Linguistic

Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure. It involves analysing language form, language meaning, and language in context. Linguists traditionally analyse human language by observing an interplay between sound and meaning.

History

The study of language, linguistics, has been developing since the 4th century BC, when Indian grammarians such as Pāṇini and Yāska developed a method for the linguistic analysis of Sanskrit in terms of its phonology and morphology, and around the same time, in the west, the Greek philosopher Plato was speculating about the nature of language.

Branches of Linguistics

Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context.

Language Form

The study of language form involves understanding the physical properties of sounds or sign and how they combine to make words and sentences.

Phonetics

Phonetics is the study of physical sounds (or signs in sign languages). It is concerned with the physical properties of speech sounds (or phonemes), including their articulatory, acoustic, and auditory characteristics.

Phonology

Phonology is the study of sounds (or signs) as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker's mind that distinguish meaning.

Language Meaning

The study of language meaning involves understanding how languages employ logical structures and real-world references to convey, process, and assign meaning.

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning. It can be applied to entire texts or to single words.

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of how context influences speakers' interpretation of utterances.

Language in Context

The study of language in context involves understanding all aspects of language in its social context.

Sociolinguistics

Sociolinguistics is the study of how language varies and changes in social groups.

Psycholinguistics

Psycholinguistics is the study of how language is processed in the brain.

See Also

• Applied linguistics
• Computational linguistics
• Evolutionary linguistics
• Forensic linguistics
• Internet linguistics
• Neurolinguistics
• Stratificational linguistics

Linguistic Resources
Latest articles Most recent articles Ongoing trials	Wikipedia