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| [[Linguistics]] is the scientific study of human [[language]], and someone who engages in this study is called a '''[[linguist]]''' or '''[[linguistician]]'''.
| | #REDIRECT [[Wikipedia:Linguistics]] |
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| == Dichotomies and language ==
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| The study of linguistics can be thought of along three major axes, the endpoints of which are described below:
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| * '''Synchronic''' vs '''Diachronic''': [[descriptive linguistics|Synchronic (descriptive) linguistics]] is concerned with the form of a language at a given moment; [[historical linguistics|diachronic (historical) linguistics]] studies the changes that occurred in a language or family of languages over time.
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| * '''Theoretical''' vs '''Applied''': [[Theoretical linguistics|Theoretical (or general) linguistics]] is concerned with frameworks for describing individual languages and theories about universal aspects of language; [[applied linguistics]] applies these theories to other fields.
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| * '''Contextual''' vs '''Autonomous''': Contextual linguistics is concerned with how language fits into the world: its social function, how it is acquired, how it is produced and perceived. Autonomous or Independent linguistics considers languages for their own sake, aside from the externalities related to a language. Sometimes the terms '''macrolinguistics''' and '''microlinguistics''' are used for the corresponding terms of this dichotomy.
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| Given these dichotomies, scholars who call themselves simply ''linguists'' or ''theoretical linguists'', with no further qualification, tend to be concerned with autonomous, theoretical synchronic linguistics, which is acknowledged as the core of the discipline.
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| Linguistic [[research|inquiry]] is pursued by a wide variety of specialists, who may not all be in harmonious agreement; as [[Russ Rymer]] flamboyantly puts it:
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| <blockquote>"Linguistics is arguably the most hotly contested property in the academic realm. It is soaked with the blood of [[poet]]s, [[theology|theologian]]s, [[philosopher]]s, [[philology|philologist]]s, [[psychologist]]s, [[biologist]]s, and [[neurology|neurologist]]s, along with whatever blood can be got out of [[grammarian]]s." [[Linguistics#References|1]]</blockquote>
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| == Levels of theoretical linguistics ==
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| [[Theoretical linguistics]] is often divided into a number of separate areas, to be studied more or less independently. The following divisions are currently widely acknowledged:
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| * [[Phonetics]], the study of the sounds of human language
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| * [[Phonology]] (or phonemics), the study of patterns of a language's basic sounds
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| * [[Morphology (linguistics)|Morphology]], the study of the internal structure of words
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| * [[Syntax]], the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences
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| * [[Semantics]], the study of the meaning of words ([[lexical semantics]]), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences
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| * [[Pragmatics]], the study of how utterances are used (literally, figuratively, or otherwise) in communicative acts
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| * [[Historical linguistics]], the study of languages whose historical relations are recognizable through similarities in vocabulary, word formation, and syntax
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| * [[Linguistic typology]], the study of the grammatical features that are employed across all human languages
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| * [[Stylistics (linguistics)|Stylistics]], the study of style in languages
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| * [[Discourse analysis]], the study of sentences organised into texts
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| The independent significance of each of these areas is not universally acknowledged, however, and nearly all linguists would agree that the divisions overlap considerably. Nevertheless, each area has core concepts that foster significant scholarly inquiry and research.
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| == Diachronic linguistics ==
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| Whereas the core of theoretical linguistics is concerned with studying languages at a particular point in time (usually the present), diachronic linguistics examines how language changes through time, sometimes over centuries. Historical linguistics enjoys both a rich history (the study of linguistics grew out of historical linguistics) and a strong theoretical foundation for the study of [[language change]].
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| In American universities, the non-historic perspective seems to have the upper hand. Many introductory linguistics classes, for example, cover historical linguistics only cursorily. The shift in focus to a non-historic perspective started with [[Ferdinand de Saussure|Saussure]] and became predominant with [[Noam Chomsky]].
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| Explicitly historical perspectives include [[historical-comparative linguistics]] and [[etymology]].
