Linguistics: .

\1or;'ear:ess

Greenberg J 1966 lAnguage Unil:ersals. Mouton, The Hague, concern to provide a linguistic dimension to the
The Netherlands an thropolo gical in vestiga tions of A m erican Indian
Hatten R 1994 }Iusical .\feaning in Beethoven: Markedness, cultures. But the subject also benefited from an
Correlation, and Interpretation. Indiana University Press, increased general interest in the study of language in
Bloomington, IN
Jakobson R 1968 Child Language, Aphasia and Phonological relation to human beliefs and behavior (e.g., in
Universals. Mouton, The Hague, The Netherlands philosophy, theology, information theory, literary
Jakobson R 1972 Verbal communication. Scientific American criticism, communication studies), which manifested
227: 72-80 itself at both popular and specialized levels. The
Jakobson R 1984 The structure of the Russian verb. In: Waugh development of the media, especially broadcasting,
L, Halle M (eds.) Russian and Slavic Grammar Studies, 1931- further helped to bring language issues to the forefront
1981. Mouton, Berlin of national consciousnesses, as did the demands made
Kean M-L 1980 The Theory of Markedness in Generative by foreign-language teachers and other 'language
Grammar. Indiana University Linguistics Club, Bloomington,
IN professionals' for more sophisticated information
Liszka J 1989 The Semiotic of Myth. Indiana University Press, about their subject.
Bloomington, IN The multiplicity of interests in the subject, each with
Mayerthaler W 1988 Morphological Naturalness. Karoma, Ann its own intellectual agenda and methodologies of
Arbor, MI inquiry, brought a profound appreciation of the range
McCawley J 1985 Kuhnian paradigms as systems of markedness and complexity of linguistic phenomena, and thus of
conventions. In: Makkai A, Melby A (eds.) Linguistics and the need to develop a research discipline with its own
Philosophy: Studies in Honor of Rulon s. Wells. John Ben- principles and procedures. Early on, linguistics came
jamins, Amsterdam to be viewed as a 'science,' and attempts were made to
Myers-Scotton C (ed.) 1998 Codes and Consequences: Choosing
define its axioms and make its investigative procedures
Linguistic Varieties. Oxford University Press, New York
Waugh L 1982 Marked and unmarked: A choice between explicit (e.g., Bloomfield 1926, Hjelmslev 1943).
unequals in semiotic structure. Semiotica 38: 299-318 Linguists emphasized their concern to make their
Waugh L, Rudy S (eds.) 1991 New Vistas in Grammar: Invariance studies systematic and objective, by contrast with the
and Variation. John Benjamins, Amsterdam selective impressionism which had characterized much
previous literary and pedagogical work on language.
E. Battistella A great deal of attention was devoted to making
investigative procedures clear and well defined. There
was a significant growth, fostered by progress in
acoustic technology, of experimental techniques, es-
pecially in phonetics. And there was an unprecedented
Linguistics: Overview concern for precise definition, clear and comprehen-
sive description, and more powerful explanation. An
Linguistics, conventionally defined as the scientific emphasis in the first half of the century on the
study of language, has generated a wide range of procedures for describing individual languages, or the
branches, subdisciplines, schools of thought, and features of language families, changed during the
applications, many of which are given separate treat- second half into an emphasis on the universal, defining
ment in the encyclopedia. This article provides a properties of language, and on the nature of language
perspective within which these and other aspects can viewed as part of hum an biolo gy and psycholo gy. Yet
be interrelated, insofar as they use the word 'linguis- there were significant continuities too. Chomsky's
tics' as part of their identity. focus on the distinction between linguistic competence
and performance, and on the status of language as an
'organ of the mind,' echoed Saussure's notions of the
collective language system (tangue) and its concrete
1. Linguistics as a Science
manifestation in utterance (parole), and of the human
Linguistics achieved its academic identity during the language faculty (faculte de langage).
twentieth century, shaped in the first few decades by a Because of its claims to scientific stature, the subject
series of pioneering and influential personal statements has often been referred to as 'linguistic science,' bu t
(notably Saussure 1916, Sapir 1921, Bloomfield 1933), sometimes a designation of 'linguistic sciences' will be
consolidated in the middle decades as a university encountered. The choice hinges on the perceived
subject at both undergraduate and graduate levels, standing of phonetics. In the 'plural' interpretation,
and reinterpreted in the later decades by a new phonetics is seen as a separate discipline, which along
generation of scholars concerned to give the subject a with linguistics makes up the linguistic sciences. The
sound theoretical foundation (notably Chomsky ] 957, reasoning is that the subject-matter of phonetics-
] 965). In Europe, its origins lay chiefly in a reaction to which includes acoustics, anatomy, physiology, neur-
the philological curiosity about the history and origins ology, and auditory perception-is so different from
of language, which had preoccupied the nineteenth the 'rest' of linguistics that it cannot sensibly be
century; in the USA, the primary impetus came from a subsumed under the same heading. M oreover, its

