other forms of phonetic variations. Stylistic
Semantics, the study of the meaning of words analysis can also include the study of language in canon(lexical semantics) and xed word combinations ical works of literature, popular ction, news, advertise(phraseology), and how these combine to form the ments, and other forms of communication in popular culture as well. It is usually seen as a variation in communimeanings of sentences
cation that changes from speaker to speaker and commu Pragmatics, the study of how utterances are used in nity to community. In short, Stylistics is the interpretation
communicative acts, and the role played by context of text.
and non-linguistic knowledge in the transmission of
meaning
Discourse analysis, the analysis of language use in
texts (spoken, written, or signed)

3 Approach

3.1

Generative vs. functional theories of meant that they would compare linguistic features and
try to analyse language from the point of view of how
language

One major debate in linguistics concerns how language

should be dened and understood. Some linguists use the
term language primarily to refer to a hypothesized, innate module in the human brain that allows people to undertake linguistic behaviour, which is part of the formalist
approach. This "universal grammar" is considered to
guide children when they learn languages and to constrain what sentences are considered grammatical in any
language. Proponents of this view, which is predominant in those schools of linguistics that are based on the
generative theory of Noam Chomsky, do not necessarily
consider that language evolved for communication in particular. They consider instead that it has more to do with
the process of structuring human thought (see also formal
grammar).
Another group of linguists, by contrast, use the term language to refer to a communication system that developed
to support cooperative activity and extend cooperative
networks. Such theories of grammar, called functional,
view language as a tool that emerged and is adapted to the
communicative needs of its users, and the role of cultural
evolutionary processes are often emphasized over that of
biological evolution.[31]

3.2

Methodology

Linguistics is primarily descriptive. Linguists describe

and explain features of language without making subjective judgments on whether a particular feature or usage
is good or bad. This is analogous to practice in other
sciences: a zoologist studies the animal kingdom without making subjective judgments on whether a particular
species is better or worse than another.
Prescription, on the other hand, is an attempt to promote
particular linguistic usages over others, often favouring a
particular dialect or "acrolect". This may have the aim
of establishing a linguistic standard, which can aid communication over large geographical areas. It may also,
however, be an attempt by speakers of one language or
dialect to exert inuence over speakers of other languages
or dialects (see Linguistic imperialism). An extreme version of prescriptivism can be found among censors, who
attempt to eradicate words and structures that they consider to be destructive to society. Prescription, however,
is practised in the teaching of language, where certain
fundamental grammatical rules and lexical terms need to
be introduced to a second-language speaker who is attempting to acquire the language.

3.3

APPROACH

Analysis

Before the 20th century, linguists analysed language on

a diachronic plane, which was historical in focus. This

it had changed between then and later. However, with

Saussurean linguistics in the 20th century, the focus
shifted to a more synchronic approach, where the study
was more geared towards analysis and comparison between dierent language variations, which existed at the
same given point of time.
At another level, the syntagmatic plane of linguistic analysis entails the comparison between the way words are
sequenced, within the syntax of a sentence. For example,
the article the is followed by a noun, because of the syntagmatic relation between the words. The paradigmatic
plane on the other hand, focuses on an analysis that is
based on the paradigms or concepts that are embedded in
a given text. In this case, words of the same type or class
may be replaced in the text with each other to achieve the
same conceptual understanding.

3.4 Anthropology
The objective of describing languages is often to uncover cultural knowledge about communities. The use
of anthropological methods of investigation on linguistic sources leads to the discovery of certain cultural traits
among a speech community through its linguistic features. It is also widely used as a tool in language documentation, with an endeavour to curate endangered languages. However, now, linguistic inquiry uses the anthropological method to understand cognitive, historical, sociolinguistic and historical processes that languages undergo as they change and evolve, as well as general anthropological inquiry uses the linguistic method to excavate into culture. In all aspects, anthropological inquiry
usually uncovers the dierent variations and relativities
that underlie the usage of language.

