CHAPTER 1

Linguistics as the Science of Language

Learning Outcomes
1. Recognize the different language phenomena in the relevant community.
2. Discuss the scientific study of language in relevance to language teaching,
learning, and benefits to community and society.

Preparation
Guide questions:
1. Which of the situations make you wonder?
2. Which of the situations make you laugh?
3. Does the language have anything to do with it? Why?
4. Considering these circumstances and taking into account your existing knowledge of the
language, how would you define language?
Presentation

Thinking Like a Pro

Click the links given below and read the articles. Then, make a graphic
organizer illustrating the comparison between ‘your’ definition of
language with that of the famous linguists and theorists. Use a PowerPoint in creating the
organizer and save as a JPEG File Interchange Format (*.jpg) the final output.

Reading materials link: https://englishfinders.com/definition-of-language-by-scholars/

https://credoreference.libguides.com/c.php?g=139732&p=915294

Paste your output here.

Linguistics is the scientific study of language, including its different aspects. It investigates
and describes the various facets of language elements, systems, patterns, and phenomena.
Linguistics technically encompasses the study of language rules (grammar), word forms
(morphology), sentence patterns (syntax), language meanings (semantics), language sounds and
sound patterns (phonology and phonetics), and language use in contexts (pragmatics).

Because language is innately human, the study of linguistics found its way into other disciplines
related to the study of human behavior.
Historical Linguistics. It is also called Diachronic Linguistics, the branch of
linguistics concerned with the study of phonological, grammatical, and semantic
changes, the reconstruction of earlier stages of languages, and the discovery and
application of the methods by which genetic relationships among languages can be
demonstrated. It had its roots in the etymological speculations of classical and
medieval times, in the comparative study of Greek and Latin developed during the
Renaissance, and in the speculations of scholars as to the language from which the other languages
of the world were descended (www.britannica.com).
Applied Linguistics. It is most commonly used nowadays it is restricted to the application of
linguistics to language teaching. Much of the expansion of linguistics as a subject of teaching and
research in the second half of the 20th century came about because of its value, actual and
potential, for writing better language textbooks and devising more efficient methods of teaching
languages (www.britannica.com).
Sociolinguistics. It is the study of the sociological aspects of language. The discipline concerns
itself with the part language plays in maintaining the social roles in a community. Sociolinguists
attempt to isolate those linguistic features that are used in particular situations and that mark the
various social relationships among the participants and the significant elements of the situation.
Influences on the choice of sounds, grammatical elements, and vocabulary items may include such
factors as age, sex, education, occupation, race, and peer-group identification, among others
(www.britannica.com).
Neurolinguistics. It is the study of the neurological mechanisms underlying the storage and
processing of language. Although it has been fairly satisfactorily determined that the language
centre is in the left hemisphere of the brain in right-handed people, controversy remains
concerning whether individual aspects of language are correlated with different specialized areas
of the brain (www.britannica.com).
Psycholinguistics. It is the study of psychological aspects of language. Experiments investigating
such topics as short-term and long-term memory, perceptual strategies, and speech perception
based on linguistic models are part of this discipline. Most work in psycholinguistics has been done
on the learning of language by children. Language is extremely complex, yet children learn it
quickly and with ease; thus, the study of child language is important for psychologists interested in
cognition and learning and for linguists concerned with the insights it can give about the structure
of language (www.britannica.com).
Clinical Linguistics. It is the application of linguistic concepts, theories, and methods to the study
of language disorders. These disorders can result from impairment of, or breakdown in, one or
more of the following language components: prosody, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics,
pragmatics, and discourse (www.oxfordbibliographies.com).
Practice

Watch and Match

Watch six different videos by clicking on the links below. Each video presents
circumstances that emphasize the scope of a particular branch of linguistics.
Match the video with its corresponding discipline of linguistic study.

Filipino & Indonesian: Saan Nagkaka- Story of Genie Wiley - What can we learn
pareho? from her?
https://www.youtube.com/watch? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-
v=x1XAdRH-p1w DmUj8YiU-o

When English Is Your Second Language | Brett's Story: Back to College after a
Smile Squad Comedy Traumatic Brain
https://www.youtube.com/watch? https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=_Sfa9edoZ94 v=pJlEwRPrI04

Baby reading game 16 months Aamir Khan: Best Teacher Ever | Taare
https://www.youtube.com/watch? Zameen Par | Netflix India https://
v=EbazdZ4erl0 www.youtube.com/watch?
v=2LEyl7GGU38
 Instructions: Draw a line to match the linguistic situations and the linguistic
discipline illustrated accordingly.

LINGUISTIC
LINGUISTIC SITUATIONS
DISCIPLINE

1. Filipino & Indonesian:

 Historical Linguistics
Saan Nagkakapareho?

2. Story of Genie Wiley -

What can we learn from  Applied Linguistics
her?

3. When English Is Your

Second Language |  Sociolinguistics
Smile Squad Comedy

4. Brett's Story: Back to

 Neurolinguistics
College after a Trau-
matic Brain

5. Baby reading game 16  Psycholinguistics

months

6. Aamir Khan: Best

Teacher Ever | Taare  Clinical Linguistics
Zameen Par | Netflix
India

Name: Peres, John Paul M.

Program, Year, & Section: BSED-ENG 1D
Date: September 15, 2023