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| == Applied linguistics ==
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| Whereas theoretical linguistics is concerned with finding and [[descriptive linguistics|describing]] generalities both within particular languages and among all languages, [[applied linguistics]] takes the results of those findings and ''applies'' them to other areas. Often ''applied linguistics'' refers to the use of linguistic research in language teaching, but results of linguistic research are used in many other areas, as well.
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| Many areas of applied linguistics today involve the explicit use of computers. [[Speech synthesis]] and [[speech recognition]] use phonetic and phonemic knowledge to provide voice interfaces to computers. Applications of [[computational linguistics]] in [[machine translation]], [[computer-assisted translation]], and [[natural language processing]] are extremely fruitful areas of applied linguistics which have come to the forefront in recent years with increasing computing power. Their influence has had a great effect on theories of syntax and semantics, as modelling syntactic and semantic theories on computers constrains the theories to [[computation theory (computation)|computable]] operations and provides a more rigorous mathematical basis.
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| == Contextual linguistics ==
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| Contextual linguistics is where the discipline of linguistics interacts with other academic disciplines. Whereas in core theoretical linguistics language is studied for its own sake, the interdisciplinary areas of linguistics consider how language interacts with the rest of the world.
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| [[Sociolinguistics]], [[anthropological linguistics]], and [[linguistic anthropology]] are social sciences that consider the interactions between linguistics and society as a whole.
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| [[Critical discourse analysis]] is where [[rhetoric]] and [[philosophy]] interact with linguistics.
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| [[Psycholinguistics]] and [[neurolinguistics]] combine [[medical science]] and linguistics.
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| Other cross-disciplinary areas of linguistics include [[language acquisition]], [[evolutionary linguistics]], [[computational linguistics]] and [[cognitive science]].
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| == Individual speakers, language communities, and linguistic universals ==
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| Linguists also differ in how broad a group of language users they study. Some analyze a given speaker's language (idiolect) or [[language development]] in great detail. Some study language pertaining to a whole [[speech community]], such as the [[dialect]] of those who speak [[African American Vernacular English|African American Vernacular English]] ("[[Ebonics]]"). Others try to find [[linguistic universals]] that apply, at some abstract level, to all users of [[human language]] everywhere. This latter project has been most famously advocated by [[Noam Chomsky]], and it interests many people in [[psycholinguistics]] and [[cognitive science]]. It is thought that universals in human language may reveal important insight into universals about the [[human mind]].
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| == Prescription and description ==
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| :''Main article: [[Prescription and description]].''
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| Research currently performed under the name "linguistics" is purely ''descriptive''; linguists seek to clarify the nature of language without passing value judgments or trying to chart future language directions. Nonetheless, there are many professionals and amateurs who also ''prescribe'' rules of language, holding a particular standard out for all to follow.
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| Prescriptivists tend to be found among the ranks of language educators and journalists, and not in the actual academic discipline of linguistics. They hold clear notions of what is right and wrong, and may assign themselves the responsibility of ensuring that the next generation use the variety of language that is most likely to lead to "success," often the [[acrolect]] of a particular language. The reasons for their intolerance of "incorrect usage" may include distrust of [[neologism]]s, connections to socially-disapproved dialects (i.e., [[basilect]]s), or simple conflicts with pet theories. An extreme version of prescriptivism can be found among censors, whose personal mission is to eradicate words and structures which they consider to be destructive to society.
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| Descriptivists, on the other hand, do not accept the prescriptivists' notion of "incorrect usage." They might describe the usages the other has in mind simply as "idiosyncratic," or they may discover a regularity (a ''rule'') that the usage in question follows (in contrast to the common prescriptive assumption that "bad" usage is unsystematic). Within the context of [[fieldwork]], [[descriptive linguistics]] refers to the study of language using a descriptivist approach. Descriptivist methodology more closely resembles scientific methodology in other disciplines.
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| == Speech versus writing ==
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| Most contemporary linguists work under the assumption that [[spoken language]] is more fundamental, and thus more important to study than [[written language]]. Reasons for this perspective include:
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| * Speech appears to be a human universal, whereas there have been many [[culture]]s and speech communities that lack written communication;
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| * People learn to speak and process spoken languages more easily and much earlier than writing;
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| * A number of [[cognitive science|cognitive scientists]] argue that the [[brain]] has an innate "[[language module]]", [[knowledge]] of which is thought to come more from studying speech than writing, particularly since language as speech is held to be an evolutionary adaptation, whereas writing is a comparatively recent invention.