8948
 Linguistics: Overview

certainties about usage are one example of the way in

which ongoing language change complicates a syn-
chronic analysis. But the point of the distinction is
widely appreciated, and Saussure's refocusing has
been so successful that it has long been standard
practice to interpret the word 'linguistics' as meaning
'synchronic linguistics,' with references to the other
orientation requiring a more explicit phrase-usually,
these days, 'historical linguistics.'
Another type of orientation relates to the generality
of a linguistic inquiry. As already mentioned, a
contemporary focus on language is to make statements
of maximal generality: the aim is to determine what it
is that defines the notion of 'human language.' All
languages have a great deal in common in the way they
produce sounds, organize their grammars, and con-
struct systems of meaning in words. Identifying the
universal principles which govern language, and dem-
onstrating how these principles apply in individual
circumstances to produce the languages known to us
as French, English, Chinese, Swahili, etc., is the
primary aim of theoretical linguistics. The term 'the-
ory' here has its standard scientific application, reflect-
ing the need for explanation of a maximally general
kind, and the provision of fruitful models which will
generate testable hypotheses about, in this case,
linguistic structure and use. Theoretical linguists do
not study a language because they are interested in
2. Classification by Orientation that language per se; they study it because of what it
can tell them about the nature of language in genera!.
These changes of emphasis and direction, which are an A particular language may be especially 'interesting'
inevi ta~ le part 0 f th e in tellectu al develo pm en t 0f a because it makes use ofa type of sound or grammatical
subject, have given rise to a range of designations for construction that other languages do not. The label
linguistics, each of which captures a particular orien- 'general linguistics' is often used to capture this
tation or 'universe of interest.' The earliest of these, breadth of vision. A further consequence of this
introduced by Saussure, was chronological, dis- approach is that, once some linguistic data has been
tinguishing diachronic linguistics from synchronic accumulated, a special concern is to find the best way
linguistics. This terminology reflects his concern to of analyzing it. There are so many variables in
move away from an exclusively historical approach pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary that it is
for the study of language to one in which a language is possible to envision an indefinitely large number of
seen as existing at a particular moment (or 'state') in ways of showing how these domains are organized.
time, 'syn-chronically,' regardless of whatever may Theoretical linguists spend much of their time search-
have happened to it previously or would happen to it ing for plausible and elegant analyses, and identifying
subsequently. M ost linguistic research is synchronic, criteria for their evaluation.
in the sense that linguists are aiming to establish the One of the controversies in the profession relates to
nature of the system of rules which define a (part of a) this point. According to some linguists, as a result of
language's expressive potential at anyone time. For the above orientation, the subject has become 'too
example, the word 'balcony' currently has a stress on genera!.' Analyses which try to achieve maximal
its first syllable, and this is what would be noted as part generality inevitably make statements which are highly
of a synchronic description of modern English stress; a bstract, and seem to be far rem oved from the
the fact that, over a century ago, the stress was on the description of individual languages, and of the way
second syllable, would not be considered relevant. On these are used in everyday speech and writing. The
the other hand, in a diachronic description, the way em p hasis on ach ievin g gen era Iity, accord in g to th is
the stress has shifted is of central relevance-not least view, has brought a de-emphasis on individuality-of
because the process is continuing in many other words, what it is that makes one language unique, different
such as 'dispute' and 'research.' Saussure saw the two from all the others. While it is accepted that, in the
chronological orientations as intersecting-an 'axis of long term, all the idiosyncrasies of individual
simultaneities' crossing an 'axis ofsuccessivities'-and languages may be explicable with reference to general
this point of intersection must not be ignored. Un- rules, there is seen to be no likelihood of this happening

