Linguistics and Introduction to Language and Communication - Essay Example

?Linguistics Unit Introduction In the world of English, Linguistics is considered as study of scientific language. At the centre of linguistics is the search of the unconscious knowledge, which human beings have on language. Additionally, it is structural understanding of knowledge and languages in terms of their differences. This can well be explained by, when one is born; one cannot be able to communicate with adults who are surrounding us, using their language. However, by the time we reach the age of six or seven, we are able to produce sounds, sentences, make rhymes, and understand jokes, among other activities. Therefore, one becomes a good speaker, in which we all have experiences that learning a language has never been easy, especially during the first years of our lives, where we accumulated a broad range of knowledge about the language (Fromkin, 2002, Pg 13-15). According to Akmajian (56-58), language speakers seem to have a wide range of knowledge on their languages, either by knowing or without being aware. Some of us possess the language of sounds, for example, consonants. Linguistics therefore, seeks to investigate how this kind of knowledge is acquired, as well as how it interacts with other processes mentally. It also investigates how the knowledge varies from one region to another region, from one person to another, in addition to how specific programs in a computer model the knowledge. Additionally, Linguistics also study the language structure like phrases and sound, in terms of how they can be characterized, and how diverse language components interact with others, like meaning and intonation. They also work with people who converse different languages and designs carefully the experiments on how to answer all the questions on language. Clearly, linguistics is considered as a science. Linguists are people who specialize on specific or different languages, whose main goal is to understand the language nature in general. However, the main goal of linguistic study in academics is to increase understanding and knowledge of the world. Akmajian (56-58) claims that language is essential and universal to all human relations, and knowledge acquired has many applications that are practical. Linguists are prepared to find answers to questions like, how a specific language can be written and analyzed, teaching of foreign languages, speech synthesization, computer programming and how the problems of language can be rectified and analyzed. While studying linguistics, one gets to learn many aspects of the language, sounds structure and their physical properties (Fromkin, 2002, Pg 13-15). Question 2 Phonology and Morphology is one of branch of linguistics but can be explained in different ways. Fromkin (13-15) highlights that phonology is organized study of sounds in language. People who study this branch of linguistics are referred to as phonologists and are concerned with sounds that have contrast in a language but not others. For example, Spanish speakers have a problem of ch and sh and people who speak English have trouble pronouncing “u” in their French words like Wheel and steel they pronounce as roue. On the other hand, morphology is the study of formation of words. People who study this particular branch studies questions like, extent to ways words are formed, if they are productive or not. For example, they seek to answer questions like why we say words like amusement and arrival, and what determines the words change, like adding er to adjectives when it comes to making comparisons, like pretty becomes prettier, or getting a computer recognize the roots of words to be separated from their affixes like, crawl, crawls, crawling and crawled. Sentence structure, which includes clauses and phrases enables a clear segmentation into sentences, phrases and clauses. The relationship of these structures with each other forms syntax of domain. Fromkin (13-15) claims that this is the same as morphology, where this syntax does not concern what the meaning of the sentence is, in addition to what it tells the world. However, what matters is the structure of their internal units and relationship with one another. For example, Joy likes bread, or Joy bread likes which is accepted in other countries. Phrases like, Edwin likes meat, which has verbs and noun phrases; like and meat. Semantics is the study of finding meanings. People who study this sub-branch of linguistics aims at answering questions like, how well we know the meaning of words like green go and red stop. Additionally, they aim at looking at metaphor basis like why my dress is an orange a good metaphor, but my dress is a pie is not a god metaphor. Another good example, is a sentence having more than one meaning, like I’m looking for a short girl or the girl I am looking for is short (Akmajian, 2001, Pg 56-58). Language varieties, includes dialectical as well as personal registers. These varieties describe a language where it uses social background and the region of the user that appears in his use of grammar and vocabulary. Fromkin (2002, Pg 13-15) asserts that, language varieties are open and helps an individual with their accents. For