Linguistics is the scientific study of human language including its structure, use, and the implications of these. It can be divided into theoretical linguistics, which studies the structural properties of language through topics like phonetics, phonology, morphology and syntax, and experimental and applied linguistics, which studies language in relation to other fields through topics like bilingualism, dialectology, historical linguistics, and language acquisition. Linguistics allows for many different approaches including descriptive/theoretical, synchronic/diachronic, and functional. It has wide applications in fields such as artificial intelligence, forensic linguistics, lexicography, machine translation, speech therapy, speech recognition, and language teaching.

1. Gathered by Cristina Chirino ( 2012)
Universidad Nacional Experimental de la Educación
“Francisco de Miranda”
Área: Ciencias de la Educación
Programa: Educación Mención Inglés
U.C. Lingüística General
Modalidad: Mixta
Profa. Cristina Chirino
Topic 1: Linguistics and its Branches
Some of the typical dictionary definitions about LINGUISTICS are the
following:
It is the scientific study of language (Microsoft® Encyclopedia ®
Encarta, 2000).
It is the study of all the phenomena involved with language: its
structure, its use and the implications of these(Yule, 2000)
Unfortunately, those definitions are not always helpful, for a number of
reasons:
Those definitions do not make clear in what respects linguistics is
scientific, or what is meant by science in this context.
Those definitions failt to distinguish linguistics from related fields such
as philology.
The last definition might be more helpful even if it seems vaguer.
Linguistics deals with human language. This includes deaf sign languages,
but usually excludes what is often called BODY-LANGUAGE. Human language
is just one way in which people communicate with each other.
There are many approaches to the study of language, emphasizing
different scientific traditions. Two broad divisions are the following:

2. Gathered by Cristina Chirino ( 2012)
Theoretical Linguistics that is concerned with the study of the
structural properties of language, e.g., the rules that govern the
formation and interpretation of words and sentences. The main
subjects in theoretical linguistics are the following:
• Phonetics: the study of speech sounds.
• Phonology: the study of how speech sound are organized in the
sound system of languages.
• Morphology: the study of word structure.
• Syntax: the study os sentence structure.
• Semantics: the study of meaning of words and sentences.
Experimental and Applied Linguistics that have to do with the study
of language in relation to a wide range of other fields of inquiry,
from neurosccience and psychology, to language learning and
teaching, to anthropology, geography and sociology. The main
subjects in experimental and applied areas are the following:
• Bilingualism: how people develop and use two grammar at once.
• Dialectology: regional differences in languages.
• Historical Linguistics: how languages change over time.
• Language Acquisition: how people learn first and second
languages.
• Sociolinguistics: how langauge is affected by social facators like
age, sex, and social class.
Any of these levels of linguistics analysis can be studied in a number of
different ways. Consider the diagram below.
Functional
Approach
Lge
Adquisition
Sociolinguistics/
dialectology
Descriptive/
theoretical
Synchronic/
Diachronic
approach
Language
typology
Language
Approaches to Language Study

3. Gathered by Cristina Chirino ( 2012)
They can be studied as facets of particular languages, or they can
be studied across languages, looking for generalisations which apply
ideally to all languages, but more often to a large section of languages.
This is known as language typology.
They can be studied as they exst at some particular time in
history or yhey canbe studied looking at the way the patterns change
and develop over time. The first approach is called synchronic approach,
the second the diachronic or historical approach.
They can be study with the aim of giving a description of the
system of a particular language or set of languages, or tey can be
studied with the aim of developing a theory of how langauges are most
efficiently describe or how languages are produced by speakers. The
first of these approaches is usually called descriptive linguistics, the
second is often called theoretical linguistics.
They can be treated as isolated system, at though all speakers
talk in the same way as each other at all times, or they can be treated
as systems with variability. This is often called sociolinguistics, including
matters such as dialectology.
We can study these topics as the present in the adult human, or
we can sudy the way they develop in children, in which case we will study
language acquisition.
Finally, most of these facets of linguistics can be studiied in
terms of how the use to which language is put in communicatin and the
cognitive functions of the human mind shape the way in wich language
works.
In principle, each of these choices is independent, giving a huge
range of posible approaches to the subject matter of linguistics. Other
applications of linguistics may seem more centrally relevant. These
include:

4. Gathered by Cristina Chirino ( 2012)
Artificial Intelligence: a machine should be termed
intelligent when humans could interact with it without
realising they are not interacting with another human. This
also involves the machine being able to produce something
akin to human language.
Forensic Linguistics: this deals withthe use of language in
legal contexts, including matters such as the linguistics
techniques of cross-examination, the identification of
speakers from tape-recordings, etc.
Lexicography: the creation of dictionaries.
Machine Translation: the use of computers to translate a
written text from one language to another.
Speech and Language Therapy: speech and language
therapists deal with people who, for any reason, have not
acquired their first language.
Speech Recognition: the use of computers to decode
spoken language.
Teaching: It is clear that second and foreign- language
teaching involve, among other things, linguistics skills, but
so does much mother-language teaching, including the
ability to read and write
Even this overview is not complete. It indicates, though, just how broad
a subject linguistics is.
References:
Yule, G. (2007). The Study of Language. Cambridge University Press: U.S.A.
http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2153/Language-Acquisition.html
Evans, V. And Green, M. ( 2006). Cognitive Linguistics. Edinburgh University
Press. Ltd: Edinburgh.