Outline of linguistics

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The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to linguistics:

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. Linguistics has two subdivisions, general and applied.

Branches of linguistics

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Subfields of linguistics

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Subfields, by linguistic structures studied

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Sub-fields of structure-focused linguistics include:

  • Phonetics – the study of the physical properties of speech (or signed) production and perception
  • Phonology – the study of sounds (or signs) as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker's mind that distinguish meaning
  • Morphology – the study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified
  • Syntax – study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences
  • Semantics – the study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word combinations (phraseology), and how these compose to form the meanings of sentences
  • Pragmatics – the study of how utterances are used in communicative acts – and the role played by context and nonlinguistic knowledge in the transmission of meaning

Subfields, by nonlinguistic factors studied

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  • Applied linguistics – the study of language-related issues applied in everyday life, notably language policies, planning, and education. (Constructed language fits under Applied linguistics.)
  • Biolinguistics – the study of the biological and evolutionary components of human language
  • Clinical linguistics – application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-Language Pathology
  • Computational linguistics – the study of linguistic issues in a way that is 'computationally responsible', i.e., taking careful note of computational consideration of algorithmic specification and computational complexity, so that the linguistic theories devised can be shown to exhibit certain desirable computational properties implementations
  • Developmental linguistics – the study of the development of linguistic ability in individuals, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood
  • Historical linguistics – the study of language change over time. Also called diachronic linguistics
  • Language geography – the study of the geographical distribution of languages and linguistic features
  • Neurolinguistics – the study of the structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and communication
  • Psycholinguistics – the study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language use
  • Sociolinguistics – the study of variation in language and its relationship with social factors
  • Stylistics – the study of linguistic factors that place a discourse in context

Other subfields of linguistics

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  • Contrastive linguistics – an approach which seeks to analyze a pair of languages via their similarities and differences
  • Corpus linguistics – an empirical linguistic methodology that aims to study language by using large, searchable, annotated databases (corpora)
  • Dialectology – the study of language dialects, i.e, subsets of a language
  • Discourse analysis – an approach that studies language as it is naturally used and constituted within discourses, with discourses considered generally as semiotic structures
  • Grammar – the system of rules and principles governing the composition and usage of a language
  • Interlinguistics – the study of auxiliary and planned languages for the facilitation of communication between speakers of different languages and their design
  • Language acquisition – process by which an individual acquires their first language (L1)
  • Language education – teaching specific language and language science
  • Language for specific purposes – the study of language learning in context of highly specific goals and purposes for which the language is learnt, particularly in education and applied linguistcs
  • Lexicology – the study of the lexicon of a given language and its structure
  • Orthography – sets of conventions for writing a language, including spelling, punctuation, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and emphasis
  • Rhetoric – the study of the techniques by which language can be used to persuade
  • Text linguistics – an approach that views texts as communicative systems, particularly focusing on the study of texts as a whole

Schools, movements, and approaches of linguistics

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  • Semiotics – the study of the relationship between signs and what they signify more broadly. From the perspective of semiotics, language can be seen as a sign or symbol, with the world as its representation.
  • Terminology – the study of terms and their use
  • Philosophy of language – takes a philosophical approach to language. Many formal semanticists are philosophers of language, differing from linguist semanticists only in their metaphysical assumptions (if at all).

History of linguistics

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See also: History of linguistics

Timeline of discovery of basic linguistics concepts

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When were the basic concepts first described and by whom?

Questions in linguistics

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  1. What is language?
  2. How did it/does it evolve?
  3. How does language serve as a medium of communication?
  4. How does language serve as a medium of thinking?
  5. What is common to all languages?
  6. How do languages differ?

Basic concepts

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What basic concepts / terms do I have to know to talk about linguistics?

Languages of the world

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Languages by continent and country

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Linguistics scholars

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Main article: List of linguists

People who had a significant influence on the development of the field

Linguistics lists

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Arabic Aramaic Armenian Braille Coptic Cyrillic
Georgian Gothic Korean Hebrew IPA English IPA
Kannada Hiragana Katakana Morse code ICAO spelling Phoenician
Runic SAMPA chart English SAMPA Shavian Thai

The placement of linguistics within broader frameworks

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See also: Outline of academic disciplines and Linguistics § Nomenclature

Linguistics can be described as an academic discipline and, at least in its theoretical subfields, as a field of science,[1] being a widely recognized category of specialized expertise, embodying its own terminology, nomenclature, and scientific journals. Many linguists, such as David Crystal, conceptualize the field as being primarily scientific.[1]

Linguistics is a multi-disciplinary field of research that combines tools from natural sciences, social sciences, formal sciences, and the humanities.[2][3][4][5]

Historically, there has been some lack of consensus on the disciplinary classification of linguistics, particularly theoretical linguistics. Linguistic realists viewed linguistics as a formal science; linguistic nominalists (the American structuralists) viewed linguistics as an empirical or even physical science; linguistic conceptualists viewed linguistics as a branch of psychology and therefore a social science; others yet have argued for viewing linguistics as a mixed science.[5]

Linguistics is heterogeneous in its methods of research, so that each area of theoretical linguistics may resemble methodologically either formal science or empirical science, to different degrees. For example, phonetics uses empirical approaches to study the physical acoustics of spoken language. On the other hand, semantically and grammatically, the usability of a formal or natural language is dependent on a formal and arbitrary axiomatization of rules or norms. Furthermore, as studied in pragmatics and semiotics, linguistic meaning is influenced by social context.[5]

To enable communication by upholding a lexico-semantic norm, the speakers of a shared language need to agree on the meaning of a sequence of phonemes; for instance, "aunt" (/æ/, /n/, /t/) would be acknowledged to signify "parent's sister or parent's sister-in-law", instead of "drummer" or "guest". Likewise, grammatically, it may be necessary for the interlocutors to agree on the morphological and syntactic properties of the sequence; say, that the sequence (/æ/, /n/, /t/) would be treated as a singular noun convertible morphologically to plurality by the addition of the suffix -s, or that as a noun it must not be modified syntactically by an adverb (for instance, "Let's call our immediately aunt" would thus be recognized as a grammatically incoherent structure, in a manner similar to a mathematically undefined expression).

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Crystal, David (1990). Linguistics. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-013531-2.
  2. ^ Spolsky, Bernard; Hult, Francis M. (February 2010). The Handbook of Educational Linguistics. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-4443-3104-2.
  3. ^ Berns, Margie (20 March 2010). Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Elsevier. pp. 23–25. ISBN 978-0-08-096503-1.
  4. ^ "The Science of Linguistics". Linguistic Society of America. Retrieved 17 April 2018. Modern linguists approach their work with a scientific perspective, although they use methods that used to be thought of as solely an academic discipline of the humanities. Contrary to previous belief, linguistics is multidisciplinary. It overlaps each of the human sciences including psychology, neurology, anthropology, and sociology. Linguists conduct formal studies of sound structure, grammar and meaning, but they also investigate the history of language families, and research language acquisition.
  5. ^ a b c Behme, Christina; Neef, Martin. Essays on Linguistic Realism (2018). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 7–20
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