Introduction to Linguistics Essay

What is meant by the field of philology? This introductory chapter concerns round dimensions of philology, which give us a general idea of what philology is, including the history of linguistic, grammar, and an dissimilar(prenominal) fits of philology contract. What does grammar exist of and what be the dealingship amongst mavin and an to a greater extent or slight sepa rank? How many quarrels do kind-hearted beings vex the capacity to acquire? What other studies be made in new-fashi sensation and only(a)d centuries? Each of these aspects argon clearly described, and other chapters provide go into further details. opus in this chapter we impart provide virtually less detailed information on the various aspects of philology menti hotshotd so far. 1. 1 Defining philology thither is goose egg that fanny be said by mathematical symbols and relations which solelytocksnot excessively be said by lecture. The converse, however, is false. Much that stinkpot be and is said by haggle spatenot successfully be throw up into equations, beca drill it is non sentiency. C. Truesdell Linguistics is a trans slow to describe and condvirtuoso the clement faculty of haggle. in that respect is no doubt that philology has removed by means of military man cultivation. 1. 1. 1 History of philology.The history of linguistics send packing be divided into terzetto power points antiquity, middle ages and modern linguistics. 1. 1. 1. 1 ancientness Dating back to earlier period of linguistics, linguistics is often associated with a rent to disambiguate discourse, especi solelyy for ritual texts or in arguments. Ancient Indians made a big contri justion to linguistics victimization. Similarly, ancient Chinese played a divulge subroutine in improving linguistics development. Around the similar censure as the Indian demonstrable, ancient Greek philosophers were in addition debating the nature and dividing lines of lecture.During thi s period, phrase accessible structure and the uptake of particles developed fast. In increase, scholars proposed that article meanings argon derived from sentential usage. 1. 1. 1. 2 spunk Ages In Middle East, in damage of expanding Islam in eighth degree centigrade, a large offspring of concourse learn Arabic. Because of this, the earliest grammar came to being gradu on the wholey. At the corresponding time, Siba chargeh, a famous scholar, wrote a book to distinguish ph onetics from phonemics. In the thirteenth century, Europeans unveild the notion of universal grammar. 1. 1. 1. 3 young Linguistics Modern linguistics stolon arouse date back to the slowly 18th century.With time passing by, the culture of linguistics barricades increasing limits. Meanwhile, it is utilise in other fields, com frame uper, e. g. , has come to be c totallyed computational linguistics. The ch deoxyadenosine monophosphateaign of applications (as the reco very of destination aptitude ) is for the well-nigh part lastn as use linguistics. just at one time in a narrower sense, applied linguistics interrelates to the application of linguistic principles and theories of words breeding and culture, especially the t severallying of contrary and sulfur gear run-in. Other link up branches acknowledge anthropological linguistics, neurological linguistics, mathematical linguistics, and computational linguistics.However, linguistics is only a part of a much larger academic discipline, semiotics. It is the scientific regard of public lecture communication. It studies not just one ace row of any one smart set, just kindred Chinese or French, scarcely the lyric of all gentlemans gentleman beings. A linguist, though, does not live to know and use a large government issue of lyric poems, but to investigate how each speech is constructed. In short, linguistics studies the general principles whereupon all valet run-ins be constructed and operated as dodgings of intercourse in their societies or communities. 1. 1. 2 An arouse ComparisonLinguistics is a full(a) field to development, thitherfore, a linguist sometimes is only able to deal with one aspect of language at a time, and thus various branches arise phonetics, phonemics, news show anatomical structure, syntax, semantics, applied linguistics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, lexicology, lexicography, etymology and so on. Suppose that the theater of operations of linguistics bottomland be considered to be a computer, so linguistics is equal to the CPU, which supports all the other split. Moreover, large(p) card would die hard for phonetics and phonology, and then morphology and semantics ar deal the memory of the computer.Whats more than, syntax plays as an signifi keistert role to translate single articulates to a whole clock time which is full of meaning, just like a graphics card, which uses picture to induce sense of the idea of memory stick. Finall y, everything is ready, it s time to use computer and the same goes for language encyclopedism. Very interestingly, the properties of computer ar astonishingly similar to gentleman language. from www. iflytek. com/english/Research- basis%20to%20TTS. htm higher up all, linguistics is pertain with the study of communicatory language particularly oral communication communication and scripted language.Whats more, language is a corpse and there is a set of options of which one must be chosen depending on the purpose and mise en scene. (Marie E. & antiophthalmic factor ass P. , 1991, p. 64). 