Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguistics describes the way humans use language and what we must understand in order to do so. Linguistics is descriptive not prescriptive meaning it is used to describe different languages and dialects not to decide what is wrong and right. A range of information is used for describing language from descriptions of the physical production of speech sounds to proper and improper use in varieties of social contexts.
Linguistics generally describes language in five main ways: phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.
A variety of types of linguistic studies exist. These approach the description of language from different ways. They include historical linguistics (how languages can change over time), sociolinguists (how language is used and varies in a society), and psycholinguistics (how language is acquired and how the brain processes language).
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Phonology
Phonology includes all the important sounds, the rules for combining them to make words and adding the stress to the words. Each language has their important sounds, with different variations. These variations include the different places where a sound can be that makes it sound different each time.
Example: Letter H
Hat
That
There is a definition for studying speech sounds which is called phonetics.
Phonetics is the study of the production of speech sounds. Phonology, one area of phonetics, describes how these sounds are organized, interact, and are used in a language.
In order to represent speech sounds a system of classification and description distinct from a languages written alphabet is necessary. Linguists use phonetic transcription for this purpose. Several unique systems have been established including the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), the NATO phonetic alphabet, and the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet. The IPA is the most widely used.
The International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) has over a hundred symbols dedicated to the sounds of vowels and consonants and the variety of ways in which they can be used. The alphabet itself is based on the Latin alphabet and makes it a point to use as many non-Latin symbols as possible. It is, in essence, its own language. Each symbol is particular to a certain sound or inflection, including such things as diphthongs. Diphthongs are a sequence of 2 vowels. The first part is called the on glide and the second part is called the off glide. There are five of them. Place and manner of articulation and whether or not the speech sound is voiced or voiceless plays a large role in how a symbol is supposed to be interpreted. There are many charts that explain the formation of vowels and consonants, and how the tongue, lips, and teeth influence the sound within the mouth.
A list of letters in the IPA as well as sounds can be found here.
The International Phonetic Alphabet chart for place and manner of articulation and voicing can be found here.
There is a website that can help if you want to type using the IPA. It is http://ipa.typeit.org
The IPA divides the alphabet into three categories: pulmonic consonants, non-pulmonic consonants, and vowels.
Pulmonic Consonants
Pulmonic consonants make up the majority of the IPA's consonants as well as the human language. In the English language, all consonants are produced this way. They are produced by obstructing the glottis or oral cavity while simultaneously letting air out of the lungs.
Non-pulmonic Consonants
Non-pulmonic consonants are sounds that are not dependent on the air flow from lungs. This is mostly found in other languages across the earth. This includes such sounds as clicks which are found in some languages of Africa, implosives, and ejectives.
Vowels
Vowels are produced based on the placement of the tongue. In the IPA, they are described as being the syllable center. The vowel "a" in the word "mall" has the tongue lowered to the bottom of the mouth, while the [i] sound in the word "beach" has the tongue raised to the roof of the mouth.
Morphology
Linguists are more concerned with word boundaries, or how words sound rather than how they are spelled. Morphology is the study of how words are formed. It explains how words are built and what the pieces of the words mean. Words can be either simple or complex. A simple word is a word that cannot be broken down any further and has only one morpheme. A complex word is a word that can be broken down and has more than one morpheme.
While phonemes are the individual speech sounds, morphemes can be viewed as the next block to word building. Morphemes are the smallest unit of language which has consistent meaning or function (that contribute to the meaning of the whole word). Therefore, morphemes are "basic words" and "basic word parts" and they make up the lexicon. The lexicon is an unordered, permanent set of linguistic units (morphemes). Each linguistic unit is associated with phonetics, semantics, and the syntactic category, such as verb or noun.
There are two types of morphemes, free morphemes and bound morphemes. Free morphemes can stand by itself as a word, such as the word "dog". Bound morphemes on the other hand, have to be attached to something. For instance, the "s" in the word "dogs" is a bound morpheme. There are two kinds of bound morphemes, inflectional and derivational. Inflectional morphemes do not change the part of speech of the part of a word they attach to. Inflectional morphemes modify a word, such as the "er" in the word "shorter". "Short" is an adjective, and with "er" attached, the word is still an adjective. Derivational morphemes (or suffixes) can change the part of speech of the part of a word they attach to. Derivational morphemes create new words, such as the "er" in "worker". "Work" is a verb, and with "er" attached, the word becomes a noun.