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| Of course, linguists agree that the study of written language can be worthwhile and valuable. For linguistic research that uses the methods of [[corpus linguistics]] and [[computational linguistics]], written language is often much more convenient for processing large amounts of linguistic data. Large corpora of spoken language are difficult to create and hard to find, and are typically [[transcription (linguistics)|transcribed]] and written.
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| The study of [[writing systems]] themselves is in any case considered a branch of linguistics.
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| == Research areas of linguistics ==
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| * [[Etymology]]
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| * [[Historical-comparative linguistics]]
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| * [[Integrational linguistics]]
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| * [[Lexicography]]
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| * [[Lexicology]]
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| * [[Phonetics]]
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| * [[Phonology]]
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| * [[Pragmatics]]
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| * [[Semantics]]
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| * [[Syntax]]
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| * [[Theoretical linguistics]]
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| * [[Computational linguistics]]
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| * [[Corpus linguistics]]
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| * [[Descriptive linguistics]]
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| * [[Linguistic typology]]
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| * [[Semiotics]]
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| == Interdisciplinary linguistic research ==
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| * [[Anthropological linguistics]]
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| * [[Applied linguistics]]
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| * [[Cognitive science]]
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| * [[Historical linguistics|Comparative linguistics]]
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| * [[Computational linguistics]]
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| ** [[Natural language processing]]
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| ** [[Speaker recognition]] (authentication)
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| ** [[Speech processing]]
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| ** [[Speech recognition]]
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| ** [[Speech synthesis]]
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| * [[Critical discourse analysis]]
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| * [[Cryptanalysis]]
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| * [[Decipherment]]
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| * [[Ecolinguistics]]
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| * [[Evolutionary linguistics]]
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| * [[Forensic linguistics]]
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| * [[Glottometrics]]
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| * [[Historical linguistics]]
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| * [[Language acquisition]]
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| * [[Language engineering]]
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| * [[Neurolinguistics]]
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| * [[Orthography]]
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| * [[Psycholinguistics]]
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| * [[Second language acquisition]]
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| * [[Sociolinguistics]]
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| * [[Stratificational linguistics]]
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| * [[Text linguistics]]
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| * [[Writing system]]s
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| == Important linguists and schools of thought ==
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| Early [[scholar]]s of linguistics include [[Jakob Grimm]], who devised the principle of consonantal shifts in pronunciation known as [[Grimm's Law]] in 1822, [[Karl Verner]], who discovered [[Verner's Law]], [[August Schleicher]] who created the "Stammbaumtheorie" and [[Johannes Schmidt (linguist)|Johannes Schmidt]] who developed the "Wellentheorie" ("wave model") in 1872. [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] was the founder of modern structural linguistics. [[Edward Sapir]], a leader in American structural linguistics, was one of the first who explored the relations between language studies and anthropology. His methodology had strong influence on all his successors. [[Noam Chomsky|Noam Chomsky's]] formal model of language, [[transformational-generative grammar]], developed under the influence of his teacher [[Zellig Harris]], who was in turn strongly influenced by [[Leonard Bloomfield]], has been the dominant one from the [[1960s]].
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| Other important linguists and [[school]]s include [[Michael Halliday]], whose [[systemic functional grammar]] is pursued widely in the [[United Kingdom|U.K.]], [[Canada]], [[Australia]], [[China]], and [[Japan]]; [[Dell Hymes]], who developed a pragmatic approach called The Ethnography of Speaking; [[George Lakoff]], [[Leonard Talmy]], and [[Ronald Langacker]], who were pioneers in [[cognitive linguistics]]; [[Charles J. Fillmore|Charles Fillmore]] and [[Adele Goldberg (linguist)|Adele Goldberg]], who are associated with [[construction grammar]]; and linguists developing several varieties of what they call [[Functionalism (linguistics)|functional grammar]], including [[Leonard Talmy]], [[Talmy Givon]] and [[Robert Van Valin, Jr.]].