3.5 Sources
Most contemporary linguists work under the assumption
that spoken data and signed data is more fundamental than
written data. This is because:
Speech appears to be universal to all human beings
capable of producing and perceiving it, while there
have been many cultures and speech communities
that lack written communication;
Features appear in speech which aren't always
recorded in writing, including phonological rules,
sound changes, and speech errors;
All natural writing systems reect a spoken language
(or potentially a signed one) they are being used to
write, with even pictographic scripts like Dongba
writing Naxi homophones with the same pictogram,

4.2

Comparative philology

and text in writing systems used for two languages al-nahw ( , The Book on Grammar), the
changing to t the spoken language being recorded; rst known author to distinguish between sounds and
phonemes (sounds as units of a linguistic system). West Speech evolved before human beings invented writ- ern interest in the study of languages began somewhat
ing;
later than in the East,[32] but the grammarians of the clas People learnt to speak and process spoken language sical languages did not use the same methods or reach
the same conclusions as their contemporaries in the Inmore easily and earlier than they did with writing.
dic world. Early interest in language in the West was a
part of philosophy, not of grammatical description. The
Nonetheless, linguists agree that the study of written lan- rst insights into semantic theory were made by Plato
guage can be worthwhile and valuable. For research that in his Cratylus dialogue, where he argues that words derelies on corpus linguistics and computational linguistics, note concepts that are eternal and exist in the world of
written language is often much more convenient for pro- ideas. This work is the rst to use the word etymology
cessing large amounts of linguistic data. Large corpora of to describe the history of a words meaning. Around 280
spoken language are dicult to create and hard to nd, BC, one of Alexander the Great's successors founded a
and are typically transcribed and written. In addition, lin- university (see Musaeum) in Alexandria, where a school
guists have turned to text-based discourse occurring in of philologists studied the ancient texts in and taught
various formats of computer-mediated communication as Greek to speakers of other languages. While this school
a viable site for linguistic inquiry.
was the rst to use the word "grammar" in its modern
The study of writing systems themselves, graphemics, is, sense, Plato had used the word in its original meaning
as "tchn grammatik" ( ), the art
in any case, considered a branch of linguistics.
of writing, which is also the title of one of the most
important works of the Alexandrine school by Dionysius
[33]
Thrax.
Throughout the Middle Ages, the study of lan4 History of linguistic thought
guage was subsumed under the topic of philology, the
study of ancient languages and texts, practised by such
Main article: History of linguistics
educators as Roger Ascham, Wolfgang Ratke, and John
Amos Comenius.[34]

4.1

Early grammarians

Main articles: Philology and History of English gram4.2 Comparative philology

mars
The formal study of language began in India with Pini,
In the 18th century, the rst use of the comparative
method by William Jones sparked the rise of comparative
linguistics.[35] Bloomeld attributes the rst great scientic linguistic work of the world to Jacob Grimm, who
wrote Deutsche Grammatik.[36] It was soon followed by
other authors writing similar comparative studies on other
language groups of Europe. The scientic study of language was broadened from Indo-European to language in
general by Wilhelm von Humboldt, of whom Bloomeld
asserts:[36]

Ancient Tamil inscription at Thanjavur

the 5th century BC grammarian who formulated 3,959

rules of Sanskrit morphology. Pinis systematic classication of the sounds of Sanskrit into consonants and
vowels, and word classes, such as nouns and verbs, was
the rst known instance of its kind. In the Middle East,
Sibawayh, a non-Arab, made a detailed description of
Arabic in 760 AD in his monumental work, Al-kitab

This study received its foundation at the

hands of the Prussian statesman and scholar
Wilhelm von Humboldt (17671835), especially in the rst volume of his work on Kavi,
the literary language of Java, entitled ber die
Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues
und ihren Einu auf die geistige Entwickelung
des Menschengeschlechts (On the Variety of the
Structure of Human Language and its Inuence
upon the Mental Development of the Human
Race).

