11lectureone11.pptVIP

What is linguistics? Linguistics is the scientific study of language. What does ‘language’ mean? What about ‘study’? Why ‘scientific’? The Typical Process of Linguistic Study The process of linguistic study is: observe linguistic facts → find similarities → make generalizations → formulate hypotheses to account for these facts → test hypotheses → construct a linguistic theory about what language is and how it works Why do we study linguistics? Since linguistics describes language in all its aspects and formulates theories as to how it works, it