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| == Representation of speech ==
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| * [[International Phonetic Alphabet]] (IPA), a system used to write down and reproduce the [[sound]]s of [[human speech]].
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| * [[SAMPA]], an [[ASCII]]-only transcription for the IPA used by some authors. See also [http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/sampa/home.htm the SAMPA home page].
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| == Narrower conceptions of "linguistics" ==
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| "Linguistics" and "[[linguist]]" may not always be meant to apply as broadly as above. In some contexts, the best [[definition]]s may be "what is studied in a typical university's department of linguistics", and "one who is a [[professor]] in such a department." Linguistics in this narrow sense usually does not refer to learning to speak foreign languages (except insofar as this helps to craft formal models of language.) It does not include [[literary analysis]]. Only sometimes does it include study of things such as [[metaphor]]. It probably does not apply to those engaged in such prescriptive efforts as found in [[William Strunk Jr.|Strunk]] and [[E. B. White|White]]'s ''[[The Elements of Style]]''; "linguists" usually seek to study what people do, not what they ''should'' do. One could probably argue for a long while about who is and who is not a "linguist".
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| == See also ==
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| {{commonscat}}
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| * [[History of linguistics]]
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| * [[List of basic linguistic topics]], a page designed to organize information about linguistics on Wikipedia
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| * [[List of linguistic topics]]
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| * [[List of linguists]]
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| * [[Philology]], the study of [[ancient text]]s and languages
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| * [[Structuralism]]
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| == References ==
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| === Textbooks ===
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| * '''Aitchison''', Jean (1995) Linguistics: An Introduction. London: Hodder & Stoughton; London: Hodder Headline, 1999, 2nd Edition.
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| * <b>Akmajian, Adrian <i>et al</i></b> (2001), <i>Linguistics</i>, 5th ed., MIT Press. (ISBN 0262511231)
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| * '''Hudson''', G. (2000) ''Essential Introductory Linguistics''. Oxford: Blackwell.
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| * <b>Lyons, John</b> (1995), <i>Linguistic Semantics</i>, Cambridge University Press. (ISBN 0521438772)
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| * '''Napoli''', Donna J. (2003) ''Language Matters. A Guide to Everyday Questions about Language''. Oxford University Press.
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| * <b>O'Grady, William D., Michael Dobrovolsky & Francis Katamba [eds.]</b> (2001), <i>Contemporary Linguistics</i>, Longman. (ISBN 0582246911) - Lower Level
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| * <b>Taylor, John R.</b> (2003), <i>Cognitive Grammar</i>, Oxford University Press. (ISBN 0198700334)
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| * '''Trask''', R. L. (1995) ''Language: The Basics''. London: Routledge.
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| * <b>Ungerer, Friedrich & Hans-Jorg Schmid</b> (1996), <i>An Introduction to Cognitive Linguistics</i>, Longman. (ISBN 0582239664)
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| === Academic works ===
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| * <b>[[Gilles Fauconnier|Fauconnier, Gilles]]</b>
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| ** (1995), <i>Mental Spaces</i>, 2nd ed., Cambridge University Press. (ISBN 0521449499)
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| ** (1997), <i>Mappings in Thought and Language</i>, Cambridge University Press. (ISBN 0521599539)
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| ** <b>& [[Mark Turner (cognitive scientist)|Mark Turner]]</b> (2003), <i>The Way We Think</i>, Basic Books. (ISBN 0465087868)
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| *** Rymer, p. 48, quoted in Fauconnier and Turner, p. 353
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| * <b>[[Geoffrey Sampson|Sampson, Geoffrey]] </b> (1982), <i>Schools of Linguistics</i>, Stanford University Press. (ISBN 0804711259)
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| * <b>Sweetser, Eve</b> (1992), <i>From Etymology to Pragmatics</i>, repr ed., Cambridge University Press. (ISBN 0521424429)
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| === Popular works ===
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| * '''Bloomfield, Leonard'''. ''Language''.
