The document compares and contrasts the phonological systems of Received Pronunciation (RP) and General American (GA). It discusses four main differences: 1. Systemic differences in phoneme inventories, such as RP having /ɑː/ instead of /æ/ in words like "bath". 2. Distributional differences in phoneme occurrence, such as RP being non-rhotic while GA is rhotic. 3. Lexical differences where some words have different pronunciations between the accents, like "process". 4. Phonetic differences in phoneme realization, such as vowels being nasalized before nasals in GA but not RP. The document provides

1. First Lecture: Introduction
The Communicative Cycle
Perception Production
Transmission
Linguistics:
The scientific study of languages; i.e. the inquiry of the systems and patterns of
phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics inherent in a human language.
Linguistics competence (abstract - knowledge)
Language:
Linguistic performance (clear - production)
Linguistic competence:
• Producing and interpreting an unlimited number of utterances
• Recognizing unacceptable utterances
i.e. there is a mental system (grammar) that allows speakers to form and interpret
utterances.
Components of grammar:
Phonological system the rules that govern the use of sounds of a language.
Morphological system the rules used to construct words from their component parts.
Syntactical system the rules used to form and interpret units of a language larger than words.
Linguistics performance:
The application of linguistic competence to actually producing an utterance.
Phonetics and Phonology:
Phonetics is the study of speech sounds: their physical properties, the way they are
produced, and the way they are received and decoded by the brain. It aims to provide a
set of features to describe and distinguish all the sounds of the human language.
Phonology is the study of the systems and patterns of sounds that occur in a language
(i.e. it is concerned with the study of how languages structure sounds to convey linguistic
information.)
Phonology is, then, a branch of linguistics which has very close links with phonetics.
Competence vs. Performance
Phonology has 2 sides
Phonological competence: Phonological performance:
our knowledge of the phonological the actual production of sounds and
system of our language. sound sequences.
Example: 1- Bill is an English teacher. 2- tlirhs bhigl Dogkh.
The first sentence could be interpreted because it matches your phonological
knowledge. In contrast, when you produce the second sentence, you could not
interpret it because it does not match your phonological knowledge.
So, the speech production can be meaningful if it matches the phonological knowledge;
it can be meaningless if it does not.

2. Why do we need to study phonetics and phonology?
- The process of communication is, in part, dependent on the nature of the sound.
- Non-native speakers of a given language can understand the features of the sounds of
that language; hence produce them correctly.
- Linguists may study the phonology of a given languages to communicate with its
people.
- It helps in describing the languages' changes and the variation in dialects.
- It helps to understand the processes involved in the phonological acquisition by
children.
- Understanding the physics of speech sounds enables to create synthetic speech (e.g.
computers).
Second Lecture: Phonology:
• The description of the systems and patterns of speech sounds in a particular
language.
• It is based on the theory of what every speaker unconsciously knows about the sound
patterns of that language.
• Therefore, it is concerned with the abstract(mental) aspect of the sounds in language
rather than the actual physical articulation of speech sounds.
Example;
• /t/ sound in tar, star, writer, and eighth seems to be the same, but actually in phonology
the [t] in each word is actually one variation of the original /t/ which is called phoneme.
Those different realizations of the phoneme are called ‘phones’
•The phoneme is the meaning-distinguishing unit in a language such as [t], [k], and [b] in
tar, car, and bar.
• The phoneme is the abstract unit(in the mind). The phones are the many different
versions of that sound regularly produced in actual speech (in the mouth) which are
together known as allophones. For example, the phoneme /t/ has the following
allophones:
• [t] in tar is normally produced with stronger puff of air than present in the [t] sound of
the word star. So, the aspiration is represented as [t ]. That is one phone.
2. The [t] sound between vowels as in writer is a ‘flap’ which is represented as [D]. That is
another phone.
3. The [t] in eighth is influenced by the dental [T] sound and that causes a dental
articulation of the /t/ sound represented as [tÏ].
•The [t ], [D] , and [tÏ] are different realizations of the phoneme /t/.
Notice that we use slashes ‘//’ when we refer to phonemes. However, we use square
brackets’[]’ to indicate allophones.
Minimal pairs and sets:
We use the minimal pairs test in order to test the phonemic contrasts in a language.
When two words such as pat and bat are identical in form except for one phoneme
occurring in the same position, the two words are described as a minimal pair. More
accurately, they would be classified as a minimal pair the phonology of English.
- Examples of the minimal pairs of English:
- fan_van
- bet_bat
- site_side
The meaning changes in these pairs due to the contrast between f-v, e-a, and t-d, an
evidence that a phoneme is a meaning-distinguishing unit.

