About Linguistics
- Did you know?
- What is Linguistics?
- Language structure
- More questions about language
- Linguistics at Monash
- Linguistics as part of your degree
- Careers for Linguists
Did you know?
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Some scholars claim that English has 20 vowel sounds and 24 consonants.
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Every language with a word for yellow has a word for red; however, there are languages (e.g. Pomo, Kiswahili) with a word for red but none for yellow.
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Australians will ask you which team do you barrack for? where Americans would like to know who you root for. Likewise, many North Americans say the workers struck the company meaning the workers went on strike and they say it's in back of the tree where Australians say it's behind the tree.
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Some languages group nouns into gender classes, e.g. French: la table, le train; others group nouns according to the shape or nature of the things they name, e.g. Thai khruu ha khon teacher five person = "five teachers"; ma ha tua dog five body = "five dogs";chang ha chyg domesticated elephant five rope "five elephants";br ha muan cigarette five rolled things = "five cigarettes".
These and many similar observations are part of the study of linguistics.
What is Linguistics?
Linguistics is the systematic study of language in general. It investigates the structure and the function of language, the ways in which languages differ, and those properties which all languages share. As a result, it provides the tools for exploring any particular language, as well as for trying to explain numerous aspects of language use. Further, by comparing and contrasting individual languages, linguists have been able to make important discoveries which contribute to our understanding of the overall nature of the human mind.
Linguists investigate both spoken and written language. They examine data from the 21st century as well as from earlier historical periods. They study the informal usage of everyday people engaged in everyday conversations, as well as the careful, formal prose of published documents. All varieties of all languages are of interest to linguists since all follow certain tendencies and all exhibit characteristic patterns.
Language structure
One can explore linguistic patterns on several different levels.
SOUND PATTERNS Each language has its particular set of sounds, which are organised and employed in characteristic ways.
WORD PATTERNS Words are typically built up out of entities such as prefixes, stems and suffixes, e.g. pre+fix+es .
SENTENCE PATTERNS We combine words according to fixed syntactic principles to create sentences -- quite often sentences we have never used or heard before.
MEANING PATTERNS The meaning of a sentence is directly related to the meanings of the words occurring in it; intonation contours are also significant carriers of meaning.
DISCOURSE PATTERNS Texts and conversations are structured bits of language which use all of the above for particular communicative purposes.
Linguists have developed precise techniques to study each of these levels of structure.
More questions about Language
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Have you ever wondered why learning a second language at school seems to require so much more effort than acquiring a first language in early childhood?
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Are you aware of different varieties of English in Australia, or of the different status, power and politeness signals encoded in these?
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Have you considered what might cause languages to change, and thus what makes our English different from Shakespeare's English?
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Do you know that there are medical conditions affecting the brain which cause people to lose some parts of language while retaining others?
All of the above are active, on-going research topics in linguistics.
Linguistics at Monash
Students begin their study of linguistics at Monash by taking introductory first-year units which present an overview of the different areas of linguistic research. These include: phonetics and phonology (the study of speech sounds and of their classification and arrangement in languages); morphology (how words are structured and how new ones are created); syntax (the grammatical relationships of words in phrases and sentences); semantics (the meaning of words and sentences); sociolinguistics (variation and use of language in society); psycholinguistics (language and the mind), etc. First year units are currently offered in flexible mode, i.e. both on campus at Clayton and off campus.
At second and third year levels, students have the opportunity to take units specialising in the various areas of linguistics mentioned above and also the structure of discourse, multilingualism, and inter-ethnic communication in Australia and its region. Interested students frequently decide to undertake a major in linguistics, and those who show a capacity for independent research are encouraged to enter the honours program at fourth year level.
A wide variety of assessment techniques will be encountered in the program. Some students particularly enjoy collecting data for projects, whether through fieldwork or library research. Others find meeting the challenge of problem-solving exercises particularly satisfying. In addition, all students are given the chance to display their mastery of content through some combination of tests, essays and assignments.
Linguistics as part of your degree
Linguistics can be combined with many other subjects offered at Monash to form a degree program. Here are a few possibilities:
ARTS: Linguistics complements English and other language subjects (European and Asian languages); social science subjects (sociology, anthropology, psychology); and socio-cultural studies (history; ethnomusicology; European, Asian, Japanese and Australian and Koorie Studies).
LAW: Linguistics is a useful Arts subject for Law students, especially in light of current debate about language and the law, cross-cultural communication and multilingualism in Australia.
SCIENCE: Linguistics is a discipline at the forefront of cognitive science; and so, along with philosophy, computer science, and psychology it is a cornerstone of cognitive studies courses. It is also a valuable subject for engineering students.
ECONOMICS & BUSINESS: There can be no trade or business activity without communication. Knowledge of foreign languages is an undisputed asset for business people, but perhaps even more crucial is an understanding of the principles of successful communication and an ability to effectively use the language expertise already available in the community. Our specialist subject Intercultural Communication examines these vital issues.
Careers for Linguists
Natural language processing and speech recognition technology are two very significant areas of IT research as speech based applications begin to be used in human-computer interfaces. Training in linguistics is a necessity for these career paths.
Traditionally, a good proportion of our graduates enter the teaching profession. Linguistics is recommended and/or required by numerous Faculties of Education. Both English teachers and teachers of foreign languages must frequently select curriculum materials and then adapt these for use in their individual classes, all of which presupposes a solid grounding in key linguistic concepts. The qualification to teach a language offers graduates opportunities for travel and employment overseas. Teachers of English, in particular, can find employment in most parts of the world.
Because linguistics is concerned with problem-solving, the collection of data, the analysis and reporting of findings, and recommending approaches to the solution of problems, many of our graduates have found themselves well trained for rewarding careers within administration, industry and the public service. Linguistics has been found to be useful in forensic science, in the media, in business, in financial institutions, in marketing, in personnel work and in industrial relations. Of course, some graduates may wish to become linguists themselves, or at least to pursue their studies further. To this end, we offer postgraduate programs at Master's (MA) level both by coursework and thesis, as well as the Doctoral (PhD) degree by research.