Linguistics and Applied Linguistics

• Linguistics is the study of language in general.
• One particularly influential type of idealization used in the generative linguistics introduced by Noam Chomsky from the late r9sps onward is that the proper subject matter of linguistics should be the representation of language in the mind (competence) rather than the way in which people actually use anguage in everyday life (performance).
• In Chomsky's linguistics, however, the focus is as the name suggests--very much upon the relation between language and society. Sociolinguistics endeavours to find systematic relationships between social groupings and contexts, and the variable ways in which languages are used.
• In functional linguistics the concern is with 'language as a means of communication, the purposes it fulfils, and how people actually use their language.
• Corpus linguistics is a particularly important approach to linguistic study in which vast databanks containing millions of words of actual language in use can be searched within seconds to yield extensive information about word frequencies and combinations which is not revealed by intuition.
• The approach to linguistic study used by applied linguistics, however, is not simply a matter of matching up findings about language with pre-existing problems, but of using findings to explore how the perception of problems might be changed.
• Applied linguistics is the application of linguistics to practical problems.
• Linguistics is the study of language.
• Applied linguistics must refer to the findings and theories of linguistics, choose among the different schools and approaches, and make these theories relevant to the problem in hand.
• Applied linguistics must investigate and take into account the experience and needs of the people involved in the problem itself.
• Applied linguistics must seek to relate these two perspectives to each other, attempting perhaps, in the process, to reformulate each.
• Applied linguistics is a quest for common ground. It establishes a reciprocal relationship between expemence and expertise, between professional concerns with language problems and linguistics.

Test your knowledge of linguistics and applied linguistics with this quiz. Explore the different approaches and schools of thought within linguistics, including generative linguistics, sociolinguistics, functional linguistics, corpus linguistics, and applied linguistics.