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 LINGUISTIC GOALS

Linguistic goals

Bringing
unconscious
knowledge Conbination of its
different units in the
Level of brain
consciousness
 IS LINGUISTICS A SCIENCE?

.
Linguistic is defined as the scientific study of language. It studies
human language dealing with all its aspects

Unlike the other disciplines (astrology, physics, mathematics, chemistry,

biology .etc.), linguistics needs to justify its claim to be called a science
and to prove the validity of its title and its scientific status.
 LINGUISTICS IS A SCIENCE

When linguists claim that their discipline is the scientific study of

language, they have in mind some distinctions between a scientific and a
non-scientific way of doing things.
They agree on some implications of the term "scientific".
Linguistics for them is that science which studies the origin, organization,
nature and development of the language descriptively, historically,
comparatively and explicitly.
Linguistics formulates the general rules related to
language
 LINGUISTICS AS A SCIENCE
Linguistics is the science of language, and linguists are scientists who
apply the scientific method to questions about the nature and function
of language

Linguists study speech sounds, grammatical structures, and meaning

across all the languages of the world.

Linguists also investigate the history and change within language

families and how language is acquired by children.

Linguists examine the relationship between written and spoken

language as well as the underlying neural structures that enable us to
use language.
THE COMMON POINTS WITH HARD SCIENCES
AND LINGUISTICS

Objectivity

Expliciteness Empiricism

Economy Consistency

Exhaustiveness
 LINGUISTICS IS OBJECTIVE

• It is based on observable phenomena and is not

Objectivity influenced by emotions or personal prejudices

• It considers all languages to be equal as they are

considered to be a highly complex system:
Objectivity • For the linguist, there is no 'primitive' ,‘underdeveloped’
or, 'cultured' , 'civilized' languages. No accent or dialect
should be thought to be purer than another

Objectivity • It is not affected by cultural, social and historical

misconceptions about certain language
 LINGUISTICS IS AN EMPIRICAL
SCIENCE
This means that the way linguists ask questions to learn about language
uses a scientific approach.
The scientific way of thinking about language involves making
systematic, empirical observations. 
 Empirical means that we observe data to find the evidence for our
theories.
All scientists make empirical observations: botanists observe how
plants grow and reproduce. Chemists observe how substances interact with
others.
Linguists observe how people use their language.
 The subject matter of linguistics is observable to the senses :
Speech as heard,
Vocal cords’s movement as seen directly or with the aid of instruments,
Speaking as perceived by the speaker and
Writing as seen and heard.
It investigates speech and writing
It proceeds by illustrations and justifications and formulation of rules
It uses the principle of falsification.
LINGUISTICS EMPIRICISM AND SCIENTIFIC METHOD
SPECULATIVE
Hypothesi
Data
Observati s
(spoken and
written) on
Experiment
& analysis Justification
Formulation
and
& verification generalisation

Principle of
fasification
 THE PRINCIPLE OF FALSIFICATION
The principle of falsification is a scientific method which consists of
formulating a first hypothesis on the basis of available data and then
checking its validity against a new data.
If the data proved wrong, the linguist will need to formulate a new
hypothesis.
Consider the following data :
Does Karim help his father?/ Karim helps his father.
Did Myriam meet Karim?/ Myriam met Karim.
Do you want more coffee?/You want more coffee.
We conclude from the above data that ‘To do’ is used to ask questions. But the
principle of falsification proves that it can’t be applied to the following example :
Is Myriam a good girl?/ Mary is a good girl.
 CONSISTENCY.

Linguistic analysis should be consistent with the whole.

The contradiction between different parts of total statements is not allowed.

Linguistic
analysis should
be consistent

No
Contradiction
ECONOMY

No repetition

More economic
statements

Use of symbols
and notations
 EXHAUSTIVENESS

Analysis of
From all
all relavant
angles
data
 LINGUISTICS IS SYSTEMATIC
A scientific study or the analysis should be done systematically.
It must follow well-defined procedures.
Two kinds of procedures are possible for a systematic study of language :

The inductive
approach The deductive approach
A method analysis moving
A method formulating from general facts to
general rules from particular ones
particular facts or
statistics
 EXPLICITNESS.

Linguistic is explicit because it clearly defines the terms used for the analysis.

Explicitness

Clearly
defined terms
THE SCIENTIFICITY OF LANGUAGE
 CONCLUSION

-Linguistics is a social science which can be subsumed under the

empirical sciences.-

--Linguistics is not accurate as natural or 'hard' sciences like

physics, chemistry or biology

-Linguistics is less precise than the natural sciences as its subject

matter (spoken or written) is part of the human.

-Language is related to psychology because it is the brain which

monitors our speech language behaviour.