3. • So, we differentiate a group of words by changing a phoneme (always in the same
position), then we have a minimal set. Thus, a minimal set based on the vowel
phonemes of English would include feat, fit, fat, fate, fought, foot transcribed as [fi:t],
[fIt],[f{t], [fet] and [fot].
• Third Lecture, Part 1: Phonology
•Suprasegmental phonology
• the syllable
Syllable:
! a unit of pronunciation typically larger than a single sound and smaller than a word.
! Consider, for instance, the following words:
" “sad” /sQd/ includes one syllable composed of a vowel /Q/ and preceding and
following consonants /s, d/.
" “time” /taIm/ includes one syllable composed of a vowel /aI/ and preceding
and following consonants /t, m/.
" “car” /kA/ includes one syllable composed of a vowel /A/ and a preceding
consonant /k/.
" “am” /Qm/ includes one syllable composed of a vowel /Q/ and a following
consonant /m/.
" “I” /aI/ includes one syllable (a minimum syllable) composed of the vowel /aI/.
sad /sQd/ CVC ! Thus, every syllable must include
a vowel, may have consonants
time /taIm/ CVC preceding and following that vowel.
car /kA/ CV The different possibilities of the
structure of a syllable can be
am /Qm/ VC represented as follows: (C) V (C)
I /aI/ V
According to this representation (C) V (C), the syllable
" must have a centre (called peak or nucleus) which is a vowel
" could have an onset (which is the initial part of the syllable) that consists of either one
or more consonants.
" could have a coda (which is the final part of the syllable) that consists of either one or
more consonants.
"the nucleus and the coda form the rhyme.
The word “mad”: /mQd/ → m Q d
onset centre coda
Examples:
onset + peak > “key” /kiù/, “car” /kA/, “who” /huù/, “blue” /bluù/
peak + coda > “am” /Qm/, “ease” /iùz/, “ask” /Qsk/
onsets + peak + codas >”sat” /sQt/, “fill” /fIl/, “floods” /flÃds/
peak (minimum syllable) > “are” /A/, “I” /aI/
•Phonetically > a syllable consists of a centre which has little or no obstruction of airflow
and which sounds loud. Before and after this centre there might be greater obstruction of
air flow and/or less loud sound.
• Phonologically > a syllable is a unit that involves possible combinations of English
phonemes.

4. Syllabification:
- A word consisting of one syllable (like tip) is referred to as a monosyllable.
- A word consisting of two syllables (like monkey) is called a disyllable.
- A word consisting of three syllables (such as interpret) is called a trisyllable.
- A word consisting of more than three syllables (such as intelligence) is called a
polysyllable.
- The term ‘polysyllable’ is often used to describe words of two syllables or more.
So, the words, “monkey, interpret, intelligence” can be called polysyllabic.
- Sometimes syllables are marked off from each other by a period [.].
Examples:
/tIp/
/mÃn.kiù/
/In.ter.prIt/
- Sometimes the symbols C and V (standing for Consonant and Vowel, respectively)
are used to show syllabic structure. For example, the syllabic structure of
"interpret " /In.ter.prIt/ is VC.CVC.CCVC.
Phonotactics:
The study of possible phoneme combinations of a language is called phonotactics.
Examples of phonotactics:
In a syllable-initial position:
- it is allowed to begin with a vowel, or with one, two or three consonants.
- no syllable begins with more than three consonants.
• In a syllable-final position:
- a syllable can end with a vowel, or with one, two, three or four consonants.
- no syllable ends with more than four consonants.
The syllable onset:
# If the syllable begins with a vowel, it has a zero onset as in ‘am’ /Qm/; ‘ease’ /
iùz/.
# If a syllable begins with one consonant, the initial consonant can be any
consonant phoneme except /N/. Examples: ‘key’ /kiù/; ‘kick’ /kIk/.
# If a syllable begins with two or three consonants, such a sequence of
consonants is called a consonant cluster. Examples: ‘play, stay, street, split,
etc’.

