HISTORY OF APPLIED LINGUISTIC

GOOD AFTERNOON TO ALL

RONALD TIMAJOREPORTER

What is Linguistics?

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists do work on specific languages, but their primary goal is to understand the nature of Language in general.

Linguistics is primarily concerned with the nature of language and communication. There are broadlythree aspects to the study, including language form,language meaning, and language use in discursiveand communicative contexts.

Branches of linguistics

Languages can be studied from different points of vew. Therefore, the field of linguistics asa whole can be divided into several subfields according to the point of view that is adopted. General / descriptive linguistics: the first distinction to be drawn is between general anddescriptive linguistics. General linguistics has to do with studying language in general,while descriptive linguistics refers to describing particular languages.

Historical and non-historical linguistics: Historical linguistics is concerned withinvestigating the details of the historical development of particular languages and withformulating general hypothesis about language-change. The terms ³diachronic´ and³synchronic´ were first used by Saussure. A diachrinic description of a language traces thehistorical development of the language and records the changes that have taken place. Asynchronic description of a language is non-historical: it presents an ccount of the languageas it is at some particular point in life.

General linguisticsand descriptive linguistics are by no means unrelated. Each depends upon the other: generallinguistics supplies the concepts and categories in terms of which particular languages are to be analysed; descriptive linguistics, in its turn, provide the data which confirm or refutethe propositions and theories put forward in general linguistics. For example, the generallinguist might formulate a hypothesis that all languages have nouns and verbs. Thedescriptive linguist might refute this with empirical data that there is at least one languagein which the distinction between nouns and verbs cannot be established. But, in order torefute, or confirm, the hypothesis the descrpitive linguist must operate with some conceptsof ³noun´ and ³verb´ which is provided by general linguistics.

Branches of linguistics

Computational linguistics - is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical and

logical modeling of natural language from a computational perspective. This modeling isnot limited to any particular field of linguistics. Computational linguistics was formerlyusually done by computer scientists who had specialized in the application of computers to the processing of a natural language. Recent research has shown that language is muchmore complex than previously thought, so computational linguistics work teams are nowsometimes interdisciplinary, including linguists (specifically trained in linguistics).Computational linguistics draws upon the involvement of linguists, computer scientists,experts in artificial intelligence, cognitive psychologists and logicians, amongst others.

Comparative linguistics

(originally comparative philology) is a branch of historicallinguistics that is concerned with comparing languages in order to establish theirhistorical relatedness.Relatedness implies a common origin or proto-language, and comparative linguisticsaims to reconstruct proto-languages and specify the changes that have resulted in thedocumented languages. In order to maintain a clear distinction between attested andreconstructed forms, comparative linguists prefix an asterisk to any form that is not foundin surviving texts

Dialectology

is a sub-field of linguistics. It studies variations in language based primarilyon geographic distribution (as opposed to variations based on social factors, which arestudied in sociolinguistics, or variations based on time, which are studied in historicallinguistics) and the features associated with it. Dialectology treats such topics asdivergence of two local dialects from a common ancestor and synchronic variation.William Labov is one of the most prominent researchers in this field.Dialectologists are ultimately concerned with grammatical and syntactical features whichcorrespond to regional areas. Thus they are usually dealing with polulations living in theirareas for generations without moving, but also with immigrant groups bringing their languages to new settlemets

Etymology

is the study of the origins of words. Through old texts and comparison withother languages, etymologists reconstruct the history of words — when they entered alanguage, from what source, and how their form and meaning changed.In languages with a long written history etymology makes use of philology, the study ofold texts. However, etymologists also apply the methods of comparative linguistics toreconstruct information about languages that are too old for any direct information (suchas writing) to be known. By comparing related languages with a technique known as thecomparative method, linguists can make inferences about their shared parent languageand its vocabulary. In this way, word roots have been found which can be traced all theway back to the origin of, for instance, the Indo-European language family

Grammar

is the study of rules governing the use of language. The set of rules governing

a particular language's use is also called the grammar of the language; thus, eachlanguage can be said to have its own distinct grammar. Grammar is part of the generalstudy of language called linguistics.The subfields of contemporary grammar are phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax,semantics, and pragmatics. Traditional grammars include only morphology and syntax

Linguistic

pragmatics

syntax

semantics

morphology

phonology

phonetics

Applied Linguistics: When did it all begin?

• The term Applied Linguistics (AL) is an AngloAmerican• coinage.

It was founded first at the University of Edinburgh School of Applied Linguistics in 1956. Then at the Center of Applied Linguistics inWashington D.C. in 1957.

The British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL)was formally established in 1967, with the following aims: “the advancement of education by fostering and promoting, by any lawful charitable means, thestudy of language use, language acquisition and language teaching and the fostering of inter-disciplinary collaboration in this study” (BAAL, 1994). It was largely taken for granted in the 1960s and 1970s that applied linguistics was about language teaching.

when did it all begins?

Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

• Linguistics is primarily concerned withlanguage in itself and in findings ways of analysing language and building theories that describe language.Applied linguistics is concerned with the role of language in peoples’ lives and problems associated with language use in peoples’ lives. Linguistics is essential but not the only feeder discipline.

LINGUISTIC

APPLIED LINGUISTIC

EDUCATION

Applied Linguistics

1. Linguistics - the study of the nature, structure and variation of language. 2. Education - teaching, learning, acquisition, assessment.3.Sociology - the scientific study of human behavior and the study of society.4. Anthropology (the scientific study of the origin and behavior of man)

Prescription and description

Research currently performed under the name "linguistics" is purely descriptive; linguistsseek to clarify the nature of language without passing value judgments or trying to chartfuture language directions. Nonetheless, there are many professionals and amateurs whoalso prescribe rules of language, holding a particular standard out for all to follow.

Prescriptivists tend to be found among the ranks of language educators and journalists,and not in the actual academic discipline of linguistics. They hold clear notions of what isright and wrong, and may assign themselves the responsibility of ensuring that the nextgeneration use the variety of language that is most likely to lead to "success," often theacrolect of a particular language. The reasons for their intolerance of "incorrect usage"may include distrust of neologisms, connections to socially-disapproved dialects (i.e.,basilects), or simple conflicts with pet theories. An extreme version of prescriptivism canbe found among censors, whose personal mission is to eradicate words and structureswhich they consider to be destructive to society.

Applied Linguistics or linguistics applied?

Widdowson (2000, p. 5) presents the question in terms oflinguistics applied and applied linguistics: “The differences between these modes of intervention is that in the case of linguistics applied the assumption is that the problemcan be reformulated by the direct and unilateral application ofconcepts and terms deriving from linguistic enquiry itself. That is to say, language problems are amenable to linguistics solutions. In the case of applied linguistics, intervention is crucially amatter of mediation . . . applied linguistics . . . has to relate andreconcile different representations of reality, including that oflinguistics without excluding others.”

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