4 HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC THOUGHT

4.3

Structuralism

Main article: Structuralism (linguistics)

Early in the 20th century, Saussure introduced the idea
of language as a static system of interconnected units,
dened through the oppositions between them. By introducing a distinction between diachronic to synchronic
analyses of language, he laid the foundation of the modern discipline of linguistics. Saussure also introduced
several basic dimensions of linguistic analysis that are
still foundational in many contemporary linguistic theories, such as the distinctions between syntagm and
paradigm, and the langue- parole distinction, distinguishing language as an abstract system (langue) from language
as a concrete manifestation of this system (parole).[37]
Substantial additional contributions following Saussures
denition of a structural approach to language came
from The Prague school, Leonard Bloomeld, Charles F.
Hockett, Louis Hjelmslev, mile Benveniste and Roman
Jakobson.[38][39]

4.4

Generativism

Main article: Generative linguistics

During the last half of the 20th century, following the
work of Noam Chomsky, linguistics was dominated by
the generativist school. While formulated by Chomsky in
part as a way to explain how human beings acquire language and the biological constraints on this acquisition,
in practice it has largely been concerned with giving formal accounts of specic phenomena in natural languages.
Generative theory is modularist and formalist in character. Chomsky built on earlier work of Zellig Harris to
formulate the generative theory of language. According
to this theory the most basic form of language is a set
of syntactic rules universal for all humans and underlying
the grammars of all human languages. This set of rules is
called Universal Grammar, and for Chomsky describing
it is the primary objective of the discipline of linguistics.
For this reason the grammars of individual languages are
of importance to linguistics only in so far as they allow us
to discern the universal underlying rules from which the
observable linguistic variability is generated.

A formal description of language attempts to replicate a

speakers knowledge of the rules of their language, and
the aim is to produce a set of rules that is minimally sufcient to successfully model valid linguistic forms.

4.5 Functionalism
Main article: Functional theories of grammar
Functional theories of language propose that since language is fundamentally a tool, it is reasonable to assume
that its structures are best analysed and understood with
reference to the functions they carry out. Functional theories of grammar dier from formal theories of grammar, in that the latter seek to dene the dierent elements
of language and describe the way they relate to each other
as systems of formal rules or operations, whereas the former denes the functions performed by language and then
relates these functions to the linguistic elements that carry
them out. This means that functional theories of grammar tend to pay attention to the way language is actually
used, and not just to the formal relations between linguistic elements.[42]
Functional theories describe language in term of the functions existing at all levels of language.
Phonological function: the function of the phoneme
is to distinguish between dierent lexical material.
Semantic function: (Agent, Patient, Recipient, etc.),
describing the role of participants in states of aairs
or actions expressed.
Syntactic functions: (e.g. subject and Object), dening dierent perspectives in the presentation of a
linguistic expression
Pragmatic functions: (Theme and Rheme, Topic
and Focus, Predicate), dening the informational
status of constituents, determined by the pragmatic
context of the verbal interaction. Functional descriptions of grammar strive to explain how linguistic functions are performed in communication
through the use of linguistic forms.

In the classic formalization of generative grammars rst 4.6 Cognitive linguistics

proposed by Noam Chomsky in the 1950s,[40][41] a grammar G consists of the following components:
Main article: Cognitive linguistics
A nite set N of nonterminal symbols, none of which Cognitive linguistics emerged as a reaction to generativist
appear in strings formed from G.
theory in the 1970s and 1980s. Led by theorists like
A nite set of terminal symbols that is disjoint Ronald Langacker and George Lako, cognitive linguists
propose that language is an emergent property of basic,
from N.
general-purpose cognitive processes. In contrast to the
A nite set P of production rules, that map from one generativist school of linguistics, cognitive linguistics is
string of symbols to another.
non-modularist and functionalist in character. Important

5.3

Developmental linguistics

developments in cognitive linguistics include cognitive

grammar, frame semantics, and conceptual metaphor,
all of which are based on the idea that formfunction
correspondences based on representations derived from
embodied experience constitute the basic units of language.
Cognitive linguistics interprets language in terms of
concepts (sometimes universal, sometimes specic to
a particular tongue) that underlie its form. It is thus
closely associated with semantics but is distinct from
psycholinguistics, which draws upon empirical ndings
from cognitive psychology in order to explain the mental processes that underlie the acquisition, storage, production and understanding of speech and writing. Unlike
generative theory, cognitive linguistics denies that there
is an autonomous linguistic faculty in the mind; it understands grammar in terms of conceptualization; and claims
that knowledge of language arises out of language use.[43]
Because of its conviction that knowledge of language is
learned through use, cognitive linguistics is sometimes
considered to be a functional approach, but it diers from
other functional approaches in that it is primarily concerned with how the mind creates meaning through language, and not with the use of language as a tool of communication.

