Linguistics

The study of the nature, structure, and variation of language, including

phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics,
sociolinguistics, and pragmatics.
Nature of Language
1.
Language is learnt: Learning of language is not an automatic process. Of
course, it is a behavior but it is not type of behavior like walking and crawling that
comes to child in natural way. Language by imitation and practice. Language is not
possible without effort.
2.
Language is related to the culture of society: Every language is related to
culture of society to which it belongs. The culture of the people naturally influences the
language. Every language is the product of society. We cannot separate language from
the culture in which that language exists. It has meaning only in relation to that society
and culture.
3.
Language is species specific: Language is species specific. Only human beings
have got the gift of language. Of course, the other species do communicate but only
human beings can make use of language.
4.
Language is species uniformed: Language is species uniformed. All human
children are capable of acquiring any language natively if they are provided the right
kind of environment.
5.
Language is a system: Each language is a unique system. The system of
language consists of sounds, structures and vocabulary. A person who wants to learn a
new language will have to learn new sounds, new structures and new vocabulary. The
sound system of language differs from language to language depending upon the culture
to which a language belongs. Each language has its own system of vocabulary. Thus each
language is systematic.
6.
Language is a system of systems: Each language is a system of systems. There
are phonological and grammatical systems in all languages. There are several sub
systems with in a language. The phonology of a language forms its own system as the
various sounds function in a systematic way.
7.
Language is a system of symbols: Each language works through symbols.
Different words used in a language are the symbols. They stand for certain things. The
language will function well if its symbols are known both to the speaker and the person
for whom they are being used.

For example the world cup has three sounds (K, , P) It is a symbol of English because a
meaning is attached to it. But if we take the same three sounds like, K, , P they do form
Puc, but that is not a symbol of English language as no meaning is attached to it.
8.
Symbols of language are vocal: Different symbols are used in a single
language. These symbols are vocal. A language system does not exist in a vacuum. It is
primary used in speech. Only speech provides all essential signals of a language. There
are other kinds of symbols which cannot be called vocal symbols. For example, gestures
and signal flags are visual symbols and ringing of the bells and beating of a drum are
auditory symbols. They do not form any language. In language the sounds are produced
through vocal organs. Reading and writing are no doubt important. But speech is the
basic form of language. A language without speech is unthinkable.
9.
Language is a skill subject: Learning of a language is a skill subject. It is skill
like swimming and cycling. We cannot learn swimming or cycling just by studying rules.
We can learn it by practice. In the same way, we can learn a language y constant practice
of that language. So a lot of repetition for major linguistic skills like listening, speaking,
reading and writing is required.
10. Language is for communication: Language is the best means of
communication and self-expressions. Human beings express their ideas, thoughts,
feelings and emotions through language. In this way language is a means to connect past
present and future.
11. Governed by a particular set of rules: Each language is governed by a
particular set or rules. For example English is S.V.O. language. In forming sentence, we
put subject, then verb and after verb we put object.
12. Symbols of language are Arbitrary: Here by arbitrary symbols we meant that
there is no visual relationship between the language item and the object for which it
stands. A man is called man traditionally. There is no visual similarity between the
symbol man and the actual man. We have not named it so on the basis of some logic or
scientific principles. In English we say man, in Hindi we say manauYya and in Punjabi
we say ___________. None of them is better than the other. In fact, we call a man
man because people have agreed to use it in that sense.
13. Language is unique: Each language is unique because it has its own style of
functioning. The sounds, vocabulary and structures of every language have their own
specialty.

Importance of Language

The importance of language is essential to every aspect and interaction in our everyday
lives. We use language to inform the people around us of what we feel, what we desire,
and question/understand the world around us. We communicate effectively with our
words, gestures, and tone of voice in a multitude of situation. Would you talk to a small
child with the same words you would in a business meeting. Being able to communicate
with each other, form bonds, teamwork, and its what separates humans from other
animal species. Communication drives our lives and better ourselves.
Origins of why there are so many different languages has plagued scholars and
linguistics for centuries and will continue to puzzle them far beyond our lifetimes to
come. In most cultures have myths that there was a common language spoke among
the people with a deity getting angry and confusing the people or separating them from
each other/segmenting the people to create their own language. Prime examples of
stories like this is the Tower of Babel, Hindu with the story of the Knowledge Tree,
and even Native Americans believing in a Great Deluge(Flood) separating people and
speech.
The importance of communication can be often overlooked. Even with the ability to
communicate with each other. Misunderstandings happen. Remember, communication
is a two way street that should be embraced and not ignored. Believe it or not, some
people can be arrogant to believe they cant go to foreign countries without knowing
anything of the language or culture of the people in the places they visit. The
importance of language is beneficial regardless if you do it for fun or for your career or
even just for personal travel.
They expect the indigenous people to accommodate them and know their language.
The importance of language isnt much different no matter what your nationality is.
Honestly, if you were to study other languages you will find that most of them are
actually pretty similar. Mainly the differences are in alphabet, pronunciation, and
grammar with the syntax generally staying the same. We should use it to show our
understanding of the cultures and lives of our fellow men in other lands. We should go
behind the outer shell and see the speaker beneath.