example, accents which act as personal registers show the social and regional identity of an individual. In dialect, coherence and precision are good examples where an individual reflects on reasons that bring an understanding of what the exact dialect of words means. According to (Akmajian, 2001, Pg 56-5), language can be changed from one generation to another. For example, our grandparents passed the language to our parents and then to us. In linguistics, it is referred to as a trend whereby semantics, phonetic, morphological and Pragmatics vary from time to time. The language is after all, passed down through generations that are reliable for children and parents to use when communicating. Linguistics argues that all languages vary over time, but differently. For example, English evolved at a first rate, while Japanese has relatively changed a little over the last 1,000 years. Pragmatics in linguistics is the study of the features of language and their meaning that depends on the addresses or the speaker as well as other features of utterance, for example, the message, implicating, saying, and inference. The pragmatic has an effect on the choice of the speaker and addressee interpretation and expression of his utterance. For example, the goals and context of the speaker, which in this case are his acts of speech, relations of functions and his meanings or conversation analysis (Akmajian, 2001, Pg 56-58). Psycholinguistics is the study of how one processes the language in the mind. It addresses questions like how we can hear language of string noises, and get some information from them. It also studies how children understand and speak the language they acquire from the environment as effortlessly and quickly as they do, and how individuals with problems of language that is pathological differ from those who have or speak a language that is normal. In short, this is language comprehension and production in addition to acquiring written communication (Akmajian, 2001, Pg 56-58). Language acquisition is a branch of linguistic that is concerned with learning or acquiring a language. It is basically, how individuals use their language in the framework. For example, each individual is born in a certain environment that converses a particular language. However, as one grows up one gets to learn the basics of the language, pronunciations, wording, reading, and rhythms among others. Linguistics calls this process as language acquisition. Some individuals will also acquire other foreign languages as they grow up. A good example is when goes to unfamiliar environment, which forces him or her to acquire the foreign knowledge (Akmajian, 2001, Pg 56-58). Bio-linguistics is the study of how language is encoded in the brain by addressing questions like the different parts of brain that the language is stored, how it is stored, how it compensates with brain areas that are damaged as well as what language goes physically in the brain when it is processed. The perspective of biolinguistic views of individual language are structure, sound and meaning, which Fromkin (2002, Pg 13-15) claims that it is a state of element of the mind which in this case is the understanding of the language. For example, the mind will store things like phrase boundaries, rhymes, anaphoric relations and entailment. When we say that we have a language or we know a certain language, all this comes from what is stored in the brain, which is both semantic and phonetic representation in linguistics. Language progress is the study of how language is progressed, from oral language, to written as well as its continuity. Fromkin (2002, Pg 13-15), argues that a child first learns oral language from his environment and then progresses to written, and continues to acquire knowledge on many other languages. For example, the first word that a child learns to pronounce is either father or mother, and while he or she grows up, she acquires other words, which she pronounces effortlessly and with ease. However, when she goes to school, she then gains knowledge on how to write the name father or mother, as she goes on with here studies, she is able to memorize other languages, like French and Spanish among others. Question 3 Separate branches are intertwined and overlapped by focus on strategies and devices, rather than speaking and listening as only seen in intertwined. Akmajian (2001, Pg 56-58) contends that intertwined another linguistic branch that aims at solving the problems of the real world in addition to, communication. It also provides issues that are theoretical in nature in linguistics in general. Linguistics are expertise in many subfields and therefore, they intertwine and overlap the many sub-fields by collaborating with diverse backgrounds in order to continue with scientific knowledge. For example, they can decide to focus on a particular language group in order to determine how their language is processed and acquired. Work cited Akmajian.A. Linguistics and Introduction to language and communication. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press,c 2001. Print. Pg 56-58. Fromkin, Victoria. Linguistics: An Introduction to Linguistic Theory. Oxford [u.a.: Blackwell, 2002. Print. Pg 13-15. Read More