5
5.1

Areas of research
Historical linguistics

Historical linguists study the history of specic languages

as well as general characteristics of language change.
The study of language change is also referred to as diachronic linguistics (the study of how one particular language has changed over time), which can be distinguished
from synchronic linguistics (the comparative study of
more than one language at a given moment in time without regard to previous stages). Historical linguistics was
among the rst sub-disciplines to emerge in linguistics,
and was the most widely practised form of linguistics in
the late 19th century. However, there was a shift to the
synchronic approach in the early twentieth century with
Saussure, and became more predominant in western linguistics with the work of Noam Chomsky.

5.2

Sociolinguistics

7
discourse. Sociolinguists research on both style and discourse in language, and also study the theoretical factors
that are at play between language and society.

5.3 Developmental linguistics

Developmental linguistics is the study of the development
of linguistic ability in individuals, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood. Some of the questions
that developmental linguistics looks into is how children
acquire language, how adults can acquire a second language, and what the process of language acquisition is.

5.4 Neurolinguistics
Neurolinguistics is the study of the structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and communication.
Researchers are drawn to the eld from a variety of
backgrounds, bringing along a variety of experimental
techniques as well as widely varying theoretical perspectives. Much work in neurolinguistics is informed by models in psycholinguistics and theoretical linguistics, and is
focused on investigating how the brain can implement
the processes that theoretical and psycholinguistics propose are necessary in producing and comprehending language. Neurolinguists study the physiological mechanisms by which the brain processes information related
to language, and evaluate linguistic and psycholinguistic
theories, using aphasiology, brain imaging, electrophysiology, and computer modelling.

6 Applied linguistics
Main article: Applied linguistics
Linguists are largely concerned with nding and
describing the generalities and varieties both within
particular languages and among all languages. Applied
linguistics takes the results of those ndings and applies
them to other areas. Linguistic research is commonly applied to areas such as language education, lexicography,
translation, language planning, which involves governmental policy implementation related to language use,
and natural language processing. Applied linguistics
has been argued to be something of a misnomer.[44]
Applied linguists actually focus on making sense of and
engineering solutions for real-world linguistic problems,
and not literally applying existing technical knowledge
from linguistics. Moreover, they commonly apply
technical knowledge from multiple sources, such as
sociology (e.g., conversation analysis) and anthropology.
(Constructed language ts under Applied linguistics.)

Sociolinguistics is the study of how language is shaped

by social factors. This sub-discipline focuses on the synchronic approach of linguistics, and looks at how a language in general, or a set of languages, display variation
and varieties at a given point in time. The study of language variation and the dierent varieties of language
through dialects, registers, and ideolects can be tackled Today, computers are widely used in many areas of apthrough a study of style, as well as through analysis of plied linguistics. Speech synthesis and speech recognition

use phonetic and phonemic knowledge to provide voice

interfaces to computers. Applications of computational
linguistics in machine translation, computer-assisted
translation, and natural language processing are areas of
applied linguistics that have come to the forefront. Their
inuence has had an eect on theories of syntax and semantics, as modelling syntactic and semantic theories on
computers constraints.
Linguistic analysis is a sub-discipline of applied linguistics used by many governments to verify the claimed
nationality of people seeking asylum who do not hold the
necessary documentation to prove their claim.[45] This
often takes the form of an interview by personnel in
an immigration department. Depending on the country,
this interview is conducted either in the asylum seekers
native language through an interpreter or in an international lingua franca like English.[45] Australia uses the
former method, while Germany employs the latter; the
Netherlands uses either method depending on the languages involved.[45] Tape recordings of the interview then
undergo language analysis, which can be done either by
private contractors or within a department of the government. In this analysis, linguistic features of the asylum
seeker are used by analysts to make a determination about
the speakers nationality. The reported ndings of the linguistic analysis can play a critical role in the governments
decision on the refugee status of the asylum seeker.[45]

