1. What is Linguistics?

1., The object of study of linguistics is articulated human language, verbal language,
which is produced by the vocal apparatus. Linguistics is the science of language.
Linguistic studies study the structure of language, its origin and the reason for its
evolution. This discipline covers all languages and takes into account all the elements
that can produce changes in a linguistic sign or any natural language.

2 . Some of the best known scholars in this area of study are the representatives of
modern linguistics Noam Chomsky and Ferdinand de Saussure. Now, if you are
interested in learning about current linguistics, we recommend you read a little about
cooperativism and historicism.

2. History of linguistics

Recognition and forgetting of the precursor

The history of linguistics is a discipline that has already completed a century of life with
an abundant narrative production

Its founder is the Danish linguist Vilhelm Thomsen, who lived between 1842 and 1927.
He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen and stood out as an excellent
researcher in the field of neogrammar. Thomsen published in 1902 the work History of
Linguistics; a concise exposition (Sprogvidenskabens historie; in kortfattet fremstilling).

Thomsen's contribution is of great value, as recognized by historiography. It is the first

history of linguistics and the best-known text of its author, above his brilliant works on
comparative grammar. On the occasion of the centenary of Thomsen's birth, Louis
Hjelmslev glossed the History of Linguistics in a posthumous tribute from the
University of Copenhagen to his compatriot:

Among specialists, it is also surely the work of Vilhelm Thomsen used with greater
profusion and frequency; it is familiar to any student of linguistics, who keeps it close
at hand as a guide and manual. Oddly enough, it is the only comprehensive account of
the entire history of linguistics that has ever seen the light of day. (1942:32)

3. Types of linguistics

applied linguistics, historical linguistics, theoretical linguistics, computerized linguistics,

descriptive linguistics,

applied linguistics. Part of linguistics that applies the knowledge of linguistics to the
needs of society, such as language teaching, automatic speech recognition. Applied
linguistics is an interdisciplinary area of linguistics that focuses on the study of social
problems that have to do with language. The development of applied linguistics
occurred especially during the 20th century in North America, Great Britain, Europe
and Australia in the Anglo-Saxon world.

historical linguistics or diachronic linguistics is the linguistic discipline that studies the
change of languages over time and the process of linguistic change. Therefore, it
occupies a prominent place in the study of the genetic relationship of languages.

It studies the relationships that unite terms and the evolution of the language. It can
be historical comparative linguistics (if it reconstructs language through comparison) or
historical linguistics proper (=historical grammar), which studies the transformations of
language over time.

Theoretical linguistics is the part of linguistics interested in the central aspects of

natural languages, specifically the structure of languages and the characterization of
the linguistic knowledge of the speakers.

Computational linguistics represents the convergence of technology and natural

language. A computational linguist can develop online or digital translators and speech
recognition devices

Descriptive linguistics

Descriptive linguistics or synchronic linguistics. It studies the components of the

language, the relationships that they maintain with each other and the structures that
are formed at a given moment, as well as the study of language in the variant called
functionalism.

It is the linguistics that deals with the elements of verbal language and describes word
classes, syntax, grammatical rules and phonemes. It is what gives us grammar.
Grammar is the study of the rules and principles that regulate the use of languages and
the organization of words within a sentence. It is also called the set of rules and
principles that govern the use of a given language; thus, each language has its own
grammar. Grammar is part of the general study of language called linguistics.

Classically the pragmatic level. Phonology and Phonetics deal, respectively, with sound
signifiers and

• Lexical-semantic level.

• Syntactic-morphological or morphosyntactic level.

• Phonetic-phonological level.

• language study is divided into four levels: its substantial projections.

That is, phonetics and phonology are responsible for the sound facet of the sign.
Phonetics focuses on sounds as material realizations, and phonology deals with the
relevance of these sounds within a system or, what is the same, of sounds as formal
units, as values; in short, of the phonemes. The phonology would describe the sound in
an abstract way, the phonetics would deal with the concrete realization.

Grammar is responsible for the study of sign signifiers, so that it focuses its interest on
the signifiers that are part of signs, so it can be said that signs are the units under study
of Grammar, as they are of Semantics, but although the second deals mainly with the
facet of meaning, the first is interested in the associated signifying facet.

Morphology and Syntax. Morphology deals with the form of words, while Syntax is
characterized by dealing with the study of functions and relationships. Morphology
tells us that child is a noun (= name) and syntax tells us that it can be the nucleus of
the subject or of the direct or indirect object. Morphology deals with describing the
classes of words (nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions...), also their internal
form (how they can be divided: niñ + o, they are two monemes, the first is the lexeme
or root, that carries the meaning of the word, and the second is a morpheme of
masculine gender and singular number). Morphology also tells us if the words are
simple (bread, crocodile), derived (childhood, little boy), compound (side street) or
parasynthetic (basketball player).

