APLNG 482Y Assignment #1
Wenli Zhang
Literally, the relationship between linguistics and applied linguistics seems to be
quite obvious. According to grammatical rules, the adjective preceding a noun is used to
modify the noun. When applying this to Applied Linguistics, the world “applied” here
seems to be the modifier of the noun “linguistics”, which seems quite certain that Applied
Linguistics is one of the branches of Linguistics. As most of people consider, it is what I
thought before, without any knowledge about Applied Linguistics.
However, at the completion of the first several classes, I realize that how innocent
I was. The relationship between Applied Linguistics and Linguistics is far more
complicated.
Based on textbooks and some other reading materials, the definition of Linguistics
is quite certain. Generally speaking, Linguistics is the study of language. It is “bound to
represent an abstract idealization of language rather than the way it is experienced in the
real world” (Cook, 2010).
Compared to Linguistics, the definition of Applied Linguistics is much more
complex and uncertain. In the book Doing Applied Linguistics --- A Guide For Students
(Groom, N., & Littlemore, J, 2011), the authors provide several definition of Applied
Linguistics to us, either official or unofficial. No matter what the definition is, all the
definitions originally formulated by Chris Brumfit (1995): [applied linguistics is] the
theoretical and empirical investigation of real-world problems in which language is
central issue. Based on this conception, simply understand, what applied linguists do is to
apply language theories to real life and to dealing with practical problems related of
language and communication, which makes a connection between abstract conceptions
and real-world.
People, in one school, tend to regard Applied Linguistic as one of the branches as
Linguistics, since most of the language theories Applied Linguistics employ are derived
from Linguistic. It is quite understandable. For instance, in the article What Is
Linguistics?, the author lists all kinds of sub-categories of Linguistics, in which Applied
Linguistics is included. While, to be contrast, some people hold an opposite opinion.
Since Linguistics focuses on language per se, while the scope of Applied Linguistics is
much broader (which is regarded as multi-diciplinaries) than the one of Linguistics,
people from another school intend to treat Applied Linguistics as a whole new study
field.
From my perspective, those two opposite thoughts both have reasons to exist. If
we take language theories into consideration, it is quite reasonable to say that Applied
Linguistics is part of Linguistics. However, if we put emphasis on scope, it is reasonable
to pull Applied Linguistics out from linguistics, not only because Applied Linguistics has
a broader scope than Linguistics, but also Applied Linguistics develops various specific
its own features when connecting with other study fields. However, if let me to envision
the relationship between Applied Linguistics and Linguistics, I shall use a metaphor to
describe the relationship --- a tree. Linguistics, from which most of the language theories
are derived, will be the root of the tree, regarded as the foundation. While, Applied
Linguistics will be one of the branches of the tree, whose length stands for the scope of
Applied Linguistics. No matter how long the branch grows, it will never break off the
relation with the root.
To sum up, in my opinion, even though we cannot deny that Applied Linguistics
has already gained its own features during developing, considering Linguistics as the
basis of Applied Linguistics, Applied Linguistics cannot be a independent study field and
depart from Linguistics completely.
References
Cook, G. (2010). Applied Linguistics. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University
Press.
Groom, N., & Littlemore, J. (2011). Doing Applied Linguistics --- A Guide for Students.
New York, United States: Routledge.
What Is Linguistics? (December, 1992). Center for applied linguistics. Retrieved from
http://www.cal.org/resources/digest/cal00001.html