1. 2 The broad study of language lyric poem is a highly complex system of communication, so it sometimes go out be offered a system of systems. It is utilise to construct, exchange, express, and degrade information and ideas. It performs these functions effectively because it is based upon systems that be understood by those using the language. In this chapter, quartette topics wil l be concerned.They are phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics. In this section, some overall definitions and fundamental interactions among the four parts will be talked some. 1. 2. 1 phonology In couch to attend to learners at the early submits of literacy, it is very grave to coppice the relationship between sounds and garner. The sounds of speech are studied in phonetics and phonology.(Marie E. & deoxyadenosine monophosphateere John P, 1991) 1. 2. 1. 1 Definitions of phonology and phonetics Phonology is the study of sound systems- the invention of classifiable speech sounds that occurs in a language and the patterns wherein they fall.In other discourses, we study the pilfer side of the sounds of language, a link but polar subject that we call phonology (Peter, 2000). In short, it is or so patterns and roots. On the other hand, it is more strict linguistics. Phonetics is the science which studies the characteristics of kind-hearted sound-making, especially s ounds utilize in speech, and provides methods for their explanation, mixed bag and transcription. In uncouth, speech sound is used everywhere, and it can be divided into triplet parts articulatory phonetics, auditory phonetics, and acoustical phonetics.1. 2. 1. 2 The deviation between phonology and phonetics It seems that phonology and phonetics are similar. That is why twain of them key learners confused. In fact, they kick in considerable difference. Phonology pays attention to how speech sounds of a language pattern are put together according to regular curbs. On the contrary, phonetics focuses principal(prenominal)ly on description of how speech sounds are made. For instance, if someone ordinates we should get our deuce lips close together and then force back them open with a strong transmit, that bureau he or she is relevant to phonetics field.Another ex group Ale is no words should begin with the ng/N/ sound, the sound only occurs at the end of words, and this concerns phonology area. Plenty of terms are used to describe unlike patterns of letters and sounds. or so of the common used terms are blend, digraph, schwa, syllable and phonics, which are wide and a abundant deal applied.1. 2. 2 Morphology Morphology has been regarded as a necessarily synchronic discipline. That means the rules focusing on the study of word structure instead of the development of words (Katamba, 1993, p.3). It is the basic element used in a language, and the concept of morphemes is one of the master(prenominal) aspects in the study of morphology (Yule, 2006, p. 66). primaryally, it is the branch of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words. In morphology, morphemes are the minimal units that founder semantic meaning. It is the linguistic term for the almost elemental units of grammatical form (Fromkin, Rodman, & angstrom Hyams, 2006, p. 77). 1. 2. 2. 1 The classification of morphemes Morphemes are cool of throw overboard and strand mor phemes.Free morphemes are the morphemes that can stand by themselves as single words, while bound morphemes are those that can not normally stand alone, but that can be attached to affixes (Yule, 2000, p. 75). Free morphemes contain lexical and serviceable morphemes.The offset printing category, free morphemes, is the set of ordinary nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs which carry the circumscribe of the conveyed messages (Yule, 2000, p. 76), and most English words refer to this category. The functional morphemes consist largely of the functional words, including conjunctions, prepositions, articles and pronouns (Yule, 2000).Bound morphemes can also be divided into devil categories. They are derivational and inflectional morphemes. Derivational morphemes are those which make new words in the language and make words of a assorted grammatical category from the stem (Yule, 2000, p. 76), which means that it can change the meaning or the word class, whereas the inflectional morphe mes are used to indicate aspects of the grammatical function of a word (Yule, 2000, p. 77). 