8949
Linguistics: Orer

in the foreseeable ~:::~:= to identify the chief similarities and differences be-
provide descriptio;;s tween historical states of a language, between modern
important now as" e\-=: __ languages (e.g., those within a particular family, such
special characte: 0:' ~ ;.l.'&.r.:':~:;~::lguage was given as Romance or Germanic) or, in a more ambitious
special urgency I;; :;:;= 1=:::s <:'=1::: was realized just mode, between language families as wholes. This use
how many of tbe wo,};:'s.::;i~:ies are near the point of 'comparative' in fact antedates modern linguistics,
of extinction. 0; :he 5,C:: 0: so languages in the being part of the designation of comparative phil-
world, it is wideh- {;;O':l~;;'{ .b: half are likely to die ology, the subject which grew up at the end of the
out within tbe nei: 100 :;=~:s(Cr}staI2000). The need eighteenth century devoted to the historical com-
to make descrip:ions 0;' :ile la::lguages most at risk parison of Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, and their hypo-
is therefore a priori:! for :he subject, for once a lan- thetical antecedents, whence arose the concept of an
guage dies whicb bas nevf:' been written down or re- Indo-European family of languages.
corded in any wav, i: is as if it bad never been. This Applying the 'comparative method' to other
orientation for tbe subject. wbere the aim is to make as languages which had written records was a natural
com plete as possible a description of a language, in extension, and philology (as it is today usually called)
all its varieties. is usually referred to as descriptive is practiced still, being distinguished from the orien-
linguistics. tation of historical linguistics partly by its aims and
It is not only the endangered languages which methods, and partly by the contrasting intellectual
benefit from a descriptive approach, therefore. De- background (often from literature or history) of its
scriptive accounts of English, German, Japanese, and practitioners. A related designation is typological
all the other 'safe' languages are also important. linguistics, where the aim is to study the structural
'Descriptive' here is being seen in contrast with similarities between languages, regardless of their
'traditional,' referring to the tradition of language history, in order to locate them within a classification
inquiry which antedated the emergence of twentieth- (or 'typology'). This is the only possible metbod in
century linguistics, and which was characterized- cases where there are no written historical records-a
especially in the field of grammar- by prescriptive and situation in which most of the world's languages find
proscriptive rules about usage, purist condemnation them selves.
of language change, and the distorted description of When linguists talk about the structure of language,
modern languages through the use of a model of they are usually referring to the way a language can be
description derived from Latin. In the field of English, analyzed into several dimensions susceptible of in-
the need for more realistic description was the driving dependent study. These dimensions are commonly
i'0rce behind many grammars, pronunciation guides, referred to as 'levels' or 'components,' though ter-
and dictionaries, especially from the 1950s on (e.g., minology varies widely between linguistic models.
Jones 1956, Fries 1952, Quirk et a!. 1972). A particular Most accounts recognize three major levels of linguis-
consequence of this orientation was the provision, in tic organization: a sound system (or phonology,
some countries, of new syllabuses and materials for including its interface with phonetics), a grammatical
use in schools and teacher-training courses-a change system (with a division often made between sentence-
of direction which in the later decades of the century structure (syntax) and word-structure (morphology)),
brought not a little heart-searching, as teachers found and a semantic system (typically focusing on vo-
themselves engaging in a close encounter with a cabulary (the lexicon), though not thereby excluding
linguistically based conceptual apparatus and a partly other ways in which a language's meaning is organ-
unfamiliar terminology. At a research level, since the ized). The study of the written language necessitates
1980s the descriptive orientation of linguistics has the recognition of an additional level: an orthographic
been given additional impetus through the use of system (or graphology). And some linguists recognize
computational methods of data collection and analy- other levels of analysis, such as one which extends
sis. Large bodies of data, in some cases consisting of linguistic inquiry above the sentence (a level of
several hundred million words, are now available as discourse, or text) or one which takes into account the
sources of evidence for descriptive statement, in a field way structure is altered when language is used inter-
that has come to be called corpus linguistics. actively (pragmatics). Each of these terms has a variety
A considerable conceptual distance separates the of interpretations, depending on the theoretical
description of an individual language from a general approaches involved, but they all have one thing in
account of the properties of human language, so it is common: they aim to explicate a domain of language
not surprising to find orientations which occupy structure, and are thus part of an orientation to the
aspects of the 'middle ground.' It is possible to extend subject that might be legitimately called structural
the descriptive orientation 'upwards,' bringing in- linguistics.
dividual languages together in specific ways but However, this designation has had a controversial
without the inquiry necessarily bearing on a hypothesis position within the history of twentieth-century
about linguistic universals. This is the motivation linguistic thought. In its early use, 'structural' linguis-
behind comparative linguistics, where the purpose is tics referred to the particular approaches to phonology