INTERDISCIPLINARY FIELDS

ing Jacques Derrida, Mikhail Bakhtin, Michel Foucault,

and others, have also been a considerable inuence on the
discipline in the late part of the 20th century and early
21st century.[46] These theories emphasize the role of language variation, and the idea of subjective usage, depending on external elements like social and cultural factors,
rather than merely on the interplay of formal elements.

7.2 Language documentation

Since the inception of the discipline of linguistics, linguists have been concerned with describing and analysing
previously undocumented languages. Starting with Franz
Boas in the early 1900s, this became the main focus of
American linguistics until the rise of formal structural
linguistics in the mid-20th century. This focus on language documentation was partly motivated by a concern
to document the rapidly disappearing languages of indigenous peoples. The ethnographic dimension of the
Boasian approach to language description played a role
in the development of disciplines such as sociolinguistics,
anthropological linguistics, and linguistic anthropology,
which investigate the relations between language, culture,
and society.

Within the broad discipline of linguistics, various emerging sub-disciplines focus on a more detailed description
and analysis of language, and are often organized on the
basis of the school of thought and theoretical approach
that they pre-suppose, or the external factors that inuence them.

The emphasis on linguistic description and documentation has also gained prominence outside North America,
with the documentation of rapidly dying indigenous languages becoming a primary focus in many university programmes in linguistics. Language description is a workintensive endeavour, usually requiring years of eld work
in the language concerned, so as to equip the linguist to
write a suciently accurate reference grammar. Further,
the task of documentation requires the linguist to collect
a substantial corpus in the language in question, consisting of texts and recordings, both sound and video, which
can be stored in an accessible format within open repositories, and used for further research.[47]

7.1

7.3 Translation

Interdisciplinary elds

Semiotics

Semiotics is the study of sign processes (semiosis), or signication and communication, signs, and symbols, both
individually and grouped into sign systems, including the
study of how meaning is constructed and understood.
Semioticians often do not restrict themselves to linguistic
communication when studying the use of signs but extend
the meaning of sign to cover all kinds of cultural symbols. Nonetheless, semiotic disciplines closely related to
linguistics are literary studies, discourse analysis, text linguistics, and philosophy of language. Semiotics, within
the linguistics paradigm, is the study of the relationship
between language and culture. Historically, Edward Sapir
and Ferdinand De Saussure's structuralist theories inuenced the study of signs extensively until the late part
of the 20th century, but later, post-modern and poststructural thought, through language philosophers includ-

The sub-eld of translation includes the translation of

written and spoken texts across mediums, from digital to print and spoken. To translate literally means to
transmute the meaning from one language into another.
Translators are often employed by organizations, such
as travel agencies as well as governmental embassies to
facilitate communication between two speakers who do
not know each others language. Translators are also
employed to work within computational linguistics setups like Google Translate for example, which is an
automated, programmed facility to translate words and
phrases between any two or more given languages. Translation is also conducted by publishing houses, which convert works of writing from one language to another in
order to reach varied audiences. Academic Translators,
specialize and semi specialize on various other disciplines

7.8

Forensic linguistics

such as; Technology, Science, Law, Economics etc.

7.4

Biolinguistics

Biolinguistics is the study of the biology and evolution of

language. It is a highly interdisciplinary eld, including
linguists, biologists, neuroscientists, psychologists, mathematicians, and others. By shifting the focus of investigation in linguistics to a comprehensive scheme that embraces natural sciences, it seeks to yield a framework by
which we can understand the fundamentals of the faculty
of language.

