Outline of linguistics
See also: Index of linguistics articles
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to linguistics:
Linguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. Linguistics can be theoretical or applied.
Nature of linguistics
Linguistics can be described as all of the following:
- An academic discipline – a body of knowledge given to—or received by—a disciple (student); a branch or sphere of knowledge, or field of study, that an individual has chosen to specialise in.
- A field of science – a widely recognized category of specialized expertise within science, embodying its own terminology, nomenclature, and scientific journals.
- A social science – a field of academic scholarship that explores aspects of human societies related to the languages they speak.
Branches of linguistics
Subfields of linguistics
- Theoretical linguistics
- Descriptive linguistics
- Applied linguistics
- Computational linguistics
- Evolutionary linguistics
- Forensic linguistics
- Internet linguistics
- Language acquisition
- Language assessment
- Language documentation
- Language revitalization
- Language development
- Language education
- Linguistic anthropology
- Neurolinguistics
- Psycholinguistics
- Second-language acquisition
Subfields, by linguistic structures studied
Sub-fields of structure-focused linguistics include:
- Phonetics – study of the physical properties of speech (or signed) production and perception
- Phonology – study of sounds (or signs) as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker's mind that distinguish meaning
- Morphology – study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified
- Syntax – study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences
- Semantics – study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word combinations (phraseology), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences
- Pragmatics – study of how utterances are used in communicative acts – and the role played by context and nonlinguistic knowledge in the transmission of meaning
- Discourse analysis – analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written, or signed)
Subfields, by nonlinguistic factors studied
- Applied linguistics – study of language-related issues applied in everyday life, notably language policies, planning, and education. (Constructed language fits under Applied linguistics.)
- Biolinguistics – study of natural as well as human-taught communication systems in animals, compared to human language.
- Clinical linguistics – application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-Language Pathology.
- Computational linguistics – study of linguistic issues in a way that is 'computationally responsible', i.e., taking careful note of computational consideration of algorithmic specification and computational complexity, so that the linguistic theories devised can be shown to exhibit certain desirable computational properties implementations.
- Developmental linguistics – study of the development of linguistic ability in individuals, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood.
- Evolutionary linguistics – study of the origin and subsequent development of language by the human species.
- Historical linguistics – study of language change over time. Also called diachronic linguistics.
- Language geography – study of the geographical distribution of languages and linguistic features.
- Linguistic typology – study of the common properties of diverse unrelated languages, properties that may, given sufficient attestation, be assumed to be innate to human language capacity.
- Neurolinguistics – study of the structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and communication.
- Psycholinguistics – study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language use.
- Sociolinguistics – study of variation in language and its relationship with social factors.
- Stylistics – study of linguistic factors that place a discourse in context.
Other subfields of linguistics
- Contrastive linguistics
- Corpus linguistics
- Dialectology
- Discourse analysis
- Grammar
- Interlinguistics
- Language didactics
- Language learning
- Language teaching
- Language for specific purposes
- Lexicology
- Linguistic statistics
- Orthography
- Rhetoric
- Text linguistics
Schools, movements, and approaches of linguistics
- Cognitive linguistics
- Danish School
- Functionalism
- Generative linguistics
- Geneva School
- Neo-Grammarians
- Prague School
- Prescription and description
- Soviet linguistics
- Stratificational linguistics
- Structuralism
- Systemic linguistics
- SIL International
- Tagmemics
Related fields
- Semiotics – investigates the relationship between signs and what they signify more broadly. From the perspective of semiotics, language can be seen as a sign or symbol, with the world as its representation.
History of linguistics
Timeline of discovery of basic linguistics concepts
When were the basic concepts first described and by whom?
- Ancient Sanskrit grammarians
- Ancient Greek study of language
- Roman elaborations of Greek study
- Medieval philosophical work in Latin
- Beginnings of modern linguistics in the 19th century
- Behaviorism and mental tabula rasa hypothesis
- Chomsky and functionalism
- Generative grammar leads to generative phonology and semantics
- Alternate syntactic systems develop in 80s
- Computational linguistics becomes feasible the late 80s
- Neurolinguistics and the biological basis of cognition
Questions in linguistics
- What is language?
- How did it/does it evolve?
- How does language serve as a medium of communication?
- How does language serve as a medium of thinking?
- What is common to all languages?
- How do languages differ?
Basic concepts
What basic concepts / terms do I have to know to talk about linguistics?
- Morphology
- Phonology
- Grammar
- Syntax
- Lexicology
- Semantics
- meaning, sense, entailment, truth condition, compositionality
- Pragmatics
Languages of the world
Languages by country
Linguistics scholars
Main article: List of linguists
People who had a significant influence on the development of the field
- John Langshaw Austin
- Leonard Bloomfield
- Franz Bopp
- Noam Chomsky
- David Crystal
- Daniel Everett
- M.A.K. Halliday
- Louis Hjelmslev
- Roman Jakobson
- Sir William Jones
- Pāṇini
- Kenneth L. Pike
- Rasmus Rask
- Edward Sapir
- Ferdinand de Saussure
- August Schleicher
- John R. Searle
- Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Nikolai Trubetzkoy
- Noah Webster
- Benjamin Lee Whorf
Linguistics lists
- Common misspellings
- English words without rhymes
- Acronym
See also
External links
- Glottopedia, MediaWiki-based encyclopedia of linguistics, under construction
- Subfields according to the Linguistic Society of America
- Glossary of linguistic terms and French<->English glossary at SIL International
- "Linguistics" section of A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism and Philology, ed. J. A. García Landa (University of Zaragoza, Spain)
- Linguistics and language-related wiki articles on Scholarpedia and Citizendium
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