1. INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS 1

2. AN INTRODUCTION
Linguistics is the study of language; it’s not the study of languages. What’s the difference? Although linguists look at individual languages, when they do, they have the big picture in mind. Their goal is to understand the nature of human language.

3. AN INTRODUCTION
Individual languages are like different models of cars. For cars, each model varies according to engine size, wheelbase, transmission, and passenger capacity, but they all share a common set of traits. Same thing with languages — each language varies according to sound inventory, vocabulary, sentence patterns, and so on, but they all have a common set of traits.

4. So…
Linguistics is the study of language in all its aspects. It provides a general methodology for exploring the structure of particular languages;
Linguistics investigates what is universal to all languages: how language varies over time and between different societies, how language is learnt, and how language is used for human communication etc..

5. So…
Linguistics can be defined as the scientific or systematic study of language. It is a science in the sense that it scientifically studies the rules, systems and principles of human languages.
Anyone who studies a language with a purpose to describe and explain any topic relatedto language is called linguist.

6. TWO MAIN PURPOSES
It studies the nature of language and tries to establish a theory of language and describe languages in the light of the theory established.
It examines all the forms of language in general and seeks a scientific understanding of the ways in which it is organized to fulfill the needs it serves and the functions it performs in human life.

7. AN INTRODUCTION
Most linguists agree that all human languages have the following six traits in common:
Language is used to communicate.
Language is composed of arbitrary signs.
Language is hierarchically organized.
Humans produce and perceive language using auditory, visual, and even tactile modalities.
Language is unique to human beings.
Humans are genetically endowed for language.

8. KEY CONCEPTS IN LINGUISTICS
Human language has numerous features that distinguish it from other communication systems.
People have unconscious knowledge of language and use this knowledge to speak and understand language.
All languages have grammar, a system of phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic rules.
A language is really a continuum of language varieties that change over space and time.
Children are hardwired to acquire a linguistic rule system, and they do so while very young, without direct teaching.
All languages have the same basic framework: Universal Grammar.

9. BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS
Microlinguistics includes phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics and pragmatics (level of the language)
Macrolinguistics includes sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, stylistics, discourse analysis, computational linguistics, cognitive linguistics, applied linguistics, corpus linguistics etc.

10. BRANCHES OF LINGUISTICS
Microlinguistics adopts the narrower view it is concerned solely with the structures of the language system in itself and for itself.
Macrolinguistics adopts the broader view, it is concerned with the way languages are acquired, stored in the brain and used for various functions; interdependence of language and culture; physiological and psychological mechanisms involved in language behaviour.

11. MICROLINGUISTICS Phonetics: The inventory of sounds in a language
Phonology: Rules of how sounds are combined in a language
Morphology: Rules of word formation in a language
Syntax: Rules of sentence formation in a language
Semantics: Rules that govern how meaning is expressed by words and sentences in a language
Pragmatics: A linguistics branch which links language with external world (The study of language in use).

12. MACROLINGUISTICS
Socilinguistics: The study of the relations between language and society: how social factors influence the structure and use of language.
Psycholinguistics: The study of language and mind: the mental structures and processes which are involved in the acquisition, comprehension and production of language.
Neurolingistics: The study of language processing and language representation in the brain. It typically studies the disturbances of language comprehension and production caused by the damage of certain areas of the brain.

13. MACROLINGUISTICS
Stylistics: The study of how literary effects can be related to linguistic features. It usually refers to the study of written language, including literary text, but it also investigates spoken language sometimes.
Discourse analysis or text linguistics: The study of the relationship between language and the contexts in which language is used. It deals with how sentences in spoken and written language form larger meaningful units.
Computational linguistics: An approach to examine different aspects of language which employs mathematical techniques, often with the help of a computer.

14. MACROLINGUISTICS
Cognitive linguistics: An approach to the analysis of natural language that focuses on language as an instrument for organizing, processing, and conveying information.
Applied linguistics: A study which is primarily concerned with the application of linguistic theories, methods and findings to the elucidation of language problems which have arisen in other areas of experience (Educational linguistics, speech pathology, application of linguistics to language teaching, Translation Studies)

15. MACROLINGUISTICS
Corpus linguistics: The study of language as expressed in corpora (samples) of "real world" text.
Anthropological linguistics: the study of language in cross-cultural setting.
Philosophical linguistics: The link between language and logical thought.

16. Important distinctions in linguistics
Descriptive / prescriptive
Descriptive approach is used to describe the fact of linguistic usage as they are, and not how they ought to be, with reference to some real or imagined ideal state.
Prescriptive approach is a term used to characterize any approach which attempt to lay down rules of correctness as to how language should be used.

17. Important distinctions in linguistics
Synchronic / diachronic
Within the scope of Synchronic Linguistics, languages are studied at a theoretic point in time: one describes a ‘state’ of language, disregarding whatever changes might be taking place. (exploring contemporary use)
While in Diachronic Linguistics, languages are studied from point of view of their historical development – for example, the changes which have taken place between Old and Modern English could be described in phonological, grammatical and semantic terms. (examining of a linguistic phenomena or describing the language change over time )

18. Important distinctions in linguistics
Langue / parole
Langue is the language system shared by a community of speakers (language)
Parole is the concrete act of speaking in actual situations by an individual speaker (speech)
Langue describes the social, impersonal phenomenon of language as a system of signs, while parole describes the individual, personal phenomenon of language as a series of speech acts made by a linguistic subject.

19. Important distinctions in linguistics
Competence / Performance
Competence is a person’s knowledge of his language, the system of rules which he has mastered so that he is able to produce and understand an indefinite number of sentences, and to recognize grammatical mistakes and ambiguities (langue)
Performance is the actual realization of language knowledge, language seen as a set of specific utterances produced by language speakers, as encountered in a corpus (parole)
D. H. Hymes: communicative competence
M. A. K. Halliday: Linguistic potential and actual linguistic behavior

20. Important distinctions in linguistics
Functionalism / formalism
Functionalism or functional linguistics refers to the study of the form of language in reference to their social function in communication. It considers the individual as a social being and investigates the way in which she/he acquires language and uses it in order to communicate with others in her or his social environment.
M. A. K. Halliday, Systemic functional grammar

21. Important distinctions in linguistics
Formalism or formal linguistics is the study of the abstract forms of language and their internal relations. It fixes on the forms of languages as evidence of the universals without considering how these forms function in communication and the ways of social life in different communities.
Noam Chomsky, Transformational-generative grammar

22. Important distinctions in linguistics
Linguistics / Traditional Grammar
First, modern linguistics describes languages and does not lay down rules of correctness. Linguists are interested in what is said, not what they think ought to be said. So they are often said to be descriptive, not prescriptive.
A second important way in which linguistics differs from traditional grammar is that linguists regard the spoken language as primary, not the written. It is believed that speech came into being first for any human language and the writing system came along much later.

23. Important distinctions in linguistics
Thirdly, traditional grammar is based on Latin and it tries to impose the Latin categories and structures on other languages, while linguistics describes each language on its own merits.