Linguistics is the scientific study of natural human languages, which include both spoken and sign languages. At present, there are more than 7000 known living languages in the world, and there are over 100 documented sign languages on this list (http://www.ethnologue.com). These languages can be large (i.e., having a large number of users), or small (i.e., having a small number of users). All these languages can become the objects for investigations in linguistic research, and can potentially contribute to our understanding of the nature of human languages in general. In other words, both spoken and sign languages are worth investigating from a linguistic point of view.
Linguists are interested in different aspects of human languages, e.g., the linguistic forms and meanings, language use in contexts, the acquisition patterns, language processing in the brain, etc. Linguists are also interested in how external factors, e.g., political, cultural, social, and historical factors, may affect language forms and usage. Due to these diverse research interests, there are different branches within linguistics itself. Below is a list of the core branches of linguistics that focus on the structural properties of languages. The descriptions are based on spoken languages. But as we will demonstrate to you in the subsequent modules, similar methods of linguistic analysis can be applied to sign language data as well.
Phonetics: Phoneticians describe and study human speech sounds, e.g., how speech sounds are produced (e.g., how consonants and vowels are produced in the oral cavity), transmitted (e.g., through vibrations of air particles) and perceived by one’s ears (e.g., how we recognize speech sounds and use such information to identify linguistic features).
Phonology: Phonologists study patterns of speech sounds, e.g., how speech sounds are used distinctively to contrast meanings in a language, what are the rules governing the syllable structures, how sounds interact and affect each other when they are produced in a sequence, how stress and intonation are used systematically.
Morphology: Morphology studies the internal structure of words. For example, in the English word unhappiness, there are three meaningful units: un-, happy,and –ness. Un- is a prefix that reverses the meaning of the adjective (i.e., happy) it precedes, and –ness is a suffix that turns the word it follows into a noun. Languages have different rules that govern the formation of words.
Syntax: Syntax is the study of rules that govern the sentence structures in a language, i.e., how words are combined in specific orders to form phrases, clauses and sentences. Languages differ in the word order patterns across a variety of structures. For example, English and Chinese share the same word order in simple transitive sentences (e.g., I love you 我愛你) in which the order of subject-verb-object is used. In wh-questions, however, English requires the wh-word to be moved to the initial position of the question (e.g., What do you want to eat?), while Chinese has no such rules (e.g., 你想吃甚麼？ you – want – eat – what).
Semantics: In semantics, linguists look at how meaning works at the levels of individual words, phrases, sentences, etc. Examples of semantic analysis include: What is the semantic relationship between form and meaning? How are words related to each other in terms of meaning? How do language users derive the meaning of a sentence based on the meaning of individual words?
Pragmatics: Pragmatics is a branch of linguistics that studies how meaning is affected by contextual factors. While semantics is concerned with the meaning that is expressed literally in linguistic expressions, pragmatics deals with how the context of the sentence and shared knowledge between the speaker and the listener would affect the interpretation of the sentence. For example, if someone says, ‘It’s cold in here’, there can be different interpretations. If it is a hot sunny afternoon, the speaker may use this sentence to mean that s/he appreciates the coolness of the air-conditioner inside the building. However, if the weather is very cold, the speaker may use this sentence to urge the listener indirectly to close the window.
