Application/ Scope of Linguistics and Linguistics Determinism and Relativity

Assignment: 02

Name: Neqyaa Zainab Alvi

SAP ID: 45960

Class: BS English

Semester: 01

Subject: Introduction to Linguistics

Instructor Name: Ma’am Raheela Naz

Date: 31ST October, 2022.

Question: 01
Briefly discuss the application/scope of linguistics in real life in your own words. Also express your
views on how language determines our thought (linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity).

Linguistics:
Language use is an essential human ability: Whether it's telling a joke, naming a baby, using voice
software, or helping a relative who's had a stroke, you'll find the study of language reflected in
almost everything you do. Linguists spend their days seeking answers to questions like the following
and so many more, because language and linguistics play such a fundamental role in every human's
life.

Definition:
According to definitions from Oxford Language,
“Linguistics is the scientific study of language and its structure, including the study of grammar,
syntax, and phonetics. Specific branches of linguistics include sociolinguistics, dialectology,
psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, comparative linguistics, and structural linguistics.”

According to the definition given by UC Davis,

“Linguistics is the systematics study of the structure and evolution of human language, and it is
applicable to every aspect of human language.”

Subfields of Linguistics:
There are many subfields of linguistics. To understand the application and scope of linguistics, it is
important to learn its sub-fields.

 Phonology: The study of sound patterns and their meanings, within a language or between
different languages.
 Semantics: Semantics is the study of meanings. It has two major branches; logical and lexical
semantics.
 Syntax: Syntax is referred to the set of rules that determines the arrangement of words,
clauses, and phrases in a sentence.
 Morphology: Morphology is the study of how words are put together and the internal
structure of words.
 Phonetics: Phonetics is the study of human sounds and it focuses on the production and
classification of the speech sounds.
  Pragmatics: Pragmatics is the study of how content contributes to meaning. It also deals with
how human language is used and utilized in social interactions.
 Psycholinguistics: Psycholinguistics deals with the study of the mental aspects of language
and speech. It primarily concerned with the way language is represented and processed in the
human brain.
 Historical Linguistics: The study of how languages change over time, this requires to
understand relationships among languages and to rebuild earlier stages of languages.
 Computational Linguistics: Scientific study of language from a computational perspective.
The scientific and engineering discipline concerned with dealing and understanding written
and spoken language.
 Applied Linguistics: The field that deals with how linguistics help understand and solve real-
life situations and problems.
 Anthropological Linguistics: The field that deals with the study of the relationship between
language and culture. Its main goal is to better understand culture.
 Neurolinguistics: The study of how language is represented in the brain.
 Comparative Linguistics: Study of the relationships or correspondences between two
languages or more. It also deals with the techniques used to discover if the languages have a
common ancestor.
 Stylistics: It is the study of the distinctive styles found in particular literary genres and in the
works of individual writers.
 Descriptive Linguistics: Description or descriptive linguistics is the study grammar,
classification, and arrangement of the features of a language at a given time.

The Scope of Linguistics:

Linguistics has a broad and enormous application. It also covers a wide range of subjects and fields.
Thus, phonetics deals with the sounds of languages, phonology with how sounds are utilized in
various languages, morphology with word form, syntax with phrase and sentence structure, and
semantics with meaning analysis. Numerous linguistic domains, including sociolinguistics (the study
of how language and related academic topics such as sociology and language) and psycholinguistics
interact, investigate these relationships (psychology and language).
Phonology, phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics are only a few of the several basic
disciplines that make up the broad, intricate, and systematic study of linguistics. It also has
connections to a number of other disciplines and includes areas like sociolinguistics and
psycholinguistics, among others. In contrast to earlier times, linguistics is now acknowledged as a
separate field of study, opening the door to several advancements and research. Language is
described in all of its elements by linguistics, which is a descriptive rather than prescriptive field of
study. As linguistic systems alter, this topic also changes.
Careers in Linguistics:
A linguistics degree provides up a wide range of career options. There is always a need for linguists
in a variety of industries, including government, academia, business, etc. We have outlined some of
the top employment opportunities in linguistics to assist you better comprehend the field's scope:
1. Working in the prestigious subject of lexicography, which is a part of linguistics, you will be
researching terms and gathering them for dictionaries. Lexicographers also focus on
explaining the pronunciation, meaning, nuances, and etymology of words. For the purpose of
researching and characterizing the vocabulary of a given language, linguists in this sector are
often engaged by publishing companies or research organizations.
2. You will become familiar with the specialized field of Translation studies, which entails
interpreting, localizing, and translating other languages, through studying linguistics. You
may look through a variety of Language Translator positions in many industries, all of which
offer interesting chances and potential futures.
3. In the vast field of linguistics, a career in research is one of the sought-after options. Many
linguists decide to engage in the research field to investigate lesser-known dialects and
languages or to collaborate with governmental agencies on initiatives like intelligence
projects and language-training programmes.
4. A speech therapist, sometimes referred to as a speech-language pathologist, aids in the
identification, avoidance, and treatment of speech impairments, particularly those that affect
communication and pronunciation. This profession profile is under the broad umbrella of
linguistics and focuses on treating infants and adults by addressing their speech
abnormalities. It is in high demand in the healthcare and educational sectors.

Linguistic Determinism and Relativity:

The idea that language and its structures constrain and define human knowledge or mind, as well as
mental processes like categorization, memory, and perception, is known as linguistic determinism.
The idea of linguistic determinism, which comes from the small discipline of analytic philosophy,
holds that human cognition and understanding are constrained and determined by language. This idea
operates under the presumption that language both reflects and constrains human mind and
intercultural communication.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, commonly referred to as the linguistic relativity hypothesis, makes the
claim that how one thinks about reality depends on the language they speak. The study of linguistic
relativity is closely related to semiotic-level inquiries into the relationship between language and
cognition in general and discourse-level inquiries into the potential influence of language usage
patterns on thought. The Whorfian theory, also known as linguistic relativity, asserts that the
structure and content of cognition are influenced by linguistic factors, which in turn affects how
people see the world around them. Strong Whorfian views, which contend that language determines
the categories of thinking, and weak views, which contend that language influences cognition
without completely controlling its structure, are frequently distinguished.
In this context, linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism are the two issues to be addressed. It is
simple to show relativity. Any language's grammatical markings for meaning must be taken into
consideration if you want to speak it. For instance, in English, you must mark the verb to show the
time the event you are speaking about occurred: It's raining; It rained; and so on. However, it is not
viable to just state "It poured yesterday night" in Turkish. Depending on where one learned the event,
this language, like many American Indian languages, has more than one past tense. There are two
past tenses in Turkish: one for events you have directly experienced, and the other for those you only
know about through hearsay or inference. So, if you were outside in the rain last night, you would
say, "It rained last night," using the past-tense form that denotes your presence during the rain.
However, if you woke up the next morning to find the garden and street wet, you would use the other
past-tense form, which denotes your absence during the actual rain.
These kinds of differences have long attracted linguists and anthropologists. Numerous details
regarding "strange" languages have been recorded by them, such as the verbs in Navajo being
marked or chosen for the relative ages of the speaker and hearer or for the form of the thing being
handled (Korean). These facts provide food for thought regarding linguistic relativity. Additionally,
they are also extremely common in "nonexotic" languages. Linguists are fully aware of the fact that
it is improper to refer to Richard Nixon as having worked in Washington, while it is OK to refer to
Gerald Ford as having done so. Why? English only allows statements about living persons to be
made in the present perfect tense ('has worked'). Exotic!