Dictionary of Linguistics
By Students’ Academy
Copyright@2011Students’ Academy
Smashwords Edition
Chapter 1
Common Features of Language
Applied Linguistics
Applied Linguistics can also be called the pragmatic linguistics. It applies the theoretical linguistics to practical methods such as language teaching, remedial linguistic therapy, language planning, textual analysis, etc.
Arbitrariness
Arbitrariness is the term which is often used in the Structural linguistics. Arbitrariness refers to the point of view which does not accept any necessary relationship between linguistic signs and their referents, e.g. objects in the outside world.
Areas of Linguistics
Areas of Linguistics refer to the areas of study such as sociolinguistics, psychological linguistic, linguistic development of the child, etc.
Competence
The term Competence was first defined by the famous linguist Noam Chomsky in the context of his aspects of the theory of syntax. It is an individual ability to speak the language which he or she has learned as native language. Competence can also be called prescriptive and it is bequeathed by the elders to the child. On the other hand performance is how the child uses that language in real life situation.
Context
In linguistics terms, context directly refers to the environment in which an element (sound, word, and phrase) occurs.
Contrast
Contrast generally refers to the stark differences between two items. In linguistics, contrast refers to the difference between two linguistic items which can be exploited systematically.
Convention
Convention refers to a kind of social agreement in a speech community which declares that relationships are to apply between linguistic items, between these and the outside world or to apply in the use of rules in the grammar of their language.
Creativity
Human language is intrinsically creative. This is an accepted feature of human language. A human has the creativity and ability to produce and to understand a theoretically infinite number of sentences.
Descriptive
Descriptive is related to performance or how we use the language. Descriptive refers to how a language is being used and not how it should be used as prescribed in the text books or educational institutions.
Diachronic
Diachronic is the term which is widely used in the field of linguistics; It refers to language viewed over time and contrasts with synchronic which refers to a point in time. This is one of the major structural distinctions introduced by Saussure and which is used to characterize types of linguistic investigation.
Displacement
Displacement is one of the most significant characteristics of human language which enables it to refer to situations which are not here and now, e.g. I studied linguistics in London when I was in my twenties.
Duality of Patterning
Duality of Patterning refers to the structural principle of human language. Like a big building, which consists of larger units consisting of smaller building blocks, language has a number of such blocks being limited but the combinations being almost infinite. In human language, all words consist of combinations of a limited number of sounds, and likewise all sentences consist of structures from a small set with different words occupying different points in the structures allowing for virtually unlimited variety.
Economy
In linguistic terms, economy refers to a certain principle of linguistic analysis. This rule needs that rules and units are to be kept to a minimum.