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fandomhigh2005-12-01 11:37 pm
the-ascended.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2005-12-01 11:37 pm
Linguistics
"There are three students in this class. I tend to notice when you don't turn up. Get it?" Daniel says, slightly irritated. He's still missing his notebook (Did he dare ask any of the inhabitants of 239/240 about it?) and is instead idly doodling on a spare piece of paper. "Mr Potter, it would also be nice if you handed in your midterm today. If you're lucky, I will mark it. But you've got yet another detention, which you will sit next week instead.
"Today, I'm taking you back to the basics.
"Linguistics is arguably the most hotly contested property in the academic realm. It is soaked with the blood of poets, theologians, philosophers, philologists, psychologists, biologists, and neurologists, along with whatever blood can be got out of grammarians."
Who said that, and what does he mean by it?
The study of linguistics can be thought of along three major axes:
Synchronic vs Diachronic: Synchronic study of a language is concerned with its form at a given moment; Diachronic study covers the history of a language or family of languages and structural changes over time.
Theoretical vs Applied: 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.
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.
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.
Now. I want my essay in in this box, Harry, and for homework, guys, I want a detailed comparison of one of the three axes I talked about, to be handed in on Tuesday. Questions? Comments?
"Today, I'm taking you back to the basics.
"Linguistics is arguably the most hotly contested property in the academic realm. It is soaked with the blood of poets, theologians, philosophers, philologists, psychologists, biologists, and neurologists, along with whatever blood can be got out of grammarians."
Who said that, and what does he mean by it?
The study of linguistics can be thought of along three major axes:
Synchronic vs Diachronic: Synchronic study of a language is concerned with its form at a given moment; Diachronic study covers the history of a language or family of languages and structural changes over time.
Theoretical vs Applied: 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.
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.
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.
Now. I want my essay in in this box, Harry, and for homework, guys, I want a detailed comparison of one of the three axes I talked about, to be handed in on Tuesday. Questions? Comments?
Re: Sign in and classwork
What he's, rather flamboyantly putting it, is that linguistic inquiry is pursued by a wide variety of specialists, and as is often the case in these things, they're not all in harmonious agreement. It's quite a common problem in anthropology as well, and can be found to a certain extent in pretty much all subjects I believe.