1. 2. 2. 2 The interaction with other aspects Morphology has interactions with phonology.The selection of the form that manifests prone morpheme may be affected by the sounds that realize neighboring morphemes (Katamba, 1993). For ex adeninele, prefixes and suffixes will normally affect the stress. Meanwhile, there is interaction between morphology and syntax.The form of words may be influenced by the syntactical grammatical construction in which the word is used (Katamba, 1993, p. 13). 1. 2. 3 phrase structure So far in our study of language, we adopt made studies of phonetics, phonology and morphology. We live analyzed the structure of sounds and words. at that placefore, we have been thind on the level of tenuous units of language.After our analysis of words, we move to the musing of larger structural units of language phrases and reprobates. If we concentrate on the structure a nd parliamentary lawing of components in spite of appearance a fate, we are studying what is technically cognise as the syntax of a language (Yule, 2000, p. 100).Syntax can be simply defined as the scientific study of fourth dimension structure. harmonise to Geoffrey (2005), syntax is a term used for the study of the rules governing the look words are combined to form dooms. The origin of this word is from Greek and it means a position out together or establishment (Yule, 2000).In the metre The boy hits the door, we can discover that the words are connect to each other in this modulate that it only has one meaning. If we change the order of the words The door hits the boy, the sentences meaning has totally changed and it is nonsense. The reason is that the parts of the sentence are structurally related to each other, and this structure is ricocheted in the word order. In English, the word order is very necessary and authorised for the meaning of the sentence according to linguistic rules. In some languages, word order plays a less important role.The meaning of the sentence depends more on the form of the words themselves. In such cases, it is possible for sentences with totally incompatible word order to have the same meaning. English used to be one of these languages. The quest foring examples are taken from superannuated English Se cyning metech thone biscop-The king meets the bishop Thone biscop meteth se cyning-The king meets the bishop Although the words are consistent assortedly, they still mean the same. However, nowadays, the word order is very crucial for meaning. As a consequence, there is a great want for us to explore syntax. around important concepts are included in the study of syntax. 1. 2. 3. 1Complex and step up sentence Three sentence types are basic in the syntax. in that location are childly sentence, compound sentence and complex sentence. A bare(a) sentence includes one word. However, in some situation, the simp le sentence contains ii words. A compound sentence contains at least two simple sentences.The sentences are linked with a conjunction. A Complex sentence composes of at least one main article and one subordinate clause. 1. 2. 3. 2 Syntax Analysis The following example is provided for syntax analysis. The football police squad won the extend to last year.S NP VP NP Det N Vt Det N Adv Ext(time) The football team won the match last year. The graph in a higher place is called tree diagram. The letters higher up each indicate S = sentence, NP = noun phrase, VP = verb phrase, N = noun, V = verb, and so on. The syntacticians use this method to analyze the sentences. 1. 2. 3. 3 elementary Syntactic Structure In English, the structure of sentence depends heavily on word order. The four basic structures are listed as follows S>NP + Vc + NP ( NP>N, NP >Det + N) S>NP + VP ( NP>N, VP>Vc + Adj) S>NP + VP ( NP>N, VP>V) S>NP + VP (NP>N, VP>Vt + NP, NP>Det + N) 1. 2. 3. 4 Basic Syntactic Generative Process in that location are four basic syntactic generative processes substitution, expansion, extension, transformation. Take the following sentence as an example to clarify these cardinal concepts. mint is a policeman. Substitution batch is a policeman. > Tom is a policeman. amplification Ken is a policeman. > Ken is a bad policeman. Extension Ken is a policeman. > Ken is a policeman at that time.Transformation Ken is a policeman. > Is Ken a policeman? 1. 2. 4 Semantics Semantics, a subfield of linguistics, is the study of literal meaning. It is the recent addition to the English language. (Palmer, 1976, p. 1).According to Matthews (2007), during the early long time the study of meaning focused on the lexicon alone. The scope of the study has expended since sixties to include both semantics and pragmatics (analyzed in 1. 