There are important terms in linguistics, which should be cleared so I have made these slides to make these terms clear. If you are interested in linguistics, then you must go through these slides. These are basic terms of linguistics, which help us to understand linguistics. We all know that nowadays linguistics is becoming emerging field, it has a lot of scope so we should have to study it thoroughly.

1. IMPORTANT TERMS
OF LINGUISTICS
BY KOMAL ZULFIQAR

2. DIACHRONIC AND SYNCHRONIC
• These terms are given by Ferdinand de Saussure he is the swiss linguist
The Greek etymology of diachronic and synchronic may help comprehending their
meaning in Linguistics.
The -chron- part they share comes from Greek khronos, meaning "time" (or
"pertaining to time").
The prefix syn- means "together", "with"; the prefix dia- means "through".

3. CONT..
Diachronic linguistics deals with the development of languages through time, the similarities and the
differences that exist between them, and the families they descend from.
We study historical development of language through different periods of time. For example how English
language grown from other languages, their changes over a period of time.
Synchronic
However, Synchronic linguistics is the study of the state of a language at a given point in time. Synchronic
linguistics sees language as a living whole (generally the present), existing as a state at a particular point in
time.
It is study of how language is spoken by a specified speech community at a particular point of time.

4. LANGUE VS PAROLE
• Langue: is the language system which is shared by all the members of the speech
community. It is also an institution, a set of interpersonal rules and norms.
Langue= grammar+ vocabulary+ pronunciation.
• Parole: is the actual manifestation of language in speech or writing.
• It’s the way od individual how to speak language

5. SIGN, SIGNIFIER AND SIGNIFIED
• According to Saussure, language is a system of signs. A sign functions like a coin
with two sides. The first side consists of the form of the sign. The concept of the
sign, on the other hand, refers to a mental image which registers in the mind.
• The relation between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary, which means that
there is no intrinsic or natural reason why a particular form signifies a particular
concept.

7. COMPETENCE AND PERFORMANCE
• The concept was first introduced by Noam chomsky as a part of foundations for
his generative grammar but it has since adopted and developed by other
linguists, particularly those working in the generativist tradition.
• Linguistic competence is the system of the linguistic knowledge possessed by
native speakers of the language. (capacity)
• Linguistic performance the way the language system is used in communication.
(Actual utterances )

8. SYNTAGMATIC AND PARADIGMATICS
• Syntagmatic relation and paradigmatic relation are introduced by Saussure (1974) to
distinguish two kinds of signifiers: one concerns positioning (syntagmatic) and the
other concerns substitution (paradigmatic).
• Syntagmatic relation is a type of sematic relations between words that co-occur in the
same sentence or text (Asher, 1994).
• Paradigmatic relation is a different type of sematic relations between words that can
be substituted with another word in the same categories (Hjørland, 2014).

9. CONT.
• Every item of language has a paradigmatic relationship with every other item
which can be substituted for it (such as cat with dog), and a syntagmatic
relationship with items which occur within the same construction (for example, in
The cat sat on the mat, cat with the and sat on the mat). The relationships are like
axes.

11. THANK YOU FOR
WATCHING