Semantics is responsible for the meaning, or what is the same, the level of content.
The wide and dense field corresponding to Semantics is usually compartmentalized
into two zones, the one corresponding to Lexical Semantics or Lexicology and the one
that concerns Grammatical Semantics. Lexicology deals with the lexical meaning, that
associated with the words that make up the vocabulary of languages; for example, of
the common content associated with series such as “barca, embarkation, barge”, etc.
Grammatical semantics, for its part, has its object in the meaning that results from the
relations between grammatical units, for example, from the different content in the
pairs, “the corner of the child/the child of the corner”, etc.

Pragmatics or Pragmalinguistics is a subfield of linguistics, also studied by the

philosophy of language, which is interested in how context influences the
interpretation of meaning. The context must be understood as a situation, since it can
include any extralinguistic aspect: communicative situation, knowledge shared by the
speakers, interpersonal relationships, etc. Pragmatics takes into consideration the
extralinguistic factors that condition the use of language, that is, all those factors that
are not referred to in a purely formal study. Politeness and ways of approaching
(you/you) are studied in it.

4. branches of linguistics
 Linguistics is the science that deals with the study of the organization and
characteristics of a language, together with its branches, grammar, phonology and
semantics.

There are some disciplines of study that can complement your knowledge about
linguistic functions and the study of language in general, semiology and phonology are
some of those disciplines, the first is related to the communication systems used by
human beings in form of signs, while the second is a branch of linguistics that studies
the speech of the human being.

The history of linguistics is fascinating, its beginnings in the creation of a book on the
Sanskrit language. However, the Greeks are pioneers of Western linguistics. The study
of language is complex but extremely interesting, especially if we consider the
linguistic diversity of our planet.

5. Applied Linguistics

Applied linguistics, born in the 1950s and 1960s, although it has earlier antecedents, is
a dimension of linguistics, not a subdiscipline, like syntax. This dimension uses as a
basis the theoretical part of linguistics to solve practical problems within other
disciplines. Consequently, applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary study that is
constantly changing due to the emergence of new disciplines as well as the
advancement of established ones. The links and intersections of linguistics with other
disciplines are multiple and very difficult to structure.

Following Lluís Payrató (2003: 76), we will group them into five areas, understanding
that these are not watertight compartments but domains with innumerable and
constant interrelationships. The five areas, which give rise to further divisions, are: -
Language, brain and mind - Language, learning and disorders - Language, culture and
society - Language, mathematics and new technologies - Language, grammar and
applications ● Language, brain and mind - linguistic and neurolinguistic biology (from
this perspective the idea is the study of the brain and its functions); -psycholinguistics:
intersection of linguistics and psychology. The idea from this perspective is the study of
the mind and its faculties.

Psycholinguistics has to do with how we speak and how we interpret language, which
are different things. There are five goals within the study of psycholinguistics, which
are to study how we encode and decode; how we learn languages, both our mother
tongue and a second one; how disorders that cause loss of speech work and, finally,
similar to what Aristotle thought about language, the relationship between thought
and language and what is between them. ● Language, learning and disorders: -
Language acquisition Language acquisition is so important that it is treated within
theoretical linguistics with Chomsky's generativism.
According to generativist theories, we are born with the ability to learn language (we
have an innate acquisition mechanism, commonly known as LAD −Language
Acquisition Device) and by learning a small number of rules we can create an infinite
number of rules. of statements. The psychological and psycholinguistic conception is
different.

Psycholinguistics emphasizes the development of communicative competence by

acquiring grammatical competence (the development of linguistic skills) and pragmatic
competence (the practice or use of grammatical competence). -Teaching the first
languages The first language is the result of the socialization process. The objectives
that revolve around the first language are mastery of oral language (coding and
decoding) and written language (reading and writing).

In addition, discursive capacity must be developed, the ability to express oneself and
communicate adequately. -Teaching of second languages The second language is
learned while the first is not, it is acquired and does not require the great effort that
learning the second language requires. The acquisition occurs before adolescence and
the learning of a second language can be at any time in life. There are different
methods of teaching second languages, but immersion is the one that gives the best
results, by recreating a situation similar to that of acquiring the mother tongue.

Also teaching the language within daily and real situations gives good results since not
only is the language being taught but also pragmatics is included. -Communication and
linguistic disorders The study of communicative and linguistic disorders or disturbances
is characterized by its interdisciplinarity (linguistics, medicine, etc.). The types of
disorders can be grouped as follows: production and/or repetition disorders, such as
stuttering; organic or functional, in case there is or not any anomaly in the organs that
are responsible for language; speech or language, where the problem only affects the
act of speaking; oral or written language and deviation or delay in language acquisition.

The disorders are difficult to diagnose and treat because they sometimes have
symptoms of different disorders. ● Language, culture and society -Ethnolinguistics,
linguistic and sociolinguistic anthropology Within these perspectives, language is seen
from a sociocultural point of view.

Ethnolinguistics is responsible for seeing the role of ethnic groups in language,

linguistic anthropology the role of culture and sociolinguistics on the role of social
conditions. In all three perspectives, language cannot be subtracted from the context
in which it occurs. The ethnography of speech is the one that has been most
responsible for the relationship between language and its context. -Language contact
Many of the aforementioned disciplines deal with phenomena related to
multilingualism. Multilingualism is no longer an isolated phenomenon.
One of the main problems of multilingualism is interference, that is, elements of one
language entering another. Interferences have also been called loans or integrations.
The interference can take the form of code switching, which would be making
language changes between statements, or code mixing, when they are changes within
the statements. The mixing of codes is done in a more conscious way. Both
bilingualism and multilingualism are dynamic states, not static ones.

