Linguistics.
Abstract:
The study of language/linguistics meaning is concerned with how languages employ logical structures and real-world references to convey, process, and assign meaning, as well as to manage and resolve ambiguity. This sub-field encompasses semantics how meaning is inferred from words and concepts and pragmatics also how meaning is inferred from context to reference. Analyzing is the mother of invention in the field of education.
A brief study may give us broad vision. Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context. The first is the study of language structure, or grammar. This focuses on the system of rules followed by the speakers (or hearers) of a language. It encompasses morphology (the formation and composition of words), syntax (the formation and composition of phrases and sentences from these words), and phonology sounds systems). Phonetics is a related branch of linguistics concerned with the actual properties of speech sounds and non-speech sounds, and how they are produced and perceived in day today communication process.
The Sub-Field of linguistics:
Language is a phenomenon with many layers, from the sounds that come out of people's mouths to the meanings that those sounds express.
The field of linguistic is compassed of sub-field, and most professional linguistics become specialist in one or more of those sub-fields. The major sub-field are the following:
1. Phonetics
This is study of speech sounds themselves. Phoneticians study both the production of speech sound by the human speech organs (articulatory phonetics) and the properties of the sounds themselves (acoustic phonetics). Phonetic are concerned with such questions as the following: ....what are the sounds, from among language?.... What specially defines different "accents"? ....can speakers be identified by "voice print" ? What are the properties of sounds that would go into computerized speech synthesis.
2. Phonology
This is study of the organization of language sounds. Phonologists are concerned with questions such as the following; what sounds contrast in one language but not another (answers to such questions explain why spanish speaker have trouble with the difference between English sh and ch, or why english speakers have trouble with the different "U" sounds in French words like rue 'street' and rue 'wheel')?
3. Morphology
This is the study of the make-up of words. Morphologists study such questions as the following: ....to what extent are ways of forming words "productive" or not (why do we say arrival and amusement but not *arrivement and *amusal)?
...what determines when words change form (why does English have to add -er to adjective when making comparisons but Hebrew does not add any equivalent)?
...how can we get a computer to recognize the 'root' of a words separated from it's "affixes" (e.g how could a computer recognize walk, walks, walking, and walked as the 'same' words)?
4. Syntax
This is study of how phrases and sentences larger than the word are constructed.
Syntaxticians address such questions as the following: ...how can the number of sentences we could utter be infinite in number event though the number of words in any language is finite?.... What is it that makes a sentence like visiting relatives can be boring ambitious?....why would English speaker judge a sentence like colorless green ideas sleep furiously to be "grammatical" even though it is nonsensical?
5. Semantic
This is the study of meaning. Semantics's answer such questions as the following: .....how do we know what words mean (how do we know where red stops and orange starts)? What is the basic of metaphors (why is my car is my lemon a "good" metaphor but my car is a cabbage is not)?
....what makes sentences like I'm looking for a tall student or the student I am looking for must be tall have more than one meaning?....in a sentences like a regret that he lied, how do we know than, in fact, he did lie?....how many meanings can be found in a sentence like three students read three books and why do just those meaning exist?
6. Pragmatics
Pragmatic is a branch of linguistics concerned with the use of language in social contexts and the ways in which people produce and comprehend meanings through language. (For alternative definitions, see below.)
The term pragmatics was coined in the 1930s by the philosopher C.W. Morris. Pragmatics was developed as a subfield of linguistics in the 1970s.
* Hyphenated Field of Linguistics
In addition to these basic sub-fields there are a number of "hyphenated" fields of Linguistics, which use the 'tools' of the basic fields. Some of these "hyphenated" field are the following :
1. Historical Linguistics : This is the study of how language change over time, addressing such questions as why modern English in different form old English and German are "more closely related" to each other than English and French.
2. Sosiolinguistics: This is the study of how language is used society, addressing such questions as what makes some dialect more "prestigious" than others, where slang comes from and why it arises. Or what happens when two languages come together in "bilingual" communities.
3. Psycholinguistics: This is the study of how language is processed in the mind, addressing such questions as how we can hear a string of language noises and make sense of them, how children can learn to speak and understand the language of their environment as quickly and effortlessly as they do, or how people with pathological language problems different from people who have "normal" language.
4. Neurolinguistics: This is study of the actual seconding of language in the brain, addressing such questions as what part of the brain different aspects of language are stored in, how language is actually stored, what goes on physically in the brain when language is processed, or how the brain compensates when certain areas are demaged.
5. Computational Linguistics
Learning and understanding a language involves computing the properties of language that are described in phonology, syntax and semantic from what is heard.
The challenge of describing how this is possible connect linguistics with computational issues at a very fundamental level. How could syntactic structures be computed from spoken language, how are semantics relations recognized, and how could these computational linguist attempt to answer these questions.
Conclusion :
Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context. The first is the study of language structure, or grammar.
The main goal of the study of linguistics in an academic setting, likes all other intellectual discipline, it to increase our knowledge and understanding of the world. However, since language is universal and fundamental to all human interactions, the knowledge attained in linguistics has many practical application.
Reference :
-http://university.home.org/linguistics.htm
-http://blog.to.ac.I'd/what is linguistics.html
-http://deluk12.wordpress.com/the-departement-of-linguistics/what-is-linguistics-and-why-study-it.html
-www. Academia edu.