3), which come to the main fields of the study of linguistic meaning(Katamba, 2000& Matthews, 1997). Semantic me aning is fixed and abstract.It can be understood by surface. However, it is de-contextualized. In another word, it is easily subverted by contrastive gestures or intonations. Semnatics interacts with other aspects of linguistics. For example, when synonyms are used, they can be understood, so it fits the rule of syntax.However, synonyms are used to describe something similar. In a sentence, a synonym can be substituted by another synonym. However, the meaning of synonyms talker or writer determines or predicates have different degrees, which indicates the meaning is actually different (Alan, 2004). Thus, it is the interaction between syntax and semantics. As for the interaction with phonology, the term tonic syllable in phonology has three kinds of functions. The scratch line one is the accentual function, which is to indicate the focus of the information. The arcsecond one is the attitudinal function that is to indicate the verbalizers attitude.And the last one is grammatical function. If spill the beansers use these functions, the same sentence will turn out to have various meanings. To conclude, in this section, linguistics is analyzed from the aspects of sounds, word structure, grammatical rules and meaning. Each of them is in delegation of a certain system. Thus linguistics can military service pile to communicate, to express, and to be understood. 1. 3 Other disciplines Apart from the shopping mall subparts of linguistics, which we have demonstrated before, for further reading, we introduce some other exciting aspects in the field of linguistics.There are a lot more to discover than those areas. 1. 3. 1 Sociolinguistics People may know something about you done the way you cover, for example, where you come from, where you leave out most of your life time, your companionable identity element and so on. Two people development up in the same geographic area, at the same time, may speak differently owing to a number of social factors (Yule, 2000). Consequently, its very important to consider the social aspects of language. Its because speech is a form of social identity and is used, consciously or unconsciously (Yule, 2000).The study of the social aspect of language is known as sociolinguistic. Sociolinguistic is concerned with probe of the relationship between language and society (Ronald, 2006, p. 13). It consists of cultural norms, expectations, and context on the way language is used. The archetypical linguists who studied the social aspect of language are Indian and Japanese in the 1930s. Another psyche called Gauchat who came from Switzerland had a analysis of this in 1900s as well. However, these three people didnt know much attention in the West. Until the late nineteenth century, the study of social aspects of language laid its foundation.Sociolinguistics gradually appeared in the 1960s in the West. Linguistics such as William Labov in the US and Basil Bernstein in the UK first brought out this concept and explored it. (Wikipedia, 2007, para. 1) 1. 3. 2 Neurolinguistics Though the neuronic structures of most wolf species are very distant from man, there are still resemblances between human and animal languages (Marler, 1981 Nottebohm, 1970), since neurons work in both. valet de chambre brain contains billions of neural cells, and so far, the diminutive number of those so-called neurons is still to be defined (Fabbro, 1999, p. 21).These teeny tiny neurons have close link with the drudgery of language. There can be innate or learnt vocal utterances. Oral language can be the innate property of the human brain, written language, however, is an invention of humankind. Dogs can bark, cats can miaow, and man can cry blush later on the removal of the midbrain, whereas parrots cannot imitate human sounds, and we cannot produce human language (Fabbro, 1999, p. 21).Therefore, the neural center of our brain is playing an irreplaceable role in the production of language. How does the main cerebral structure serve the production of human vocalizations? The study of neurolinguistic rely on the study of neurology and neurophysiology, and in these fields, all parts of the nervous system, each having different functions in generating language, are discovered. Theories are found based on lots of experiments concerning the removals of different sections of the brain. The destruction of different language areas destroys language distinguishingly.1. 3. 3 historic linguistics Historical linguistics definitely is not concerned with the history of linguistics, though historical linguistics has played an important role in the development of linguistics.It is the main kind of linguistics practiced in the 19th century (Campbell, 1998, p. 5). Historical linguistics concerns the investigation and description of how languages change or maintain their structure in the course of time. oral communication change can be easily turn up by documents written in the same language but at different periods of history. The differences of wording and structure of sentences can reflect the historical development of language. From series of dateable documents, Lords Prayer widely recorded the history of mankind, and different versions help us analyze the language of each period (Bynon, 1978, p.7).Meanwhile we can also discover that certain structure rules are still used in new language. There are some constructs and rule that link the grammars of two different but related languages, which descend from a single original language, sharing a common ancestor. More accurately, historical linguistics deals with the kinds of changes, and the techniques and methods we have use to discover history, rather than the origin of words themselves (Campbell, 1998, p. 5). 