There are processes such as linguistic maintenance, where the influence of one
language on another is minimal, and linguistic substitution, where the influence of one
language on another is greater and can, if allowed to progress, end the other. There
are also cases where languages are mixed to such a degree that another language,
called a pidgin, is created. When that language is already established and becomes the
mother tongue, it is called a creole language. -Linguistic planning Linguistic planning
has to do with the procedures that must be followed for the maintenance or
substitution of a language.

Planning can help speed up the replacement of a language or stop it and thus maintain
it. There are two types of planning, the corpus of the language, which has to do with
the code used, and status planning, which deals with attitudes towards the language,
that is, the social and cultural aspects. -Discourse and text analysis

Discourse analysis deals with oral language while textual analysis deals with written
language, taking the sentence as a point of reference. Context analysis is integrated
into discourse analysis. Then, the text is taken as a verbal product and the context how
the verbal product is given. The speech is the union of the above, the text taking into
account its context. -Contrastive analysis and error analysis 5 Contrastive analysis is
the comparison of languages to improve or facilitate their teaching.

The analysis groups the identity, or the similarities in the language; the contrast, how
different they are, and the distinction, where you show neither a relationship nor a
difference. Error analysis works in complement with contrastive analysis, measuring
the results of teaching a language. -Translation Studies Translation requires knowledge
not only of languages but of cultures, taking pragmatics into account. There are two
modes of translation: translation and interpretation.

The first is the "most professional" and has to do with the translation of the structure
and content. The second is more interested in the content, without worrying about the
structure, for example, what we do when we translate a letter for our family. We give
you the summary information and not a translation of every sentence in the letter. -
Other domains There are other disciplines with which linguistics interacts. Such is the
case of linguistics and geography.

The name it receives is according to the perspective and purpose of the intersection. In
addition, there is the intersection between linguistics and law, such as forensic
linguistics. The philosophy of language has generally been included with philosophy,
but it also has a place in applied linguistics since the theories and concepts postulated
by it have been applied to different disciplines of linguistics. ● Language, mathematics
and new technologies -Mathematical and computational linguistics and automated
translation Mathematical linguistics is the study of mathematical properties in
language.

It consists of two branches, statistical linguistics and statistical linguistics. The first
deals with formal grammar while the second measures linguistic phenomena.
Computational linguistics studies the relationship between computer science and
linguistics. One of his goals is that computers can recreate the ability of language. The
area of automated translation has come a long way but has not yet succeeded in
replacing human translation. There are two systematized translation systems.

One is transfer, where you can switch from one language to another at any time. The
other translates using an interlanguage, that is, instead of making the change from X to
Y, it does so from X to B to Y. -Language industries and linguistic corpus The language
industry is made up of all the materials that facilitate the automation of language, such
as voice recognition in customer service lines or pens that convert handwritten notes
into print that can be transferred to the computer. The linguistic corpus is linked to the
language industry.

The corpus is like a file that contains linguistic information that can easily be consulted.
There are oral and written corpus. The oral ones are not very developed due to the
difficulty of saving this type of data. Written corpora are easier to store and are
therefore larger. One of its uses is for the creation of dictionaries. ● Language,
grammar and applications -Applied grammar Grammar has always enjoyed a privileged
place within linguistics. Applied grammar is present in many of the aforementioned
areas, such as automated translation that requires a grammar to be able to translate.

When a linguistic problem arises, along with the theoretical, applied grammar appears.
This part of the theoretical, taking the most understandable theories to be applied.
Apply what best suits the problem you are trying to solve and you don't need to
constantly update the approach used. -Phonetics Within phonetics, in recent years
there has been an interest in applying it to voice recognition and synthesis. The first is
the least advanced and its objective is voice recognition by machines.

The second aims at the recreation of voice by machines. -Lexicography and

terminology Lexicography is the creation of dictionaries, which thanks to technological
advances now appear in different media. Seen in another way, according to Hartmann,
lexicography describes and explains vocabulary, its basic unit is the lexeme and it must
create a dictionary that serves the needs of the user. Terminology studies the terms of
a specific area that appear as an information bank.
The neology deals with the appearance of new vocabulary, either because a new word
was necessary or it is a loan. -Textual, stylistic and prescriptive grammar Teachers and
correctors have been responsible for the correction and grammatical instruction of
others. Just as the language sciences have undergone changes, these two groups of
professionals have undergone changes.

The group that has had the most changes is that of the correctors, being replaced by
advisors. This is not a simple label change. The advisor has a greater number of
responsibilities since his work is not restricted to correcting. The advisor has to have
knowledge of different areas, not only normative grammar. Teachers are also seeing a
change. They are moving from being just the transmitters of grammar and vocabulary
rules to equipping their students with the necessary tools for the “real” use of the
language.