Linguistics in General

1. Linguistics as a Scientific Study of Language
General Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguistics performs two tasks:
i) To study particular languages as ends in themselves, in order to be able to produce complete and accurate descriptions of them.
ii) It studies languages as means to further end, in order to be able toobtain information about the nature of language in general.
How must linguistics be studied? It can be studied in two ways:
a) In relation to other sciences outside itself.
b) In the different branches within itself.
2. Linguistics as/ is a science
It means the following:
i) Linguistics deals with a particular body of material: spoken and written language.
ii) It proceeds (comes) by operations that can be made known and described.
iii) The body of facts linguistics discovers can be justified by referring them to principles and to a theory that can be tested.
3. The purpose of linguistics
i) to examine the material
ii) to make general statements about its various elements that relate to regular rules.
4. Linguistics is an empirical and practical science
Linguistics can be observed by senses. For example, speech can be heard, the instruments of the speech organs can be seen and read.
5- Macrolinguistics Vs. microlinguistics
Macrolinguisticsrefers to whole study of language consisting of:
(i) Prelinguistics represents phonetics and human communication like miming, gestures, and other problems of cultural behaviour.
(ii) Microlinguistics is the central core of language study (= phonology, grammar, and semantics).
(iii) Metalinguistics is the relation between language and all extra-linguistic features or communicative behaviour (= sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, etc.
6. The scope of linguistics
The scope of linguistics is known by a diagram in the shape of a wheel. In the centre is phonetics (the study of human speech sounds). Phonetics is surrounded by phonology (the study of sound systems of languages). Phoneticians are concerned with the actual physical sounds, the raw material out of which language is made. The study of position of the tongue, teeth, and vocalcords. Phonology is surrounded by syntax which refers to the study of the sentence structure. Grammar, the study of the language structure, comprises: (i) morphology- the study of the word structure and (ii) syntax- the study of the sentence structure. Syntax is surrounded by semantics which is the study of meaning. Phonology, Grammar (= morphology and syntax)and semantics are the bread and butter of the linguistics. In other words, they form the core of linguistic study that deals with the internal structure of language. Then around the central grammatical hub comes pragmatics, which deals with how speakers use language in ways which cannot be predicted from linguistic knowledge alone. In addition to various kinds of linguistics which cover the central core like sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, etc.