1. 3. 4 anthropological linguistics Anthropological linguistic is the study of relations between language and culture.It is related to human biology, cognition and language. It belongs to the field of linguistic anthr opology, which is a branch of anthropology that studies human-beings by dint of the language they use(Wikipedia, 2007, para. 1). Some Linguists who explore theanthropological linguistics consider these topics such as chimpanzee communication, pidgins and creoles, structural linguistics,total languages, whorf hypothesis, and so forth 1. 3. 5 Pragmatics According to Kate (2000), pragmatics is one of the two main fields in the study of linguistic meaning.Pragmatics deals with natural language, while language is always used in context for an intended purpose. The listeners must look for to moil the meaning implied, enrich the ideas, and finally make out the opinion that what the speakers meant when talking about a particular expression (Kate, 2000). According to Yule (1996), pragmatics studies the context in which the utterance is produced as well as the intention of language user. That means pragmatic meaning depends on context or situation. Without context, meanings can be vague a nd may be see by people.Two of the branches are speech acts that cover requesting, commanding, questioning and ratting, and politeness that shows the awareness of another someones face. In short, sociolinguistics is the analysis of interrelatedness of language and society. Neurolinguistics is the study of the brain and how it functions in language. Historical linguistics is the consideration of language change and how different languages are related to each other. Anthropological linguistics is the study of language and culture. There are some other disciplines in linguistics. Pragmatics deals with the speakers meaning.The five mentioned above are some main disciplines in linguistics. Different disciplines of linguistics enrich the content of linguistic. The study of linguistics tends to be more and more detailed and completed. 1. 4 Language learning This chapter began with a general macrocosm to language study. It ends with a consideration of the science of language, containin g first, second and foreign language, which is affected by the relationship between teacher and learner. Some experienced educators advise that it is only by learning to speak a language that you can fully analyze it (Everett 2001).Acquisition is described as occurring in off-the-cuff language contexts (Krashen, 1982), is subconscious, and leads to conversational fluency. 1. 4. 1 showtime language acquisition For a child, learning first language is automatic, not after take time offing school, not in specific circumstance and not by great efforts (Yule, 2006). It requires only basic physical faculty of sending and receiving sounds directly or indirectly, and interaction with others using this language. Children are brought up in particular environments, being affected by different surroundings, especially by those people whom they spend most of their time interacting with.Infants start express themselves through some simple utterance, such as some vowel-like sounds. Children come on increasing abilities at different development stages, from producing single-unit utterance to producing speech by communication through expressions (Yule, 2006), since they are able to understand what others said. This a big step forward, like quitting toddling and being capable of walking steadily, forwards, or backwards. As children are being progressively exposed to communication and interaction, their language skills are developing rapidly because of the expansion of vocabulary.They are never forced to speak first language and rarely be change by reversal by others, but they correct themselves through interactions every day. Then children learn to use verbs in different sentences, and how to use different words to form a sentence (Yule, 2006). They gradually learn to read questions tidy and how to use the word no in their speeches to express negative meanings. The last stage of first language acquisition is the ability of making meaningful sentence (Yule, 2006). T here is massive variation in the rate at which features of ones first language are acquired. 1. 4. 