Functions of Language

1. The Referential Function

Corresponds to the factor of Context and describes a situation, object or mental
state. The descriptive statements of the referential function can consist of both
definite descriptions and deictic words, e.g. "The autumn leaves have all fallen
now."
2. The Poetic Function
Focuses on "the message for its own sake"[3] (the code itself, and how it is used)
and is the operative function in poetry as well as slogans.
3. The Emotive (alternatively called "expressive" or "affective") Function
Relates to the Addresser (sender) and is best exemplified by interjections and
other sound changes that do not alter the denotative meaning of an utterance but
do add information about the Addresser's (speaker's) internal state, e.g. "Wow,
what a view!"
4. The Conative Function
Engages the Addressee (receiver) directly and is best illustrated
by vocatives and imperatives, e.g. "Tom! Come inside and eat!"
5. The Phatic Function
is language for the sake of interaction and is therefore associated with the
Contact/Channel factor. The Phatic Function can be observed in greetings and
casual discussions of the weather, particularly with strangers. It also provides the
keys to open, maintain, verify or close the communication channel: "Hello?",
"Ok?", "Hummm", "Bye"...
6. The Metalingual (alternatively called "metalinguistic" or "reflexive") Function
is the use of language (what Jakobson calls "Code") to discuss or describe itself.
(All this article is an example of metalinguistic Function).

Aspects of Language (Psycho and Sociolinguistic)

Psycholinguistic

Psycholinguistics or psychology language is the study of

the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and
produce language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical or educational
schools of thought, due mainly to their location in departments other than applied sciences (e.g.,
cohesive data on how the human brain functioned). Modern research makes use
of biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, and information science to study how the
brain processes language, and less so the known processes of social sciences, human
development, communication theories and infant development, among others. There are a number
of sub disciplines with non-invasive techniques for studying the neurological workings of the brain;
for example, neurolinguistics has become a field in its own right.

Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society,
including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and
the effects of language use on society. Sociolinguistics differs from sociology of
language in that the focus of sociology of language is the effect of language on the
society, while sociolinguistics focuses on the society's effect on language.
Sociolinguistics overlaps to a considerable degree with pragmatics. It is historically
closely related to linguistic anthropology and the distinction between the two fields has
even been questioned recently.

Properties of Language
1. Productivity - This entails that our language serves a purpose. Its purpose is to
produce communication and emit messages that will be used for further tasks. Although
most living beings produce their own communication for their own common needs,
human language is unique in that it comes in both written and oral form and both serve
the same goal.

2. Creativity - creativity trait confers our language the ability to ply the already
established norms of grammar, morphology and syntax into new words, complete with
new semantic goals. For example, whenever a rock star or someone famous coins a
new word, such word is accepted and even used globally.

3. Displacement - is used in human communication to describe or refer to things that

are not visually present. Yet, the fact that their names are mentioned adds to the validity
of human productivity. Babies are often taught displacement when they are asked
questions such as "Where is grandma?" even when grandma is not in the room. Using
this property shows that words are still valid with or without visual support.

4. Arbitrariness - is perhaps the most interesting because we often take it for granted.
It entails the fact that written words and spoken words do not necessarily have to
correlate in terms of sound and symbol. We can write a word and pronounce it
completely different. Some great examples that often come up in Linguistics
exercises are the provinces and estates of England. When you have names of towns
such as Warwick, Berwick, and Alnwick, the first tendency is to pronounce each sound
that is written down as you read it.

5. Duality - refers to the fact that words can be broken apart into chunks. Those chunks
may or may not have a meaning, however, they are extremely useful to form new words.
A wonderful example of such important word chunks are suffixes and prefixes. Although
the lexemes, themselves, do not seem to have meaning, when they are attached to a
word they affect the meaning of that word, altogether.

6. Discreetness -

sort of reaffirms duality as it establishes the fact that words are a

combination of sounds and symbols, and the symbols are letters and syllables. Again,
the syllables may have no meaning on their own, but they are indeed identifiable as
imperative in the process of word formation.

Components or Division of Languages

Morphology - is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of
a given languages morphemes and other linguistic units, such as root
words, affixes, parts of speech, intonations and stresses, or implied context. In
contrast, morphological typology is the classification of languages according to
their use of morphemes, while lexicology is the study of those words forming a
language's word stock.
Syntax - is the set of rules, principles, and processes that govern the structure
of sentences in a given language. The term syntax is also used to refer to the
study of such principles and processes.[1] The goal of many syntacticians is to
discover the syntactic common to all languages.
Phonology - is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic
organization of sounds in languages. It has traditionally focused largely on the
study of the systems of phonemes in particular languages (and therefore used to
be also called phonemics, orphonematics), but it may also cover any linguistic
analysis either at a level beneath the word (including syllable, onset and rime,
articulatory, articulatory features, mora, etc.) or at all levels of language
where sound is considered to be structured for conveying linguistic meaning.
Phonology also includes the study of equivalent organizational systems in sign
languages.

Semantics - is the subfield that is devoted to the study of meaning, as inherent

at the levels of words, phrases, sentences, and larger units of discourse (termed
texts, or narratives). The study of semantics is also closely linked to the subjects
of representation, reference and denotation. The basic study of semantics is
oriented to the examination of the meaning of signs, and the study of relations
between different linguistic units

and compounds: homonymy, synonymy, antonyms, hypernym, hyponymy,

meronyms, metonymy, homonym, patronyms

Pragmatics - is a subfield of linguistics and semiotics that studies the ways in which
context contributes to meaning. Pragmatics encompasses speech act theory,
conversational implicate, talk in interaction and other approaches to language behavior
inphilosophy, sociology, linguistics and anthropology. Unlike semantics, which examines
meaning that is conventional or "coded" in a given language, pragmatics studies how the
transmission of meaning depends not only on structural and linguistic knowledge (e.g.
Grammar, lexicon, etc.) of the speaker and listener, but also on the context of the
utterance, any pre-existing knowledge about those involved, the inferred intent of the
speaker, and other factors.