Some Linguistics

Linguistics is the science of language. Language is the method of human communication, either spoken or written. Most of the languages around the world have more similarities among each other than dissimilarities. This leads to the concept of a universal grammar, which is the basis of all languages.

• Linguistics - study of language e.g. universal grammar, syntax, semantics
• Computational Linguistics (or NLP or Corpus Linguistics) - study of language through computational means with the help of machine-readable corpora; natural language processing e.g. automatic question-answering, text summary generator
• Cognitive Linguistics (CL, in short) - study of relation between language and cognitive processes e.g. child language acquisition
• Diachronic (or Historical) Linguistics - study of changes in language over time e.g. semantic drift
• Philology - study of language in historical texts
• Etymology - the study of origin of words
• Onomasiology - the branch of linguistics concerned with  the question “how to express the idea X as a word?”
• Semasiology - the branch of linguistics concerned with the question “what does the word X mean?”
• Sociolinguistics - study of language in respect to various social factors such as gender bias, social status, patterns of migration, influence of colonialism

 

Sociolinguistics - How do social factors affect language?

• Multilingual society
  
  • Code switching - switching from one language to another e.g Malayalam with wife, Marathi with shopkeeper, English with boss, Hindi with friends
• Code mixing - mix multiple languages e.g. Manglish, Hinglish
• Language shift - shift from language to another over a long period of time e.g. the common language shifted from Hindi to English in India

•  Based on variety of language:
• Accent - variation in pronunciation e.g. Malayalam accents (Trivandrum accent, Palakkad accent, Kochi accent, Thrissur accent, Kasargod accent)
• Dialect - variation in pronunciation and vocabulary e.g. Hindi dialects (Bundeli, Awadhi, Kannauji), English dialects (British, Australian, African-American, American, Indian)

• Based on use of language in a multilingual society: I think a language can have many dialects but only some of them are considered the standard and other become vernacular.
  
  • Standard - codified version of a language e.g. Standard English
  • Vernacular - languages that are not official, non-standard version of a language e.g. African-American Vernacular English (AAVE)
  • Lingua franca - e.g. English due to globalization, French by nobility, Latin by Catholic Church

• Based on official requirements:
  
  • National language - e.g India (Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Marathi, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Punjabi, Oriya, Bengali)
  • Official language - e.g. India (Hindi, English)

slang (informal), jargon (domain), pidgin (multilingual group), creole (second generation speakers), taboo (private)