5. The syllable coda:
# If the syllable ends with a vowel, it has a zero coda as in ‘car’ /kA/; ‘see’ /siù/.
# If a syllable ends with one consonant, the final consonant can be any
consonant phoneme except /h, r, w, j/. Examples: ‘at’ /Qt/; ‘kick’ /kIk/, ‘catch’ /
kQtS/, ‘seen’ /siùn/.
# If a syllable ends with two, three or four consonants, such a sequence of
consonants is called a consonant cluster. There is a possibility of up to four
consonants at the end of the word. Examples: ‘books, six, bank, banks,
prompts, etc’.
Consonant clusters in the coda:
# Final two-consonant clusters:
Examples: ‘help, bank, edge, belt, blind, books, six etc’.
# Final three-consonant clusters: (see p.73)
Examples: ‘helped, seconds, fifths, etc’.
# Final four-consonant clusters:
Examples: ‘prompts, sixths, etc’.
! Thus, the English syllable has the maximum phonological structure:
C1 C2 C3 V C1 C2 C3 C4
! onset peak! ! coda
Third Lecture, Part 2: Co-articulation effects
• Speech is not always careful. Our talk is mostly fast and spontaneous, and it requires
our articulators to move from one sound to the next without stopping.
• The process of making one sound almost at the same time as the next is called co-
articulation.
•
• There are two well-known co-articulation effects called ‘assimilation’ and ‘elision’
Assimilation:
When two phonemes occur in sequence and some aspect of one phoneme is taken or
‘copied’ by the other, the process is known as assimilation.
Elision:
The omission of a sound segment which would be present in the deliberate pronunciation
of a word in isolation is technically described as elision.
Fourth Lecture, Part 1: Linking
In our hypothetical “mechanical speech” all words would be separate units placed next to
each other in sequence. In real connected speech, however, we sometimes link words
together in special ways.
The most familiar case is the use of the linking r; the phoneme r does not occur in
syllable-final position in the BBC accent, but when a words spelling suggests a final r, and
a word begging with a vowel follows, the usual pronunciation is to pronounce with r.
‘Here’ hı« ‘here are’ hı«r«
‘four’ f : ‘ four eggs’ f :r egz

6. Intrusive r
BBC speakers often use r in a similar way to link words ending with a vowel, even
when there is no justification from the spelling as in :
‘Formula A’ f :mj«l«r eı
‘Australia all out’ ɒstreıli«r :l aut
‘media event’ mi:di«r ıvent
!Linking and intrusive r are special cases of juncture, this name refers to the
relationship between one sound and the sounds that immediately precede and
follow it.
!Many ingenious minimal pairs have been invented to show the significance of
!juncture, a few of which are given in p. 145 in “English Phonetics and Phonology’
Fourth Lecture, Part 2:
"British (RP/BBC) vs. American (GA) Consonants and Vowels
"English vs. Arabic Consonants and Vowels
(RP/BBC) vs. (GA)
Consonants and Vowels
There are clear distinctions in how Americans and Britons use their language.
Broadly, Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the British English
which has long been perceived as uniquely prestigious amongst British accents. It is a
standard form of British pronunciation accepted as reference in England and Wales.
General American (GA) is a form of pronunciation of the American English. It is the
standard pronunciation in the USA and is sometimes promoted as preferable to other
regional accents.
These two main accents ('RP' & 'GA') are used as reference accents for the teaching of
English pronunciation.
There are many differences between GA and RP in stress and intonation patterns but
they are not as notable as those in the pronunciation of certain phonemes. Hence, we will
focus on the distinctions in the phonemes pronunciation.
Main differences between GA and RP can be shown in four ways.
(a) Systemic differences (differences in the number (presence/absence) of
specific sounds).
!GA has /æ/ in words like "bath, dance", while RP has /ɑː/. Thus, you can notice:
dance /dæns/ vs. /dɑːns/
last /læst/ vs. /lɑːst/
bath /bæθ/ vs. /bɑːθ/, etc.
(Note that both accents have /ɑː/ in words like 'palm‘).
!In RP, /t/ may be fully replaced by a glottal stop///. Thus, you can notice:
button /bÃtn/ vs. /bÃ/n/
(b) Distributional differences (which sounds are used in which words)
!RP is non-rhotic while GA is rhotic. In other words, in RP /r/ is only allowed before a
vowel. Thus, you can notice:
In RP, red /red/ and pride /praɪd/ but start /stɑːt/, car /kɑː/, near /nɪə/, beard /bɪəd/,
square /skweə/, nurse /nɜːs/.
In GA, /r/ is pronounced wherever it is spelled.

