GREETINGS TO ALL !!!
WELCOME
LINGUISTICS
AN INTRODUCTION
Topics for Discussion
• What is Linguistics?
• What is Language?
• What are the various branches of Linguistics?
• Why should one study Linguistics at all?
• Conclusion.
What is Linguistics ??
AN OVERVIEW
• Linguistics is basically the scientific study of
language.
• It provides us with theoretical and analytical
frameworks through which the organization
and construction of any human language can
be understood.
• Linguistics uses empirical data which can be
verified and tested.
What is language?
FEATURES OF LANGUAGE
• It is related to the cognitive aspects of life.
• It is verbal.
• It uses vocal- auditory channel.
• Broadcast transmission is direction (speaker-
hearer/ audience).
• Rapid fading (the sounds diminish fast).
• Interchangeability (speaker-hearer-speaker).
• Feedback (instant correction)
• Symbolic (uses vocal- auditory channel to
symbolize what is intended to be conveyed).
• Semanticity (meaningfulness).
• Arbitrariness (no inherent relationship between
the word and its meaning).
• Discreteness (every sound segment can be
differentiated).
• Displacement (past- present- future).
• Productivity/ Recursiveness (one learns to tell
lies/ elongate a phrase or a sentence).
• Traditional transmission.
• Duality of patterning.
• It promotes our thinking process.
• It is species- specific.
THE BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS
• Phonetics/ Phonology
• Morphology
• Syntax
• Semantics
• Pragmatics
• Sociolinguistics
• Applied Linguistics
• Neurolinguistics
• Historical Linguistics.
PHONETICS/PHONOLOGY
AN OVERVIEW
• Phonetics- It comprises the study of human
speech sounds,
• their physical properties,
• acoustic properties,
• auditory perception
• Articulatory phonetics, Acoustic Phonetics,
Auditory Phonetics.
• Phonology- concerned with the system of
phonemes.
• Phonemes differentiate the words of a
language.
• It is the study of how sounds and patterns
pattern in and across languages.
• Phonology relates to phonetics via the set of
distinctive features : abstract is related to real
through a set of features.
MORPHOLOGY
AN OVERVIEW
• Phonology deals with sounds and Morphology
deals with the various combinations of sounds
called morphemes.
• These morphemes can be complete words or
affixes.
• They also encompass parts of speech and
intonational and tonal patterns in a language.
• Free Vs. Bound morphemes.
• Word formation processes like derivational,
inflectional, neologism, acronyms, compounding
etc.
SYNTAX
• It is the study of the various processes that lead
to the construction of a sentence in a language.
• It also refers to the principles that govern
sentence structure in an individual language
e.g. SOV, SVO etc.
• Phrase structure rules.
SEMANTICS
• It is the study of meaning.
• Relationship between the signifier (sounds,
signs, symbols, words, phrases etc.) and
signified.
• It is the study of meaning and elation between
different linguistic units and compounds :
synonymy, antonymy, hypernymy, hyponymy
etc.
PRAGMATICS
• It is that subfield of Linguistics that studies how
context contributes to meaning.
• It studies speech acts and interactions.
• It studies not only the meaning that is encoded in a
language (semantics) but also the meaning that is
dependent on the context of speech and the
linguistic knowledge of the speaker and the
listener.
• Pragmatics helps to reduce language ambiguity.
SOCIOLINGUISTICS
• Difference in language and dialect.
• Concept of Standard Language.
• Mother tongue, first language, second
language and foreign language.
• Speech communities.
• Ethnic identity.
• Bilingualism and Multilingualism.
• India as a linguistic area.
APPLIED LINGUISTICS
• This sub- field of Linguistics has helped in the
evolution of various types of interdisciplinary
studies that deals with real- life problems.
• Language pedagogy, second language
acquisition and speech forensics.
• Evolution of the effective methods of FLT,
ESL and ELT.
• Deals in Speech pathology.
NEUROLINGUISTICS
• It is the study of neural mechanisms in the
human brain that results in the production and
perception of speech sounds.
• Pathological disorders in brain leading to
speech disorders.
• Apasiology : Broca’s ,Wernicke’s Aphasia and
Universal Aphasia.
• Psycholinguistics.
HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
• Traces the evolution of a particular language or
languages (diachrony and synchrony).
• Etymology of words (loanwords/ derivational).
• History of speech communities.
• Study of the various language families.
• India has five language families: Indo-
European, Dravidian, Tibeto- Burman, Austro-
Asiatic and Great Andamanese.
WHY STUDY LINGUISTICS?
• Helps us understand the power of language.
(Win a Friend or make an Enemy).
• Understanding of Linguistics makes one a better
foreign language learner.
• ELT, FLT, Language pedagogy.
• Helps in dealing with speech disorders.
• Discourse analysis, lexicography, speech forensics
etc.
• Interdisciplinary studies like psycholinguistics,
sociolinguistics, biolinguistics etc.
CONCLUSION
• Scientific study of language with various sub-fields.
• Phonology, Morphology, Syntax and Semantics.
• Language is primary to literature.
• It is highly systematic.
• Comsky -- Every child is born with an innate capacity
to acquire language called the Language Acquisition
Device and a framework which is hardwired called the
Universal Grammar.
• Language is as primary to humans as brain, heart, liver
and kidneys.
THANKYOU
