What is Linguistics in detail?
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Or we can also say that linguistics is the systematic study of structure and evolution of human language.
The world has almost 7,106 languages, but it is not merely numbers which tell us how important language. Without language, we would have no discussion, no stories, no songs, no culture, and no civilization as we recognize the term. Perhaps we would be like monkeys, but would we be a human.
Linguists traditionally analyze human language by observing an interaction between sound and meaning. All human languages are made up of sounds arranged in such a way that they communicate meaning and express their feelings.
In fact, the sounds come first. When writing was not invented, the sounds of different languages existed. Phonetics is the study of speech sounds. And phonology is the study of the sound pattern of a language.
These sounds come together to make small units of meaning, which are called morphemes. For examples, girl, boy, sh, s etc. are morphemes. They express meaning alone or in combination with other morphemes. Hence, we can make new words like girlish and girls etc. with these morphemes. The study of how words are made is called morphology.
We study sentence structure in syntax. So, syntax is the branch of linguistics that studies the structure and formation of sentences through certain rules.
When we got our sentences, we should know their meaning. Therefore, semantics is another branch of linguistics in which we study the meaning of words and sentences. Semantics largely determine our reading comprehension, how we understand others, and even what decisions we make as a result of our interpretations. So, these are the four main aspects of language: (1) phonetics and phonology (2) morphology (3) syntax (4) and semantics.
Some linguists also add another study of pragmatics, that of language in real life situations. Pragmatics deals with the practical aspects of human action and thought. For examples, if a person asks me what time it is, and I reply, the news have not started yet, that person will automatically understand what time it is, only if they know that the 'news' start such and such time.
Linguistics also deals with the social, cultural, historical, and political factors that influence language and language based context is frequently determined. Society and culture affect the words and sentences that we speak, and the words that we speak affect society and culture.
Sometimes we arrive at a meaning through conversational interaction, which follows many social norms and principles. One social norm that structure our conversation is turn taking. People need to feel like they are participating in something to an interaction, so turn taking is a main part of how conversations take place.
Linguistics is a multidisciplinary field of research that combines tools from different subjects (social sciences, natural sciences as well as humanities). David Crystal conceptualize the field of linguistics as being primarily scientific. The term linguists applies to those who studies language or is a researcher within the field, or to someone who uses the tools of discipline to describe and analyze specific languages.
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