Linguistics Class Notes – Week 1 (General
Introduction)
1. What is Linguistics?
Linguistics = the scientific study of language and its structure.
It examines how languages are formed, used, and understood.
Not about prescriptive rules, but describing and analyzing how language works.
Prof’s comment: Linguists are like detectives — solving puzzles about how language functions.
2. Branches of Linguistics
Phonetics: physical properties of speech sounds.
Phonology: how sounds function within a language system.
Morphology: structure of words and how they are formed.
Syntax: how words combine into phrases and sentences.
Semantics: meaning of words and sentences.
Pragmatics: meaning in context and language use.
Sociolinguistics: relationship between language and society.
Psycholinguistics: language processing in the mind.
Historical Linguistics: how languages change over time.
Applied Linguistics: practical applications such as language teaching.
3. Why Study Linguistics?
To understand the nature of human language.
To compare and document languages, including endangered ones.
To apply findings in education, AI, translation, and speech therapy.
To understand cognitive processes involved in communication.
4. Language vs. Communication
Communication = the transmission of information between entities.
Language = a structured, symbolic system unique to humans.
Other species communicate, but human language is unique in:
- Displacement (talking about things not present).
- Productivity (creating new messages).
- Duality of patterning (sounds form words, words form sentences).
5. Key Properties of Human Language
Arbitrariness: no inherent connection between form and meaning.
Discreteness: small units combine to create larger units.
Productivity: infinite expressions from finite elements.
Displacement: referring to things beyond the here and now.
Cultural transmission: learned socially, not biologically predetermined.
6. Descriptive vs. Prescriptive Grammar
Descriptive: describes how people actually use language.
Prescriptive: dictates how people 'should' use language.
Linguists focus on descriptive analysis to understand real usage.
7. Data in Linguistics
Sources: fieldwork, corpora, experiments, introspection.
Importance of cross-linguistic comparison.
Ethical considerations in collecting and storing language data.
