Linguistics

Linguistics is a branch of science which deals with language analysis, and the scholars who examine languages age called linguists . The directions of linguistic inquiry can be divided into three opposing pairs:

• Theoretical linguistics (constructs models on which particular languages are described, as well as theories about universal aspects of language) and applied linguistics (puts theory into practice: speech synthesis, speech therapy, etc)
• Autonomic linguistics (examines what Saussure called "langue" and Chomsky "internal language", the nature of language beyond the aspects of everyday usage) and contextual linguistics (deals with what Saussure called "parole" and Chomsky "external language", mainly the role of language in the world: its social functions and its application in wider context of human behaviour.
• Synchronic linguistics (examines the form of language at a given point in time) and diachronic linguistics (analyses the history of a language (or language groups) and how it changes with time).

In the very centre of linguistic inquiries are the linguists who deal with autonomic linguistics, theoretical linguistics and synchronic linguistics.

The central aspect of theoretical and independent linguistics is the nature of human linguistic competence and linguistic skills: explaining what it means to know a language and how people learn languages. All the people (apart from pathological cases) achieve linguistic competence in the language they hear as they grow up (also sign language ) without any formal instruction. Other species do not have such abilities which means that it is inherently human feature.

Linguistic structures are pairs of meanings and sounds (or other expressive form) . Linguists may specialize in subgroups of linguistic structures which can be grouped in the following way: (from sound to meaning):

• Phonetics : one of the branches of linguistics dealing with the analysis of speech sounds (called phonemes). It analyses articulation (how they are made with the use of speech organs; so called articulatory phonetics), their physical features (also called acoustic – acoustic phonetics) their perception (auditory phonetics), reactions which the phonemes evoke in human psychology (psychophonetics). Other phonic features (connected with voice), such as accent are on the borderline of phonetics and phonology. Phonetics can also be differentiated on account of the number of languages it describes – descriptive phonetics analyses one language, while comparative phonetics compares two or more languages. Phonetics can be viewed synchronically, or diachronically. Synchronic phonetics is interested in the phonetic structure of language at a given point in time. The “point in time” here should be long enough to enable conducting appropriate research, yet at the same time relatively short as the way in which people speak changes with time. A period of from a few years to a time span of life of one generation is often considered to be optimal. Synchronic phonetics may be interested in the contemporary language, or for example speech of XVI century etc. Diachronic phonetics is interested in the change, the evolution of the phonetic side of language. In order to ascertain what has changed in phonetics, and if the change has indeed occurred at least two different states of language from different historic periods need to be compared, so diachronic phonetics needs to use the results of the synchronic phonetics’ research.
• Phonology : branch of linguistics dealing with the analysis of systems of sounds of language. It differs from phonetics, because it has a different approach to speech sounds: phonology analyses them as a system, while phonetics analyses their physical features. Phonology as a separate from phonetics discipline begun with the observation that it is impossible to precisely describe the system of sounds of a given language simply describing the sounds used in this language. It was assumed that more abstract units are needed, and they were called phonemes. It is interesting that the term ‘phoneme’ was first used by a Polish linguist Jan Baudouin de Courtenay. Depending on the range of the described processes scholars distinguish between segmental and suprasegmental phonology. As the names suggest the former deals with segments and the latter with bigger units: syllables, words, phrases and issues connected with them, such as: accent, tone, rhythm and intonation. Yet, a closer analysis reveals that both disciplines strongly overlap.
• Morphology : branch of linguistics dealing with inflected forms of words (inflection) and word-formation. There are two approaches to morphology which differ on the object which is accepted as a linguistics sign: morphemic approach and lexemic approach. In the morphemic approach the elementary unit of morphemic analysis is the abstract morpheme often characterized as the smallest meaningful unit of language. A word is here understood as a simple sign if it consists of only one morpheme, or as a complex sign if it consists of two or more morphemes. In the lexemic approach the elementary unit of analysis is the abstract lexeme which bonds the meaning, grammatical features and the sound form of the word. There are different sub-classifications of morphological systems depending on the emphasis on word formation or inflection. The lexemic approach derives from an ancient tradition – the Stoic philosophy is considered as its source together with the works of Aristotle. The morphemic approach appeared in Europe in the XVI century in the writings of Johannes Reuchlin.
• Syntax : branch of linguistics dealing with the analysis of manners in which words are connected in longer discourses and especially in sentences and their equivalents. It also deals with the relations between the elements in sentences and the relations between sentences in longer texts. It is a science of sentence construction.
• Semantics : it is a discipline analyzing the relations between the linguistic signs and the objects they refer to . Semantics examines the meanings of words, but it also interprets the signs and sentences. Logical semantics examines artificial languages, where the examined language is called the subject language and it is interpreted with the use of metalanguage.
• Pragmatics : one of three branches of semiotics (next to semantics and syntactic). This branch of linguistics developed in the 70s of the XX century and it deals with the relations of words and their producers and perceivers (people uttering the words, or the listeners). To put it another way pragmatics examines the ways it which people interpret speech (especially understanding and interpreting utterances in different contexts). Among the most important pragmatic theories there are: speech act theory, implicature theory, presupposition and deixis.