what is linguistics

What is linguistics?

Linguistics is usually defined as the scientific study of languange. Such a statement, however, raises two further question : what do we mean by scientifics? And what do we mean by language? The first one can be answered relatively easily but the  second needs to be examined more fully. When we say that a linguist aims to be scientific, we mean that he attempts to study language in much the same way as a scientist  studies physics or chemistry, that is systematically, and as far as possible without prejudice. It means observing language use, forming  hypotheses about it, testing these hypotheses and then refining them on the basis of the evidence collected. To get a simplified idea of what is meant, consider the following example. With regard to english, we might make a hypothesis that adjectives always precede nouns. In support of this hypotheses, we could produce the following acceptable uses:

A good man

A dead tree

But against aou hypotheses, we wouldfind the following acceptable sentences:

The man is good

The tree is dead

Where our adjectives do not precede the nouns they modif. In addition, a carefull study of the language would produce further samples such as:

Life everlasting

Mission impossible

Where, once again, the position of the adjective condradicts our original hypotheses. When we have carried out a detailed examination of adjectives in english, we are in a position to say that adjectives in english are used in two main ways: (a) they can be used attributively, that is before a noun, as in:

A good man

And: (b) they can be used predicatively, that is following a verb, as in:

The man is good

Such rules would cover the uses of most adjectives in englis. It would be necessary, however, to add a further rule. In english a finite number of adjectives, borrowed from other languages or used in fixed phrases, follow the nouns they modify. Such a finite list would include:

Astronomer royal

Attorney general

Court martial

Heir apparent

Prince imperial

Princess royal

What is language?

A language is a set of signals by which we communicate.

The component of language

Whe a parrotutters words or phrases in our language, we understand them although it is reasonably safe to assume that the parrot does not. The parrot may be able to reproduce intelligible units from the spoken medium but has no awareness of the abstarct system behind the medium. Similarly, if we hear a stream of sounds in a language we do not know, we hear a stream of sounds in a language we do not know., we may recognize by the tone of voice whether the person is angry or annoyed but the exact meaning cludes us. To have mastery of a language, therefore, means being able to produce an infinite number of language patterns which are comprehensible to other users of the language and in addition, being able to decipher the infinity of language patterns produced by other users of the language, it is thus a two way procces involving both production and reception. As far as speech is concerned, the process involves associating sounds with meaning and meaning with sounds. With writing, in the other hand, language competence  involves the association of a meaning( and sometimes sounds) with a sign, a visual symbol. Thus, our study of language will involve us in an appraisal of all of the following levels of language.

Language

1.      Phonology: sounds

2.      Morphology: meaningful combinations of sounds

3.      Lexis: words

4.      Syntax: meaningful combinations of words

5.      Semantics: meaning

When we have examined these levels and the way they interact, we will have acquired the necessary tools  to study language and general (linguistics), the variety in language and the uses to which people put languages(sociolinguistics), the ways in which people teach and learn languages ( applied linguistics) and the value of the study of language in understanding the human mind (psycholinguistics)