STUDY OF THE
LINGUISTICS
BRANCHES, THEORIES, AND APPROACHES.
WHAT IS LINGUISTICS ?
RELATING TO LANGUAGE; THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF LANGUAGE, IT’S FOCUS IS
THE SYSTHEMATIC INVESTIGATION OF THE PROPERTIES OF PARTICULAR
LANGUAGES AS WELL AS THE CHARACTERITICS OF LANGUAGE IN GENERAL.
LINGUISTICS IS THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE.
BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS
LINGUISTICS IS A BROAD FIELD THAT ENCOMPASSES VARIOUS BRANCHES, EACH
FOCUSING ON DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF LANGUAGE.
BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS
THERE ARE A LOT OF BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS BUT THIS ARE THE MAIN
BRANCHES AND THIS ARE :
PHONOLOGY
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
SOCIOLINGUISTICS
HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS
APPLIED LINGUISTICS
PHONETICS
SYNTAX
SEMANTICS
MORPHOLOGY
PRAGMATICS
COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS
STYLISTICS
BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS
THIS ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS:
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS – THE STUDY OF HOW LANGUAGE IS PROCESSED IN THE HUMAN
MIND.
SOCIOLINGUISTICS – THE STUDY OF HOW LANGUAGE VARIES AND CHANGES WITHIN
DIFFERENT SOCIAL GROUPS AND COMMUNITIES.
HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS – THE STUDY OF HOW LANGUAGES CHANGE OVERTIME AND
HOW ARE THEY RELATED TO ONE ANOTHER THROUGH EVOLUTION AND HISTORICAL
PROCESSES.
COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS – THE APPLICATION OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND
ARTIFICIAL INTELEGENCE TO THE ANALYSIS AND GENERATION OF NATURAL
LANGUAGE.
THIS IS JUST SOME OF THE BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS THAT MAY HELP US IMPROVE OUR
KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS ABOUT IT.
THEORIES OF LINGUISTICS
LINGUISTIC THEORIES AIMS TO EXPLAIN THE NATURE OF HUMAN LANGUAGE IN
TERMS OF BASIC UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES.
LINGUISTS STUDY THE STRUCTURE OF NATURAL LANGUAGES IN ORDER TO GAIN
A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THOSE PRINCIPLES;
WHAT DOES LINGUISTIC THEORY MEAN ?
LINGUISTIC THEORY, THE CORE OF THE MODERN FIELD OF LINGUISTICS, SEEKS
TO CHARACERIZE THE LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE THAT NORMAL HUMAN BEING
ACQUAIRE IN THE COURSE OF MASTERING THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE BETWEEN
THE AGES OF ONE AND FIVE.
THE NEXT SLIDE WILL SHOW US THE EXAMPLES OF LINGUISTIC THEORIES.
LINGUISTIC THEORIES
GOALS OF LINGUISTIC THEORY – THE GOALS OF LINGUISTIC THEORY ARE TO
ANSWER SUCH QUESTIONS AS “ WHAT IS LANGUAGE ?” AND “WHAT PROPERTIES
MUST SOMETHING ( AN ORGANISM OR A MACHINE ) HAVE AN ORDER FOR IT TO
LEARN AND USE LANGUAGE ?” DIFFERENT THEORIES PROVIDE DIFFERENT ANSWERS
TO THE QUESTIONS, AND THERE IS AT PRESENT NO GENERAL CONSENSUS AS TO
WHAT THEORY GIVES THE BEST ANSWER. MOREOVER, MOST LINGUIST, WHEN
PASSED, WOULD SAY THAT THESE QUESTIONS HAVE NOT YET BEEN SATISFACTORILY
ANSWERED BY ANY THEORIES.
MORPHS AND MORPHEMES – THE SIMPLEST EXPRESSIONS OF A LANGUAGE ARE
THOSE THAT CANNOT BE DIVEDED INTO MEANINGFUL PARTS, OTHER THAN THE
ENTIRE SEQUESNCE OF SYLLABLES THAT MAKE UP EACH SUCH EXPRESSION AND ITS
STRESS AND INTONATION CONTOUR. FOR EXAMPLE, THE EXPRESSION [NO:] ‘NO?’
AND [NO:] ‘NO!’
