LINGUISTCS

The word ‘Linguistics’ has been derived from Latin “lingua(tongue)” and “istics” (knowledge/science).
Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
Linguistics is the systematic study of the structure and evolution of human language, and it is applicable to every aspect of human endeavor.
Diachronic linguistics studies the development of language through history.
Synchronic linguistics studies how the people speak and use a language in given speech community at a given time.
Comparative linguistics is concerned with comparing two or more different languages.
Linguistics that is concerned with the structure of language is divided Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics .
Interdisciplinary branches of Linguistics are Historical Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, Ethnolinguistics ( Anthropological Linguistics), Dialectology, Computational Linguistics, Neurolinguistics.

Phonetics is the scientific study of production, transmission and reception of speech sounds.
It studies spoken language.
Phoneticians try to study how the various organs of speech organs like- the lungs, the larynx, the soft palate, the tongue and the lips are using in the production of speech sounds.
The study of Phonetics can be divided into three main branches: Acoustic, Auditory and Articulatory.
Acoustic Phonetics: Study of physical features of speech sounds.
Auditory Phonetics: Study of hearing and perception of speech sounds.
Articulatory Phonetics: Study the movement of speech organs.
The ancient Hindu Rishis who composed Vedas stressed the correct pronunciation of mantras.
The first known phonetic studies were carried out as early as in the 6th century BCE by Sanskrit grammarians.
The most widely known system of phonetic transcription, the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), provides a standardized set of symbols for oral phones.

Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist.
He is called as “the father of modern linguistics”.
Born to working-class Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants in Philadelphia.
He developed the theory of “Transformational Grammar” for which he earned his doctorate in 1955.
He emerged as a prominent figure in linguistics with his landmark work “Syntactic Structures”.
He created or co-created the universal grammar theory, the generative grammar theory, the Chomsky hierarchy, and the minimalist program.
Chomsky also played a role in the decline of behaviorism.
He was particularly critical of the work of B. F. Skinner.
The basis of Chomsky’s linguistic theory lies in Biolinguistics.
Chomsky challenges structural linguistics and introduces transformational grammar.
“Syntactic Structures” is his major work in linguistics and was first published in 1957.
“Syntactic Structures” is Chomsky’s first book.
This work introduced the idea of ‘transformational generative grammar’.
Chomsky’s theory shows that language consists of both deep structures and surface structures.
Chomsky’s contributions, not only transformed the field of linguistics, his work has influenced fields such as cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, computer science, mathematics, childhood education, and anthropology.

The branch of linguistics which describes the structure of a language or languages as they exist, without reference to their histories or to comparison with other languages.
Descriptive linguistics is a subfield of linguistics that studies and describes language in structural terms.
Descriptive linguistics emphasizes the primacy of speech, the adoption of a synchronic approach, and the description of language and dialect systems as they are found to be spoken.
The rise of descriptive linguistics is generally attributed to the work of Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist.
In Cours de linguistique générale, a collation of his lecture notes published posthumously in 1916, Saussure laid out the general principles and methods of what has come to be known as descriptive linguistics.
Descriptive linguistics is also known as synchronic linguistics.
The goal of descriptive linguistics is to “discover” a grammar by performing a set of operations on a corpus of data. The levels of grammatical description are to be arrived at in the following order:
1. Phonetics (speech sounds)
2. Phonemics (phonemes and allophones)
3. Morphemics (morphemes and allomorphs)
4. Syntax (sentence construction)
5. Discourse (use of speech)

Comparative linguistics is concerned with comparing one or more points of view of two or more different languages.
Comparative linguistics is concerned with the evolution of languages.
This comparison is generally done between the languages which are generally related, that is developed from some common sources.
Said to have originated in 1786.
The old name for the subject was Comparative Philology.
The fundamental technique of comparative linguistics is to compare phonological systems, morphological systems, syntax and the lexicon of two or more languages using techniques such as the comparative method.
The study was originally stimulated by the discovery by Sir William Jonesin 1786 that Sanskrit was related to Latin, Greek, and German.