7.5

Clinical linguistics

9
guages across the globe, through movements among ancient communities.[49]

7.8 Forensic linguistics

Forensic linguistics is the application of linguistic analysis to forensics. Forensic analysis investigates on the style,
language, lexical use, and other linguistic and grammatical features used in the legal context to provide evidence
in courts of law. Forensic linguists have also contributed
expertise in criminal cases.

8 See also

Clinical linguistics is the application of linguistic theory Main articles: Outline of linguistics and Index of
to the elds of Speech-Language Pathology. Speech lan- linguistics articles
guage pathologists work on corrective measures to cure
communication disorders and swallowing disorders
Anthroponymy
Chaika (1990) showed that schizophrenics with speech
disorders, like rhyming inappropriately have attentional
Articulatory phonology
dysfunction, as when a patient, shown a colour chip and,
Articulatory synthesis
then asked to identify it, responded Looks like clay.
Sounds like gray. Take you for a roll in the hay. Hey Asemic writing
day, May Day. The color chip was actually clay-colored,
so his rst response was correct.'
Axiom of categoricity
However, normals suppress or ignore words which rhyme
with what they've said unless they are deliberately producing a pun, poem or rap. Even then, the speaker shows
connection between words chosen for rhyme and an overall meaning in discourse. schizophrenics with speech dysfunction show no such relation between rhyme and reason. Some even produce stretches of gibberish combined
with recognizable words.
[48]

copyright Elaine Ostrach Chaika>

7.6

Computational linguistics

Computational linguistics is the study of linguistic issues

in a way that is 'computationally responsible', i.e., taking careful note of computational consideration of algorithmic specication and computational complexity, so
that the linguistic theories devised can be shown to exhibit certain desirable computational properties and their
implementations. Computational linguists also work on
computer language and software development.

7.7

Evolutionary linguistics

Evolutionary linguistics is the interdisciplinary study of

the emergence of the language faculty through human
evolution, and also the application of evolutionary theory to the study of cultural evolution among dierent languages. It is also a study of the dispersal of various lan-

Biosemiotics
Cognitive science
Concept mining
Critical discourse analysis
Cryptanalysis
Decipherment
Global language system
Glottometrics
Grammarian (Greco-Roman world)
Integrational linguistics
Integrationism
Intercultural competence
International Congress of Linguists
International Linguistics Olympiad
Language attrition
Language engineering
Language geography
Linguistic typology

10

List of departments of linguistics

[13] Journal of Language and Politics

List of summer schools of linguistics

[14] Raymond Mougeon & Terry Nadasdi (1998). Sociolinguistic Discontinuity in Minority Language Communities pp. 4055. Linguistic Society of America. JSTOR
417564.

Metacommunicative competence
Microlinguistics
Onomastics

[15] Stylistics by Joybrato Mukherjee. Chapter 49. Encyclopedia of Linguistics.

Reading

[16] Online Etymological Dictionary Denition of Philology

Rhythm Linguistics

[17] JSTOR preview: Introduction: Philology in a Manuscript

Culture by Stephen G. Nichols.

Speaker recognition
Speech processing
Straticational linguistics

REFERENCES

References

[18] McMahon, A. M. S. (1994). Understanding Language

Change. Cambridge University Press. p. 19. ISBN 0521-44665-1.
[19] McMahon, A. M. S. (1994). Understanding Language
Change. Cambridge University Press. p. 9. ISBN 0-52144665-1.
[20] A. Morpurgo Davies Hist. Linguistics (1998) 4 I. 22.