THEORIES OF LINGUISTIC
THE LEXICON – THE PARTICULAR PAIRINGS OF EXPRESSION AND MEANING
REPRESENTED BY INDIVIDUAL MORPHEMES HAVE TO BE LEARNED INDIVIDUALLY.
THE TOTALITY OF ALL THE PAIRINGSS IN A LANGUAGE THAT MUST BE
INDIVIDUALLY LEARNED IS KNOWN AS ITS LEXICON, AND ITS IDIVIDUAL
MEMBERS ARE CALLED LEXEMES ( OR LEXICAL ITEMS ). FOR EXAMPLE, THE
MEANING OF THE WORD UNUSUAL AND OF THE PHRASE TOUCH BASE CANNOT
BE SYSTEMATICALLY DETERMINED FROM THE MEANING OF THEIR CONSTITUENT
LEXEMES; HENCE THOSE COMBINATION ARE ALSO ENGLISH LEXEMES.
UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR – A COMPLETE ANALYSIS OF THE LEXICON, MORPHOLOGY
AND SYNTAX OF A LANGUAGE IS CALLED ITS GRAMMAR. THE THEORY OF
GRAMMAR, WHICH IS SIGNIFICANT PART OF LINGUISTIC THEORY AS WHOLE, HAS
AS ONE OF ITS GOALS THE ANSWER TO THE QUESTION ‘ WHAT IS THE CLASS OF
ALL POSSIBLE GRAMMARS ?’
THEORIES OF LINGUISTIC
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR – THE FIRST COMPLETE STATEMENT OF THE THEORY OF
GRAMMAR IN THE FORM PRESENTED HERE WAS THE ‘STANDARD THEORY’ OF
GENERATIVE GRAMMAR PRESENTED IN CHOMSKY (1965), HENCEFORTH ST. THE
MODERN ENTERPRISE OF LINGUISTIC THEORY, WAS LESS WELL DEVELOPED
INASMUCH AS IT NEITHER ATTEMPTED YO ACCOUNT FOR THE MEANING OF
EXPRESSIONS.
APPROACHES OF LINGUISTICS
WHAT IS APPROACHES OF LINGUISTICS ?
THE LINGUISTIC APPROACH IS TEACHING METHOD THAT ENSURES THAT THE
SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN MUST HAVE A STRONG COMMAND OVER THEIR
MOTHER TOUNGUE OR NATIVE LANGUAGE.
THIS ARE THE THREE DIFFERENT APPROACHES IN LINGUISTICS:
SYNTAX – IN LINGUISTICS, REFERS TO THE SET OF RULES AND PRINCIPLES THAT
GOVERN THE STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES IN A LANGUAGE. IT DEALS WITH HOW
WORDS ARE ORGANIZED INTO PHRASES, CLAUSES, AND SENTENCES TO CONVEY
MEANING. SYNTAX PLAYS A CRUCIAL ROLE IN DETERMINING THE ORDER OF WORDS,
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN WORDS, AND THE OVERALL GRAMMATICAL
STRUCTURE OF A SENTENCE.
HERE’S HOW SYNTAX CONTRIBUTES TO MEANING:
APPROACHES OF LINGUISTICS
APPROACHES OF LINGUISTICS
SEMANTICS – IS THE STUDY OF MEANING IN LANGUAGE. IT CAN BE APPLIED TO
ENTIRE TEXTS OR TO SINGLE WORDS. FOR EXAMPLE, “DESTINATION” AND
“LAST STOP” TECHNICALLY MEANS THE SAME THING, BUT STUDENTS OF
SEMANTICS ANALYZE THEIR SUBTLE SHADES OF MEANING.
APPROACHES OF LINGUISTICS
APPROACHES OF LINGUISTICS
PRAGMATICS – IS THE STUDY OF CONTEXTUAL FACTORS THAT SHAPE THE
MEANING OF SENTENCE, INCLUDING THE SITUATION AND SOCIAL RULES THAT
DICTATE ITS USE. IT FALLS UNDER THE BROADER FIELD OF LINGUISTICS, WHICH
STUDIES HOW LANGUAGE WORK AND HOW PEOPLE USE IT, RATHER THAN
SIMPLY RELYING ON THE DEFINITION OF EACH WORD AND THEIR ORDER.
APPROACHES OF LINGUISTICS
