Linguistics: An Introduction

Linguistics: The study of language


A special note about this blog.

 This blog assumes you are able to read Japanese at at least a college level. Rarely, if ever, will a transcription (Romaji) be provided. If you are having trouble reading the characters please feel free to download a wonderful Firefox extension called Rikai-chan. For Chrome please search for Rikai-kun 

What are Linguistics? Or should I say, what is Linguistics? Simply put it is the study of language.

Within the incredibly broad category of linguistics there are many subfields of study.

Including, but not limited to:
(All definitions listed below unless otherwise stated are derived from Linguistics An Introduction to Language and Communication Fourth Edition / Akmajin, Adrian 1995)

Pragmatics:
The study of language use and its relation to language structure and context of utterance.

In other words:  How language is used.

Phonology:
The subfield of linguistics that studies the structure and systematic patterning of sounds in human language.

In other words: The study of the structure of sounds in language.

Phonetics: The study of speech sounds.

In other words: The study (analysis) of individual sounds within a language.

Morphology:
The subfield of linguistics that studies the internal structure of words and the relationship among words.

In other words: The study of the structure of words.

Semantics:
The study of meaning, reference, truth, and related notions.

In other words: The study of meaning in a language.

There are many other areas of study but we will go over these in short order as they relate to both Japanese and English.
 

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