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| *'''[[Anthony Burgess|Burgess, Anthony]]'''
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| ** (1964), ''[[Language Made Plain]]
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| ** (1992), ''[[A Mouthful of Air]]
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| * '''Deacon, Terrence''' (1998), ''The Symbolic Species'', WW Norton & Co. (ISBN 0393317544)
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| * '''Deutscher, Guy, Dr.''' (2005), ''The Unfolding of Language'', Metropolitan Books (ISBN 0805079076) (ISBN 9780805079074)
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| * '''Hayakawa, Alan R & S. I.''' (1990), ''Language in Thought and Action'', Harvest. (ISBN 0156482401)
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| * '''[[Steven Pinker|Pinker, Steven]]'''
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| ** (2000), ''[[The Language Instinct]]'', repr ed., Perennial. (ISBN 0060958332)
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| ** (2000), ''Words and Rules'', Perennial. (ISBN 0060958405)
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| * '''Rymer, Russ''' (1992), ''Annals of Science'' in "[http://newyorker.com/ The New Yorker]", 13th April
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| * '''Sapir, Edward'''. ''Language''.
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| * '''Saussure, Ferdinand de'''. ''Cours de linguistique générale'' [''Course in general linguistics''].
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| === Reference books ===
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| * '''Aronoff, Mark & Janie Rees-Miller''' (Eds.) (2003) ''The Handbook of Linguistics''. Blackwell Publishers. (ISBN 1405102527)
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| * '''Asher''', R. (Ed.) (1993) ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics''. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 10 vols.
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| * '''Bright''', William (Ed) (1992) ''International Encyclopedia of Linguistics''. Oxford University Press. 4 Vols.
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| * '''Brown''', Keith R. (Ed.) (2005) ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'' (2nd ed.). Elsevier. 14 vols.
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| * '''Bussmann''', H. (1996) ''Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics''. Routledge (translated from German).
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| * '''Crystal''', David
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| ** (1987) ''The Cambridge Encyclopaedia of Language''. Cambridge University Press.
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| ** (1991) ''A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Blackwell. (ISBN: 0-631-17871-6)
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| ** (1992) ''An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Language and Languages''. Oxford: Blackwell.
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| * '''Frawley''', William (Ed.) (2003) ''International Encyclopedia of Linguistics'' (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
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| * '''Malmkjaer''', Kirsten (1991) ''The Linguistics Encyclopaedia''. Routledge (ISBN 0415222109)
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| * '''Trask''', R. L.
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| ** (1993) ''A Dictionary of Grammatical Terms in Linguistics''. Routledge. (ISBN 0-415-08628-0)
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| ** (1996) ''Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology''. Routledge.
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| ** (1997) ''A student's dictionary of language and linguistics''.
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| ** (1999) ''Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics''. London: Routledge.
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| == External links ==
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| {{Wikibookspar|Wikiversity|School of Linguistics}}
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| * [http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/index.htm Glossary of linguistic terms] and [http://www.sil.org/linguistics/glossary_fe/ French<->English glossary] at [[SIL International]]
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| * [http://www.unizar.es/departamentos/filologia_inglesa/garciala/bibliography.html "Linguistics" section] of A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism and Philology, ed. J. A. García Landa (University of Zaragoza, Spain)
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| * [http://www.royharrisonline.com/ Integrational Linguistics]
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| * [http://www.specgram.com/CL.1/06.schadenpoodle.guide1.html A Preliminary Field Guide to Linguists, Part One]: A humorous overview of the various branches of linguistics and their practitioners. There is also a [http://www.specgram.com/CL.2/05.schadenpoodle.guide2.html Part Two].
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| * [http://www.linguistlist.org The Linguist List]
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| * [http://lingformant.vertebratesilence.com Lingformant: The Science of Linguistics in the News]
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| * [http://www2.let.uu.nl/UiL-OTS/Lexicon/ Lexicon of Linguistics created by Johan Kerstens, Eddy Ruys and Joost Zwarts at the Utrecht institute of Linguistics OTS, university of Utrecht]
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| {{wikipedia}}
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