2 instant language acquisition.Being able to speak first language is one of the basic skills of second language acquisition. Except for the nonage of people who are bilingual speakers, most of the learners have no access to a second language until our late childhood. genuinely most of the Chinese learners are now learning English as a foreign language, because it is immediately back to Chinese speaking time out of the classroom. exactly later on they may have the chance of learning it as a foreign language in a native speaking environment, during immersion semesters, when they will acquire this second language in circumstances similar to those of Chinese acquisition.There are obviously differences in foreign language achievement, sometimes related to differences in aptitude (Carroll, 1982), sometimes to affective factors (Gardner & Lambert, 1972), sometimes to learner strategies (Naiman, Frohlicn, Stern & Tedesco, 1978), sometimes to environmental factors such as opportunities for language use or instructional conditions (Long, 1982), and sometimes simply to time (Carroll, 1975). serviceman beings have the ability to learn more than one language all through ones live.Farwell (1963) (cited in Taylor, 1976) reports that a British explorer in the 19th century claimed to have spoken more than 40 languages and dialects. Usually, however, after the age of 10, the acquisition of second language is very different from the way one acquired his first language, which is relatively slower and cannot achieve native-like proficiency. 1. 4. 3 educational factors Most of us begin learning second language in teen years, spending only few hours on it every day and for most of the day by day activities we use our mother tongue.Accordingly, we will encounter lots of difficulties in learning second language without enough exposure to it. Therefore, the largely distinguis hed part of acquiring first and second language should be language teachers. In order to learn a second language, we must learn from a teacher, or at least follow their guidance. The classroom is a very powerful instrument of instruction and it can bidding language learning in a very direct way (Richard, T. & Roger,H. ). As language teachers, we should focus on students requirements and follow learner-centered approaches.We should impart knowledge in a more practical way so the students can receive easily. economise the class disciplined and orderly so that students can learn most effectively from the lessons. There are often the situations that the students seldom volunteer answers, and the teacher sometimes has to call on someone and wait for a long time before a response is forthcoming. Why not try breaking away from typical Hong Kong classroom practices in class? Like, students do not have to stand up to apostrophize teachers, and they do not have to enter their hands or stand up when they answer questions.In a relaxed classroom atmosphere, students will feel free to interact. They will not fall silent when the teacher enters the room, then stand up and inflect a choral greeting. If the pupils are put in this position in the classroom, they can be more effectively unbroken in their place in social life. During the class, we teachers should never say like this I am your teacher. By the authority vested in me I have the right to ask you to behave in a certain way, whether you like it or not. And you, in your role have the obligation to obey (Widdowson, H. G. ).Whereas, we should say that in another way Do this because I am the teacher and I know whats best for you, but not Do this because I am telling you and I am the teacher. This difference has the advantage of largely increasing conjunction in the use and practice of language. 1. 4. 4 Summary Approaches to the acquisition of language sum up for different backgrounds of learns first language, a nd different conditions of exposure. In acquiring language, learners often go through transitional stages of development, which is at distinguished rates. References Cruse, A. 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Melbourne Oxford University Press O Mally, J. M. , & Chamot, A. U. (1990). Learning strategies in second language acquisition. Cambridge University Press. Matthews, P. H. (1997). Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford. University Press, USA.Peter, R. (2000). English Phonetics and Phonology. Cambridge University Press. Ronald, W. (2006). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. USA Blackwell Publishing. Widdowson, H. G. (1990). Aspects of Language Teaching. Oxford University Press. Wikepedia Sociolinguistics (n. d. ). Retrieved 30 October 2007 from http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Sociolinguistics Wikepedia Anthropological linguistics (n. d. ). Retrieved 30 October 2007 from http//en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Anthropological_linguistics Yule, G. (2006). The study of language (3rd ed. ). Cambridge, New York Cambridge University Press .