linguistics and language aswers guide#1.docx

Linguistics and languageWhat is Linguistics?Linguistics is generally defined as `the scientific study of language`, i.e. it attempts to study language as a scientist itself, systematically and without prejudice. This implies observing, forming hypothesis, testing those hypothesis and refining them on the basis od collected evidence.What is its ultimate goal?Its ultimate goal is to understand the properties shared by all natural human language: how languages are structured, and how and why they vary and change- how language is acquired, and how it is used by individuals and groups to communicate.What is language?

by Isabel Montaa

A language is a set of systems by which we communicate. This system is a finite one made of principles that make it possible for speakers to construct sentences to do particular communicative jobs. These principles may be called Grammatical Competence and Communicative Competence. By saying grammatical competence, we refer to the knowledge and the ability to produce sentences, building blocks of sentences (e.g., parts of speech, tenses, phrases, clauses, sentence patterns), and how the sentences are formed. Although it can master the rules of sentence formation in a language, the grammatical competence is still not very successful at being able to use the language for meaningful communication. So here is when we need to refer to communicative competence, which includes knowing how to use language for a range of different purposes and function, and knowing how to vary our use of language according to the setting and participants.

What are the universal properties of language?Although languages differ in many ways, they are all made possible by the same genetic information, they are all processed by the brain in basically the same ways, and, not surprisingly, they all share certain fundamental `design features` and structural characteristics that enable them to work the way they do.- Universal properties of the language.

ModularityPeople produce and interpret language using a set of coordinated modules or subsystems. Each module is responsible for a part of the total job, taking outputs of other modules as its inputs and distributes its own outputs to those other modules. These modules facilitate linguistics analyses hugely. For example, Phonetics concentrated in the production and interpretation of speech sound, Phonology studies the organization of raw phonetics in an individual language, Morphology, the structure of within words, and Syntax, the structure of sentences, and so on.

Constituency and recursionAs language is organized into constituents, allows more complex units to enter structures where simpler ones are also possible. These constituents permits a balance of structure and flexibility, because constituents can be replaced by only other constituents, and they can be moved if they are complete ones.Constituency allows recursion in a language. A recursive language means that permits grammatical processes to be applied repeatedly, combining units or constituents to expand a variety of sentences to indefinite length.

discretenessThe term is especially used in phonetics and phonology to refer to sounds which have relatively clear-cut boundaries, as defined in acoustic, articulatory or auditory terms. It is evident that speech is a continuous stream of sound, but speakers of a language are able to segment this continuum into a finite number of discrete units, these usually corresponding to the phonemes of the language.productivityIt refers to the creative capacity of language users to coin new words and, produce and understand an indefinitely large number of sentences. arbitrarinessIt`s another fundamental property of the language. It refers to the fact that words have no principled or systematic connection with their meanings. This special characteristic changes from language to language, that is to say that sounds are perceived through arbitrary `sound filters` of their respective language.Reliance on contextThis a crucial language property, because here the interpretation plays an important role, and also the interpretation depends on the context and situation in which is uttered. The context could be a sentence or sentences, or it could be a physical or social circumstances in which the utterance is produced, too.variabilityAlso known as difference and diversity, the variability allows people to communicate far more than the semantic content of the words and sentences they utter. This variability is said to be indexical, because permits people to signal their social identities (social status, geographical features, etc.) and define the immediate speech situation (roles their playing, social situations, etc.) with the use of language.

what are the core areas of language?The core areas of language are the following:

PhonologyIt involves the study of production, transmission and reception of speech sounds (PHONETICS) and the study of sounds and sounds patterns of a specific language.PHONETICSThe ability to produce or articulate an infinite number of sounds by the continuous movement of speech organs when we speak.MorphologyIts the study of morphemes, which are the smallest significant units of grammar.LexicologyStudies the words and word segments, their meaning and organization.syntax It concentrates on the study of isolated words and words in combination, in the language.semanticsIt refers to the meaning and connotation of words.

HOW AND WHERE IS THE LINGUISTICS SAID TO HAVE STARTED DEVELOPING?We find the foundation of linguistics in ancient times. The written linguistic traditions arose in antique societies, in response to language changings and resulting religious and legal impact.

babylonian traditionTheir texts were written on cuneiform on clay tablets. Their texts were lists of nouns in Sumerian. Sumerian was the language of religious and legal texts. Sumerian was replaced by Akkadian, a prestigious language.hindu traditionOrigins in the first millennium BC. Stimulated by changes in Sanskrit, the sacred language of religious texts. The grammatical tradition purpose was to set out rules for the ancient language. Pannini`s grammar covered phonetics differences between words pronounced in isolation and in connected speech. greek linguisticsDeveloped in response to linguistics changes necessitating explanation of the language of Homer`s epics. Themes of importance included the origin of the language, parts-of-speech systems, the relation between language and thought, and the relation between the two aspects of word signs: meaning (iconicity) and convention (arbitrary). Dionysus Thrax`s grammatical work treated phonetics and morphology, and had a considerable influence over later descriptive grammar.Roman traditionStudied the themes of Greek linguists` interests. The primary interest was in morphology, parts-of-speech and the forms of nouns and verbs.arabic tradition and hebrew traditionsFocused on morphology and accurate phonetic descriptions. Their main contributions are the work of Abu al-Aswad ad Du`ali and Saadya ben Joseph al-Fayyumi, who produced the first grammar and dictionary in Hebrew; and last but not least, David Qimhi`s work, which had a strong impact on European linguistics.middle ages in EuropeBack then Latin was held in high esteem as the language of the public sphere, as the primary written language. Sooner vernacular languages increased among scholars, and traditions of writing began to emerge and still were presented in the mould of Latin.The notion of universal nature of grammar, which was refined and developed by scholars such as Roger Bacon. He held that grammar was fundamentally the same in all languages, differences being incidental and shallow.The first grammatical treatise was introduced sometime in the 12th century in Iceland. It concentrated on spelling reform, to correct in adequacies of the Latin-based writing system of Icelandic. It presented a short description of Icelandic phonology, differentiating phones from phonemes. european colonialismThanks to explorers, colonial administrators, travelers, missionaries and others grammar and word lists and texts were spread up in Europe. Some scholars compiled these multilingual lists and made language comparisons. The languages that were related to one another where appreciated gradually, and sooner, developed and established.In later centuries, William Jones will discover the relatedness of Indo-European languages and will be the founder of comparative linguistics.Other families of related languages were recognized and motivated soon after by the hand of: Adriaan Reeland, who proposed a relation between the languages of Madagascar and the islands of Indonesian archipelago. Jans Sajnovics showed a relation between Hungarian, Finnish and Saami in 1770. Six years later, Abb Lievain Proyart observed relatedness of the African languages Kakongo, Laongo, and Kikongo. In 1787, jonathan Edwards demonstrated that Algonquian languages of North American form a family. Rasmus Rask drew a coherent system of principles for stablishing the relatedness of languages. He highlighted grammar evidence and sound correspondences between related words. Augus Schleicher further formalized Rask`s ideas into the comparative method.Soon after, Latin grammar formed the basis for the tradition of missionary grammars. Colonial powers mounted academic, anthropological, biological, and geological investigations for further grammar research.