Introdaction questions

Question 1

What is linguistics?

Answer 1

• the scientific study of Language or of particular languages
• systematic study of the forms language can take and the ways in which language is used

Question 2

Branches of Linguistics

Answer 2

Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, Pragmatics

Question 3

Phonetics

Answer 3

the study of speech sounds

Question 4

Phonology

Answer 4

the study pf phonemes and of sound system of individual languages

Question 5

Morphology

Answer 5

the study of the creation and structure of words and morphemes

Question 6

Syntax

Answer 6

the study of structural units larger than words (phrases, clauses, sentences)

Question 7

Semantics

Answer 7

the study of word and sentence meaning

Question 8

Pragmatics

Answer 8

the study of meaning in context, study of discourse

Question 9

What are the central concepts of linguistics?

Answer 9

synchronic vs diachronic
descriptive vs prescriptive
language vs parole
signifier vs signified

Question 10

When was the modern linguistics emerged and by who?

Answer 10

20th century
by Ferdinand de Saussure

Question 11

What are the synchronic and diachronic?

Answer 11

Diachronic study of language:
- studies language over time: the changes that can be observed in the course of the history of a language

Synchronic study of language:
- studies a language at a certain point of time
- abstraction, because language is always in transition
- pre-condition

Question 12

Complex Adaptive System vs biology

Answer 12

New variant -> mutation
Successful spread -> replication
Competition between variants
Layering (co-exitence) or less

Question 13

What are descriptive and prescriptive?

Answer 13

Descriptive
- describe neutrally how people speak/write (appropiate/inappropiate, formal/informal, standard/non-standard)

Prescriptive
- tell people how to speak /write correctly
(good/wrong, good/bad)

• both are grammatical (wellformed) and ungrammatical (ill-formed)
• descriptive work calls grammatical: how we speak, what is understandable, normal

Question 14

Linguists are descriptive or prescriptive?

Answer 14

Linguists are descriptive but teachers, writes, design books, dictionaries and so on are prescriptive

Question 15

What are language (competence) and parole (performance)?

Answer 15

Language
- abstract system
- the structure of an idealized language
- it represents the mental knowledge that a speaker has stored in their brain
- it includes all elements (sounds, words, sentence, patterns)

Parole
- concrete language use by the individua
- utterances at a specific point in time, said, written or signed by a specific person
- a speech event