Areas of linguistic analysis

• • Phonetics and Phonology: The study of speech sounds and how they are used in a particular language.
  • Morphology: The study of word structure and how words are formed.
  • Syntax: The study of the rules for combining words into phrases and sentences.
  • Semantics: The study of the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences.

Key concepts

• Duality of patterning: Language uses a limited set of meaningless sounds or hand shapes that can be combined to create an infinite number of meaningful words and sentences.
• Arbitrariness of the sign: The relationship between a word and the thing it refers to is typically arbitrary; there is no inherent reason for a specific sound to mean a specific thing.
• Displacement: The ability to talk about things that are not immediately present in time or space.
• Reflexivity: The ability of language to refer to itself, such as when discussing grammar rules. 

• Philology: While philology focuses on the historical development of languages through written texts, linguistics often prioritizes the study of spoken language and how it functions at a specific point in time. 

• Linguistics is interdisciplinary and connects with other fields such as psychology, computer science, and sociology.
• It can be applied in areas like language acquisition, natural language processing, and understanding language disorders.