7. (c) Lexical differences (some words have different pronunciations (but not
in a systematic way; rather it is a random way)
GA RP
process /prAùses/ /pr«Uses/
clerk /klÎrk/ /klA:k/
z /ziù/ /zed/
(d) Phonetic differences (the same phoneme has different realizations)
!/Q/ is higher in GA while in RP it is close to the cardinal vowel /a/.
!Vowels are nasalized in GA if they are followed by a nasal consonant while
they are not in RP. Compare:
Can’t! /kQnt/ vs. /kQânt/
!The tapping of /t/ (pronouncing /t/ in certain positions as a flap /}/) is more
widespread in GA. Compare:
City /sɪ}i/ vs. /sɪti/
Fifth Lecture: The Stress:
"Phonology
• Suprasegmental phonology
• the stress
$ nature of stress
$ levels of stress
$ placement of stress within the word
The Nature of Stress:
•How to mark a stressed syllable
- placing the mark [È] before the stressed syllable.
Examples: - The first syllable in ‘father’ is marked high up with [È] because it is
stressed /ÈfAD«/.
- The middle syllable in ‘apartment’ is marked high up with [È] because it is
stressed /«ÈpAtm«nt/.
- The final syllable in ‘receive’ is marked high up with [È] because it is stressed /rIÈsiùv/
• How to identify a stressed syllable
- Production: using more muscular energy than is used for unstressed syllables.
- Perception: perceiving stressed syllables as more prominent than unstressed ones.
(more prominent = louder, longer, has a higher pitch, and has a vowel of a certain
quality.)
Prominence is produced by four main factors:
Loudness: stressed syllables are louder than unstressed ones.
Length: stressed syllables are longer.
Pitch which is related to the frequency of vibration of the vocal folds. Stressed syllables
have a higher pitch, while unstressed syllables have a lower one.

8. Quality: stressed syllables contain a vowel different in quality from vowels in unstressed
syllables. (weak syllables include /«/ with or without a coda, /i/ and /u/ with no coda, or
syllabic consonants).
See p. 94
Levels of Stress:
Two-level analysis: stressed and
unstressed syllables.
E.g. The second syllable in
‘around’ has a higher pitch (hence,
stressed) /«ÈraUnd/
Three-level analysis: primary [È], secondary [Ç], and unstressed syllables.
E.g. in the word ‘photographic’ the most stressed syllable is the third one; so it has a
primary stress [È]. The second and last syllables are unstressed. There is a type of stress
weaker than the primary stress and stronger than the unstressed syllables; this syllable
has a secondary stress [Ç]. /Çf«U.t«.ÈgrQ.fIk/
Placement of stress within the word:
• How can we select the correct syllable to stress in an English word?
There is a set of rules governing the placement of stress in nouns, verbs, and adjectives
even though there are some exceptions.
• When placing stress, it is necessary to consider the following:
1. morphologically simple or complex word
Simple words may include one syllable (like ‘cat’) or more than one syllable (like ‘father’) .
Single-syllable words are pronounced with primary stress. If the word is a simple
one with more than one syllable or a complex one, placing stress is governed by
certain rules (which will be discussed later).
2. the grammatical category of the word (will be discussed in the coming
slides).
• how many syllables in the word (will be discussed in the coming
slides).
• strong or weak syllable
Weak syllables are always unstressed; strong syllables can be stressed or unstressed.
Compare: the first and second syllables in ‘potato’ /p«.ÈteI.t«U/; ‘open’ /È«U.p«n/.
Two-syllable word
In two-syllable words, one syllable is stressed and the other is unstressed.
How to place the stress in a two-syllable word?
If the word is a verb, noun or an adjective, the stressed syllable is the strong one. Other
two-syllable words like adverbs and prepositions behave like verbs and adjectives.
Examples:
‘apply’ /«.ÈplaI/ ‘alive’ /«.ÈlaIv/ ‘money’ /ÈmÃ.ni/
‘assist’ /«.ÈsIst/ ‘divine’ /dI.ÈvaIn/ ‘estate’ /I.ÈsteIt/
‘open’ /È«U.p«n/ ‘design’ /dI.ÈzaIn/
‘lovely’ /ÈlÃv.li/
‘envy’ /Èen.vi/
‘even’ /Èiù.vnÁ/