Words
/ \
simple complex
\
multiple morphemes
/ \
free bound
/ \
inflectional derivational
Types of Morphology
Affixation
Affixation is the building of words by adding affixes (suffixes or prefixes) to a base word.
Run + Re(prefix)= Rerun or climb + ing(suffix)= climbing or Absolutely + bloody(infix)= absobloodylutely.
Inflection
Inflection is creating new words based on tense, aspect, person or number.[1].
Break --> Broken
Compounding
Compounding is the creation of new words by combining two already complete words.
newspaper is formed from 'news' + 'paper'
Back Formation
Back formation is the creation of a shorter word by taking off the suffix(es). Creates a new root word through the deletion of suffix(es).
reminiscence (N), reminiscent (ADJ)--> reminisce (V)
Functional Shift
Functional shift occurs when a word that is usually used as a noun is used as a verb.
Vacation--> to go vacationing
Reduplication
Reduplication occurs when part of or a whole morpheme is repeated.
bye-bye or yo yo
There is debate about the importance or necessity of the relationship between morphology and understanding the language. Due to dialectical usages of language, the meaning of the word in a specific region could be different than the way the word was created (i.e. over time the morphemes could fuse to become one) making the origins irrelevant. Also, since the Latin and Greek origins are sparingly taught in primary and secondary schools, the overwhelming majority of English speakers are unaware of a word's origin yet can still use the language correctly.
Syntax
Syntax is the study of how words are combined to form phrases and sentences. There are patterns in the sentences that we speak, some are deemed grammatically correct and some incorrect. Syntax, another way to say sentence structure, is the beginning of a talk about grammatical word order.
Word order is an important aspect to look at when we talk about syntax. This is important because not all languages have people speak or write the way we do. For example, in our language, we put the adjective before the noun but in other languages such as French, they add their adjectives after the noun.
Semantics
Semantics is the study of the meaning of language. Often the study of logic comes hand in hand, and informs the meaning of a given statement. It is the interpretation of signs and symbols, as well as body language, facial expression, punctuation, and the sounds we produce to emphasize and explain the meaning.
Semantics has to do with our mental dictionary or our lexicon.There are two subbranches of semantics: lexical semantics, which is the study of how words mean; and compositional semantics, which is the study of how words and syntax work together to make sentences have meaning.
Semantics and reference are often considered related fields. A dog is a thing to which the word dog refers; and dog is a word that refers to an object with certain qualities typical to dogs but not typical of things that aren’t dogs, like cats. When we see a dog, we don’t generally think of its dictionary definition (dog...n. 1a. a domesticated carnivorous mammal (Canis familiaris) closely related to the gray wolf[2]). We simply think dog.
Semantics is also related to fields of philology, communication, and semiotics.
This is also important when looking at language development in young children. When children are young, they sometimes use the same language as adults but sometimes their words may have different meaning.
Prescriptivism vs. Descriptivism
Linguistics views all spoken language as a dialect. Each dialect of a given language adheres to its own system of complicated rules. What this statement exposes is that Standard American English is a political choice. There are two main approaches to grammar, prescriptive and descriptive.
Descriptive grammar refers to the interacting unconscious rules of syntax, morphology, phonology, and semantics that use to speak their language. The linguist looks for fact instead of correctness. Basically, the sentence conveys a message, although it may break prescriptive grammar rules.
Prescriptive grammar refers to the linguistic rules arbitrarily designated (by dictionaries, textbooks, and self appointed authorities, etc) as rules of "correct" grammar. The linguist in prescriptive grammar looks for "correctness" instead of fact.
Pragmatics
Pragmatics is the use of language that someone expresses in everyday life to help get things done. People use language to express their intent. For children, in the beginning, they use one word to express what they want, need, or don't want. Children also use this for labeling. This also has to do with ability to have conversations. This is also a part of communicative competence. If children have trouble with this, they may have trouble structuring a story to accomplish a specific goal.
References
The Development of Language Seventh Edition by Jean Berko Gleason and Nan Bernstein Ratner.
