what is linguistics
Even if highly education people are often not clear about what linguistics is. Some people think that linguistics is basically learning to speak many languages, some people think it has to do with teaching foreign languages, and some people think it may have to do with how to speak and write correctly. In fact, linguistics is a discipline that studies language in a scientific way. The method Linguists study language just like physicists study matter and energy. Most people don't think about the fact that they are made of atoms, but physicists do. Likewise, most people don't think about the language they use every day, but linguists do. Linguists want to know everything about language: What is the structure of language? How do languages changed over time? How do people use language? How do human brain work in the process of language production? How do children begin to understand language and learn to speak.
The main research topic of modern linguistics is grammar grammar, a set of systems that describe the sounds, words and sentences of a language. The study of grammar consists of five parts:
* Phonetics: explore the physical and physiological phenomena of speech
* Phonology: the study of the phonetic system of a language
* Morphology: Discuss the structure of words
* Syntax: Exploring the structure of sentences
* Semantics: Exploring the meaning of words and sentences
Other areas of linguistics related to the above major topics include:
* Sociolinguistics: the study of how language is used in society
* Historical Linguistics: Exploring language change
* Psycholinguistics: explore the psychological state and process of language
* Language Acquisition: Explore how children acquire language
* Neurolinguistics: Explore the relationship between language and the brain
* Computational Linguistics: explores the relationship between language and computers
Linguistics, like physics or any other science, can be applied in many ways, including:
* Understand "human nature"
* Improve writing skills
* Improve second language ability
* Create a writing system for a language
* Save dying languages
* Help children with language difficulties
* Helping patients with brain injuries
* Facilitate communication between humans and computers
* Improve social relations
* Learn about history
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