9. Three-syllable word
In three-syllable words, stress placement is more complicated.
How to place the stress in a three-syllable word?
• In verbs
If the final syllable is strong, then it’s stressed. If the final syllable is weak, the stress will
be placed on the pre-final syllable if it’s strong. If both final and pre-final syllables are
weak, the first syllable will be stressed. Examples:
‘entertain’ /en.t«.ÈteIn/ ‘encounter’ / In.ÈkaUn.t«/ ‘parody’ /ÈpQ.r«.di/
In nouns: a different rule is applied.
" If the final syllable is strong, stress will be placed on the 1st syllable. Examples:
‘intellect’ /ÈIn.t«.lekt/ ‘marigold’ /ÈmQ.rI.g«Uld/
"
"If the final syllable is weak or ends with /«U/, then it is unstressed. If the syllable
preceding this final syllable is strong, then that middle (pre-final) syllable is stressed.
Examples:
‘potato’ /p«.ÈteI.t«U/ ‘disaster’ /dI.ÈzA.st«/
"
" If the 2nd and 3rd syllables are both weak, then the 1st syllable is stressed. Examples:
cinema’ /ÈsI.n«.m«/
Ώ Practice:
Mark the stress on the following words and justify your choice.
Verbs
Nouns
attract /«.ÈtrQkt/ honey /ÈhÃ.ni/
clamber /ÈklQm.b«/ paper /ÈpeI.p«/
detest /dI.Ètest/ captain /ÈkQp.tIn/
refrain /rI.ÈfreIn/
bellow /bI.Èl«U/
custody / ÈkÃ.st«.di/ disconnect /dIs.k«.Ènekt/
connection / ÈkÃ.st«.di/ encounter / In.ÈkaUn.t«/
•Ώ Practice:
• How to identify a stressed syllable?
• What makes a syllable prominent?
• What is the peak of a weak syllable?
• How can you mark a stressed syllable?
• How can you mark primary and secondary syllables?
• What is the relation between the concepts of stressed/unstressed and strong/weak?
• How can you place the stress in a two-syllable word?
• How can you place the stress in a three-syllable word?

10. Sixth Lecture: The Intonation
"Phonology
• Suprasegmental phonology
• Intonation
$ Definition
$ Types
$ Functions
Let’s consider the following example first:
Question: What is the difference in the way the following two sentences sound?
A. He is going tomorrow.
B. He is going tomorrow?
Answer: The ‘melodies’ of the two sentences are different:
The melody of sentence A drops at the end, making it a statement. The melody of sentence B rises
at the end, making it a question.
In languages like English, we call these sentence melodies intonations. An intonation is a melody
that belongs to an entire utterance. All spoken languages have intonations.
What is intonation?
Intonation is the system of levels (rising and falling) and variations in pitch sequences within
speech.
Therefore, intonation is a term used to refer to the distinctive use of different patterns of pitch
that carry meaningful information.
Pitch is the rate of vibration of the vocal folds. When we speak, normally the pitch of our voice is
constantly changing. We describe pitch in terms of high and low.
Let’s consider the intonation of one-syllable utterances:
Two examples of one-syllable utterances are ‘yes’ and ‘no’. We have a number of choices for
saying these words using different pitch patterns.
The two words can be said with the pitch remaining at a constant level (level intonation), or with
the pitch changing from one level to another (moving intonation).
Saying an utterance with a constant level of pitch is not common.
Saying an utterance with a changing level of pitch is more natural.
Moving Intonation:
Rising intonation means the pitch of the voice increases over time;
falling intonation means that the pitch decreases with time.
According to this representation, ‘no’ is pronounced with a ….

11. If the same utterance is produced with different intonation, the meaning conveyed will be
different. This difference is signaled by intonation patterns. In English, such different intonation
patterns has a syntactic function. One sentence can be a question, a declarative statement, an
expression of surprise, or an expression of doubt. Compare:
‘right?’ with a rising tone
and
‘right.’ with a falling tone
Another e.g.
In English, the utterance ‘It is a cat’ will be regarded as a statement when there is a fall in pitch,
and the same utterance will be regarded as a question if the pitch rises.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, rising and falling intonation are marked with a diagonal
arrow rising left-to-right [↗] and falling left-to-right [↘], respectively.
He found it on the street?
[ hiː ˈfaʊnd ɪt | ɒn ð' ↗ˈstɹiːt | ]
In the previous example, the rising symbol is placed between the transcriptions for the words "the"
and "street".
Yes, he found it on the street.
[↘ˈjɛs * hi ˈfaʊnd ɪt | ɒn ð' ↘ˈstɹiːt | ]
In that example, the symbol for a fall was placed before the transcription for the word "yes," as
well as between the transcriptions for the words "the" and "street".

