Fundamentals of Linguistics: Definition Branches and Central Concepts

VO 1 What is Linguistic (=Sprachwissenschaft)? Linguistic is the scientific study of `language´ or of particular languages. It is as well the systematic study of the form’s language can take and the ways in which language is used. “Linguistics is all about human language, that means it is primarily concerned with the uniquely human capacity to express ideas and feelings by voluntarily produced speech sounds or their equivalents, such as gestures in sign languages used by deaf persons” (Biswanger & Becker 2006[2010]: 2) Scholars who systematically study (a) language refer to themselves as: o linguists o grammarians o communication experts o philologists > The term "philology" is derived from the Greek φιλολογία (philología), from the terms φίλος (phílos) "love, affection, loved, beloved, dear, friend" and λόγος (lógos) "word, articulation, reason", describing a love of speaking/writing A teacher of a specific language is automatically all of these! What questions are linguiss particulary interested in? How and why did language develop? (Evolutionary linguistics) How and why is language constantly changing? (Historical/diachronic linguistics) How is language acquired by little children? (1st Language Acquisition) How is language learned as a second or foreign language? (2nd Language Acquisition) How/where is language stored in the brain + processed? (Neurolinguistics, Psycholinguistics) How does language interact with cognition? (Cognitive linguistics) different societies/different groups of society? (Sociolinguistics) What communicative functions does language have? (Functional linguistics) How do languages differ from each other? (Typology) How can/should a (foreign) language be taught best? (FLT (Foreign) language teaching) Branches of linguistics: Linguists identify six branches (subfields) in Linguistics (Six levels in a language): ▪ Phonetics: the study of speech sounds ▪ Phonology: the study of sound systems of individual languages, study of phonemes ▪ Morphology: the study of the creation and structure of words and morphemes ▪ Syntax: the study of structural units larger than words (e.g. phrases, clauses, sentences) ▪ Semantics: the study of word and sentence meaning ▪ Pragmatics: the study of meaning in context, study of discourse Central Concepts of Linguistics: Ferdinand De Saussure (1857-1913) o father of modern linguistics/Structuralism o “Modern linguistics” emerged at the beginning of the 20th century o from his lecture ‘Course de linguistique générale’ o his contribution is seen as the milestone for linguistics. Synchronic vs. Diachronic: Diachronic study of language: ▪ studies (a) language overtime, i.e. the changes that can be observed in the course of history of a language. (e.g., changes Shakespeare-English and modern-day-English) Synchronic study of language: ▪ studies (a) language at a certain point of time (e.g., modern-day-English as it is spoken today) ▪ Synchronic study of language: abstraction, because language is always in transition! Language is an evolutionary ‘Complex Adaptive System’ (similarlyto biology) ▪ New variant (mutation) -> if there is nobody else in the society but you who catches on your new word, then this word will probably die out after some time. ▪ Successful spread (replication) -> If the new word not died out, it can be very successful ▪ Competition between variants -> We can choose between different ways of expressing ourselves e.g., active sentence/passive sentence. ▪ Layering (co-existence) or loss -> shown in the pictures below Another important distinction that Saussure made in his writing: Descriptive: Prescriptive: ▪ describe neutrally how people ▪ tell people how to speak /write speak/write properly • appropriate/inappropriate • Right/wrong • formal/informal • Good/bad • standard/non-standard • Well-formed/Ill-formed • Grammatical/ungrammatical Linguists are descriptive but teachers, writers, … anybody who teaches a language or designs textbooks, writing guides, dictionaries, etc… is prescriptive Langue (Competence): ▪ Language system ▪ the structure of an idealized language, ▪ it represents the mental knowledge that a speaker has stored in his or her brain ▪ Interest in describing all elements of the language system (sounds, words, sentences) -> structuralist signifier & signified Parole (Performance): ▪ Language use by the individual ▪ Utterances at a specific point in time uttered/written by a specific person ▪ speech event