[1] Crystal, David (1990). Linguistics. Penguin Books. ISBN

9780140135312.
[2] Halliday, Michael A.K.; Jonathan Webster (2006). On
Language and Linguistics. Continuum International Publishing Group. p. vii. ISBN 0-8264-8824-2.
[3] Martinet, Andr (1960). Elements of General Linguistics.
Tr. Elisabeth Palmer Rubbert (Studies in General Linguistics, vol. i.). London: Faber. p. 15.
[4] Rens Bod (2014). A New History of the Humanities: The
Search for Principles and Patterns from Antiquity to the
Present. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199665214.
[5] Sanskrit Literature The Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 2
(1909), p. 263.
[6] S.C. Vasu (Tr.) (1996). The Ashtadhyayi of Panini (2
Vols.). Vedic Books. ISBN 9788120804098.
[7] Jakobson, Roman (1937). Six Lectures on Sound and
Meaning. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN
0262600102.
[8] Chierchia, Gennaro & Sally McConnell-Ginet (2000).
Meaning and Grammar: An Introduction to Semantics. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN
9780262531641.
[9] All references in this article to the study of sound should
be taken to include the manual and non-manual signs used
in sign languages.
[10] Adrian Akmajian; Richard A. Demers; Ann K. Farmer;
Robert M. Harnish (2010). Linguistics (6th ed.). The MIT
Press. ISBN 0-262-51370-6. Retrieved 25 July 2012.
[11] de Saussure, F. (1986). Course in general linguistics (3rd
ed.). (R. Harris, Trans.). Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company. (Original work published 1972). p. 9-10,
15.
[12] Chomsky, Noam. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

[21] Online Etymological Dictionary of Philology

[22] Online Etymological Dictionary Denition of Linguist
[23] Linguist. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Houghton Miin Harcourt. 2000. ISBN
978-0-395-82517-4.
[24] Zuckermann, Ghil'ad (2003). Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew. Palgrave Macmillan.
pp. 2. ISBN 978-1403917232.
[25] Helen Leckie-Tarry, Language and Context: a Functional
Linguistic Theory of Register, Continuum International
Publishing Group, 1995, p6. ISBN 1-85567-272-3
[26] Oxford English dictionary.
[27] Trudgill, P. (1994). Dialects. Ebooks Online Routledge.
Florence, KY.
[28] Jacques Derrida (Author) and Alan Bass (translator)
(1978). Writing and Dierence. University of Chicago
Press. ISBN 9780226143293.
[29] Relative Thinking. The Guardian. November 2004.
[30] IA Richards (1965). The Philosophy of Rhetoric. Oxford
University Press (New York).
[31] Isac, Daniela; Charles Reiss (2013). I-language: An Introduction to Linguistics as Cognitive Science, 2nd edition.
Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199660179.
[32] Bloomeld 1914, p. 307.
[33] Seuren, Pieter A. M. (1998). Western linguistics: An historical introduction. Wiley-blackwell. pp. 224. ISBN
0-631-20891-7.
[34] Bloomeld 1914, p. 308.
[35] Bloomeld 1914, p. 310.
[36] Bloomeld 1914, p. 311.

11

[37] Clarke, David S. (1990). Sources of Semiotic: Readings

with Commentary from Antiquity to the Present. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press. pp. 143144.
[38] Holquist 1981, pp. xviixviii.
[39] de Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics.
New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 0-8022-1493-2.
[40] Chomsky, Noam (1956). Three Models for the Description of Language. IRE Transactions on Information Theory. 2 (2): 113 123. doi:10.1109/TIT.1956.1056813.
[41] Chomsky, Noam (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague:
Mouton.
[42] Nichols, Johanna (1984). Functional Theories of Grammar. Annual Review of Anthropology. 13: 97117.
doi:10.1146/annurev.an.13.100184.000525. [Functional
grammar] analyzes grammatical structure, as do formal and structural grammar; but it also analyses the entire communicative situation: the purpose of the speech
event, its participants, its discourse context. Functionalists maintain that the communicative situation motivates,
constrains, explains, or otherwise determines grammatical
structure, and that a structural or formal approach is not
merely limited to an articially restricted data base, but is
inadequate as a structural account. Functional grammar,
then, diers from formulae and structural grammar in that
it purports not to model but to explain; and the explanation
is grounded in the communicative situation.
[43] Croft, William & D. Alan Cruse (2004). Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 1.
[44] Barbara Seidlhofer (2003). Controversies in Applied Linguistics (pp. 288). Oxford University Press. ISBN
0194374440.
[45] Eades, Diana (2005). Applied Linguistics and Language
Analysis in Asylum Seeker Cases (PDF). Applied Linguistics. 26 (4): 503526. doi:10.1093/applin/ami021.
[46] Paul Allen Miller (1998). The Classical Roots of PostStructuralism: Lacan, Derrida and Foucault in the. International Journal of the Classical Tradition. Springer.
5 (2): 204225. doi:10.1007/bf02688423. JSTOR
30222818.
[47] Himmelman, Nikolaus Language documentation: What is
it and what is it good for? in P. Gippert, Jost, Nikolaus P
Himmelmann & Ulrike Mosel. (2006) Essentials of Language documentation. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin & New
York.
[48] Chaika, Elaine Ostrach. 1990. Understanding Psychotic
Speech: Between Freud and Chomsky. Chas. Thomas
Publishers.

