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Definition: linguistics from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

(ca. 1837) : the study of human speech including the units, nature, structure, and modification of language


linguistics

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
scientific study of language , covering the structure (morphology and syntax; see grammar ), sounds ( phonology ), and meaning ( semantics ), as well as the history of the relations of languages to each other and the cultural place of language in human behavior. Phonetics , the study of the sounds of speech, is generally considered a separate (but closely related to) field from linguistics. Before the 19th cent., language was studied mainly as a field of philosophy. Among the philosophers interested in language was Wilhelm von Humboldt , who considered language an activity that arises spontaneously from the human spirit; thus, he felt, languages are different just as the characteristics of individuals are different. In 1786 the English scholar Sir William Jones suggested the possible affinity of Sanskrit and Persian with Greek and Latin, for the first time bringing to light genetic relations between languages. With Jones's revelation the school of comparative historical linguistics…
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Full text Article linguistics

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
scientific study of language , covering the structure (morphology and syntax; see grammar ), sounds ( phonology ), and meaning ( semantics ), as well as the history of the relations of languages to each other and the cultural place of language in human behavior. Phonetics , the study of the sounds…
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Full text Article linguistics

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Study of the nature and structure of language. It traditionally encompasses semantics , syntax , and phonology . Synchronic linguistic studies aim to describe a language as it exists at a given time; diachronic studies trace a language’s historical development. Greek philosophers in the 5th century…
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Full text Article Linguistics

From Encyclopedia of Race and Racism
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Although the roots of such study can be traced as far back as fourth-century India and the work of the ancient Sanskrit grammarians ( Burrow 1955 ), the turn of the twentieth century witnessed changes in the direction of the field in Europe and…
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Full text Article linguistics

From Collins Dictionary of Sociology
the academic study of LANGUAGE . Its centre is the possibility of GRAMMAR , i.e. describing language in terms of rules of abstract elements and their combinations. For example, sentences may be seen as made up of a subject and a predicate, with the predicate composed of a verb and an object. It…
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Full text Article linguistics

From A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics
The study of LANGUAGE , with attention to its structure, acquisition, use and history. Linguists study language as a general phenomenon, a specific endowment of the human species. Noam Chomsky (1957, 1965) set the goals of linguistics as accounting for the child's capacity to acquire the language or…
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Full text Article Linguistics

From The Oxford Encyclopedia of the History of American Science, Medicine, and Technology
Linguistics as practiced in America implies three overlapping subject categories: any and all work in the field done by Americans (defined here in terms of post-European settlement), distinctive contributions to the field made by Americans, and research done on indigenous American languages. …
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Full text Article LINGUISTICS

From The Essentials of Philosophy and Ethics
Some philosophers maintain (absurdly) that linguistics is a branch of ANALYTIC philosophy, even crediting WITTGENSTEIN with its creation, and indeed at Oxford, Humpty-Dumpty-like (for Humpty is remembered for saying that words mean whatever he wants them to mean), that is the way the term is used. …
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Full text Article applied linguistics

From A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics
Linguistics is said to be applied when its theories, research methods and research findings are drawn on to elucidate and help resolve practical issues and concerns to do with language and language use. In practice, however, applied linguistics tends not to be restricted to linguistic theories and…
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Full text Article queer linguistics

From A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics
A set of approaches to the study of language and discourse that are broadly poststructuralist (see POSTSTRUCTURALISM ), informed by queer theory and aspects of feminist theory. Queer linguistics foregrounds language practices associated with marginalised, ‘non-mainstream’ sexualities; these would…
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Full text Article historical linguistics

From A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics
The study of the history of language and languages, and how languages have changed over time. The term DIACHRONIC linguistics is also found. A central part of the discipline involves the comparison of languages with a view to ascertaining which ones are related, and to reconstructing earlier stages…
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