12. Seventh Lecture: Intonation 2
There are many languages in which the tone can determine the meaning of a word, and
changing from one tone to another can completely change the meaning.
* Examples,
In Kono, a language of west Africa, we find the following:
¯ buu (horn)
_buu (to be cross)
*In Mandarin Chinese
¯ ma (‘mother’)
ˏ ma (‘hemp’)
ˎma (‘scold’)
Languages such as the above are called tone languages. English, however, is not a
tone language, and the function of tone in languages like English is syntactic more than
meaningful. Such languages are called intonation languages.
Examples of some functions of English tones:
Falling ˎyes ˎno
This tone about which least needs to be said, and which is usually regarded as more or
less “natural”. If someone is asked a question and replies ˎ yes or ˎ no, it will be
understood that the question is now answered and that there is nothing to be said. The
fall could be said to give an expression of “finality”
Rising ˏyes ˏno
In a variety of ways, this tone conveys an impression that something more is to follow; a
typical occurrence in a dialogue between two speakers whom we shall call A and B might
be the following:
A (wishing to attract B’s attention): Excuse me.
B: ˏyes
(B’s replay is, perhaps, equivalent to what do you want?)
Another occurrence would be
A: Do you know Norah?
B: ˏyes
Fall-rise ˬyes ˬno
The fall-rise is used a lot in English and has some rather special functions. In the present
context we will only consider one fairly simple which could perhaps be described as
‘limited agreement’ or ‘response with reservation'. For example,
A: I’ve heard that it is a good school.
B: ˬyes
Rise-fall ̭yes ̭no
This is used to convay rather strong feelings of approval, disapproval or surprise. It is not
considered to be an important tone for foreign learners to acquire, although it is still
useful to practice to learn to distinguish it from other tones. Here is an example.
A: You would not do an awful thing like that, would you?
B: ̭no
Level ˍyes ˍ no

13. This tone is certainly used in English, but in a rather restricted context; it almost always
convays a feeling of saying something routine, uninteresting or boring. Example,
A teacher calling the names of pupils.
A speech in which every syllable is said on the same level pitch, with no pauses and no
changes in speed or loudness is refered to as ‘mechanical speech’.
* Functions of Intonations *
1. Attitudinal function.
Intonation enables us to express emotions and attitudes as we speak, and this adds a
special kind of meaning to spoken language. this is often called the attitudinal function of
intonation.
2. Accentual function.
Intonation helps to produce the effect of prominence on syllables that need to be
perceived as stressed, and in particular the placing of tonic stress on a particular syllable
marks out the word to which it belongs as the most important in the tone-unit.
3. Grammatical function.
The listener is better able to recognize the grammar and syntactic structure of what is
being said by using information contained in the intonation;for example, the placement of
boundaries between phrases, clauses or sentences, and the difference between
questions and statements.
4. Discourse function.
Looking at the act of speaking in a broader way, we can see that intonation can signal to
the listener what is to be taken as ‘new’ information and what is already ‘given’. Intonation
can convey to the listener what kind of response is expected.

14. Lecture 8: Branches of Linguistics
There are two main branches: Theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics
Theoretical linguistics :
Phonetics
The study of the physical properties of speech (or signed) production and
perception.
Phonology
The study of sounds (or signs) as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker's
mind that distinguish meaning.
Morphology
the study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified
Syntax
the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences
Semantics
The study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word
combinations (phraseology), and how these combine to form the meanings of
sentences
Pragmatics
The study of how utterances are used in communicative acts, and the role played
by context and non-linguistic knowledge in the transmission of meaning.
Discourse analysis
The analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written, or signed).
Applied linguistics:
The study of language-related issues applied in everyday life.
Clinical linguistics, The application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-
Language Pathology.
Developmental linguistics, The study of the development of linguistic ability in
individuals, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood.
Historical linguistics or diachronic linguistics,
The study of language change over time.
Neurolinguistics,
The study of the structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and
communication.
Psycholinguistics,
The study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language
use.
Sociolinguistics,
The study of variation in language and its relationship with social factors.