Descriptive Grammar 1
Units of language and branches of linguistics
UNITS
FEATURES
FIELDS OF
LINGUISTICS/SCIENCES
SPEECH SOUND/LETTER
PHONEME/GRAPHEME
phonetics, phonology, orthography
phonetics, phonology
SYLLABLE
morphology
MORPHEME
form
WORD/LEXEME
pronunciation/spelling
phonetics, orthography, lexicology
structure
morphology
grammatical feature
semantics, lexicology, logic, philosophy,
lexicography
grammar/traditional grammar
syntactic function
syntax
meaning
PHRASE
syntax
CLAUSE
syntax
SENTENCE
form
pronunciation/spelling,
intonation
structure
phonetics, orthography
syntax, discourse analysis
semantics, logic, philosophy, pragmatics
meaning
discourse analysis, pragmatics, textology,
philology, conversation analysis, stylistics
TEXT/DISCOURSE
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NOTES
Descriptive Grammar 1
Anthropological or ethno-linguistics and sociolinguistics focus on language as part of
culture and society, including social class, ethnicity and gender.
Applied linguistics is interested in language planning, literacy, bilingualism and second
language acquisition. It also covers such areas as discourse analysis, language assessment,
language pedagogy.
Computational linguistics is concerned with the computer applications of natural languages.
Conversation analysis investigates the regularities of a fluent conversation.
Descriptive grammar provides analyses of the grammars of different languages.
Dialectology investigates how geographical, historical and social factors fragment one
language into many.
Discourse analysis cover term for various analyses of discourse/text with a particular interest
in wellformedness (coherence, cohesion).
Historical linguistics is concerned with a theory of language change – why and how
languages develop. [Do they develop?]
Lexicography is a branch of linguistics which deals with the questions of what is compiled
and how a compilation is arranged in a dictionary.
Lexicology is the study of the vocabulary of a language.
Mathematical linguistics studies the formal and mathematical properties of language.
Morphology corresponds to the study of forms, i.e. the subdisciplines of inflection as well as
of the study of word classes and their classificational criteria.
Neurolinguistics is concerned with the biological basis of language acquisition and
development and the brain/mind/language interface.
Orthography is the study and/or instruction of systematic and uniform transcription with
letters and punctuation.
Philology is the study of written records the establishment of their authenticity and their
original form, and the determination of their meaning.
Philosophy of language is concerned with questions on the origin, characteristics, way of
functioning and achievement of language.
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Descriptive Grammar 1
Phonetics focuses on the physical aspects of articulation.
Phonology investigates the system of speech sounds of a language.
Pragmatics studies language in context and the influence of situation on meanings of
utterences.
Psycholinguistics is the branch of study of language concerned with linguistic performance –
the production and comprehension of speech.
Semantics is interested in the meaning of words and linguistic expressions.
Stylistics the study of the style (correct and/or effective use of constituents) of a text.
Syntax is the study of sentences.
Textology supplies an explanation for the constitutive properties of texts.
Source
Bussmann, Hadumod. Routledge dictionary of language and linguistics. Translated and edited by
Gregory Trauth and Kerstin Kazzazi. London ; New York : Routledge, 1998. xxx, 1304 p.
ISBN 0-415-20319-8
Fromkin, Victoria A. (ed.). Linguistics : an introduction to linguistic theory. Reprinted. Malden (MA) ; Oxford
(UK) ; Melbourne (Australia) ; Kurfürstendamm (Germany) : Blackwell, 2003, ©2000. xi, 747 p.
ISBN 0-631-19711-7
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