10 Bibliography
Akmajian, Adrian; Demers, Richard; Farmer, Ann;
Harnish, Robert (2010). Linguistics: An Introduction to Language and Communication. Cambridge,
MA: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-51370-6.
Isac, Daniela; Charles Reiss (2013). I-language:
An Introduction to Linguistics as Cognitive Science,
2nd edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199660179.
Pinker, Steven (1994).
The Language Instinct. William Morrow and Company. ISBN
9780140175295.
Chomsky, Noam (1998). On Language. The New
Press, New York. ISBN 978-1565844759.
Derrida, Jacques (1967).
Of Grammatology.
ISBN
The Johns Hopkins University Press.
0801858305.
Crystal, David (1990). Linguistics. Penguin Books.
ISBN 9780140135312.
Hall, Christopher (2005). An Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Breaking the Language Spell.
Routledge. ISBN 9780826487346.

11 External links
The Linguist List, a global online linguistics community with news and information updated daily
Glossary of linguistic terms by SIL International
(last updated 2004)
Language Log, a linguistics blog maintained by
prominent (popular science) linguists
Glottopedia, MediaWiki-based encyclopedia of linguistics, under construction
Linguistic sub-elds according to the Linguistic
Society of America
Linguistics and language-related wiki articles on
Scholarpedia and Citizendium
Linguistics section A Bibliography of Literary
Theory, Criticism and Philology, ed. J. A. Garca
Landa (University of Zaragoza, Spain)
An Academic Linguistics Forum (currently some
technical problems, Feb 2013)
Linguistics Contents for Non-English World

[49] Croft, William (October 2008).

Evolutionary
Linguistics.
Annual Review of Anthropology.
Annual Reviews.
37:
219234.
doi:10.1146/annurev.anthro.37.081407.085156.

Computerized comparative linguistics Calculator to

compare the relatedness (genetic proximity) for over
160 languages (from Afar to Zulu)

12
Linguistics at DMOZ
All About Linguistics from Sheeld University, as
an introduction to linguistics.

11

EXTERNAL LINKS

13

12
12.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

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Vaganyik, SolKarma, Hannes Hirzel, Boleslav Bobcik, Ellmist, Graft, Sara Parks Ricker, Ryguasu, Hirzel, Hephaestos, Stevertigo, DennisDaniels, Quintessent, JohnOwens, Michael Hardy, Tim Starling, Two halves, Lexor, AdamRaizen, Liftarn, Menchi, Wapcaplet, Nine Tail
Fox, Paul A, Poitypoity, Alo, Looxix~enwiki, Ahoerstemeier, Nanshu, Docu, Snoyes, LittleDan, Glenn, Bogdangiusca, Poor Yorick, Nikai,
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HamYoyo, Pinnerup, Random account 47, Moxfyre, Lacrimosus, Valmi, Bluemask, Grstain, Freakofnurture, Venu62, Mindspillage, EugeneZelenko, Discospinster, Zaheen, Rich Farmbrough, Dbachmann, Mani1, Gronky, Bender235, Kbh3rd, Livajo, El C, Szyslak, Szquirrel,
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class='image'><img
alt=''
src='https://upload.
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srcset='https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Globe_of_letters.png 1.5x' data-le-width='144' data-leheight='116' /></a>
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Updated by Time3000 17 April 2007 to use ocial Wikinews colours and appear correctly on dark backgrounds. Originally uploaded by
Simon.
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12.3

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