8950
and grammar \l-::;i:~ li-':;~<:':;;-~'::i:: :he 1940s and there from the earliest days of the subject (Boas 1911).
1950s, in the WOIl. ci $1:~t;; !.';.:;.~':15:sas Bloomfield. The difference was partly in the way hybrid labels
There, the emph::!sis "'!'; c:: =::-.:~~ :nethods which came to be institutionalized as 'recognized' domains
would establish :;;~ ~c::;:r!5:":'~ ==i:s in a language's for teaching and research (anthropological linguistics,
sound system (:be ;:;:o:;::::;:s ~':::;:I:Y[be elements of in this case), and partly in the cross-disciplinary
word formation :ti' ;:;>c.;;.:::::s . and analyze sen- climate of the times, which gave rise to nearly two
tence construclio::s :;:;:c ::::r: cO:lSliLUent parts. In a dozen such hybrids by the turn of the century.
somewhat broader Si';Jst',ct'''eloping tbe initiatives of There is not always a total meeting of minds in these
Saussure, a 'sIructllralis:- e:bos pre\-ailed, which aimed interdisciplinary encounters: the orientation given to
to establish sys[ems 0: rela:ions between linguistic the hybrid subject within a linguistics department is by
units-an approach wbich. under the heading of no means identical with the orientation it is given
structuralism. came [Q influence thinking throughout within the department which constitutes the other half
the arts and social sciences. Within linguistics, it was in of the hybrid. For example, one of the areas of inquiry
due course applied 10 further areas of linguistic in psycho linguistics is the relationship between
structure (especially semantics), and extended by some language and memory. When a linguist investigates
linguists (such as Pike 1954-60) to other domains of how language is affected by memory and a psy-
human communicative behavior. The notion of system chologist investigates how memory is affected by
continued to play a central role in linguistic theories language, it might be thought that the two directions
which emerged during the postwar period, notably in of inquiry would 'meet in the middle.' In practice,
the work of Firth (1957) and his students, and later differences in the researchers' intellectual histories,
became central in the systemic linguistics of Halliday theoretical aims, and research procedures can produce
(Halliday and Fawcett 1987). It was the perceived widely divergent accounts. One need only look at the
limitations of the structuralist orientation, with its list of references at the end of journal articles to see
focus on the classification of structures and units at a how authors, ostensibly investigating the same subject,
'surface' level of description within a corpus of data can come from different directions. There may be a
(linguistic 'performance'), which prompted its labeling difference of la be ling, which may reflect a difference of
as 'taxonomic' (with a pejorative implication) by orientation-as in sociolinguistics (a branch of
Chomsky, and which motivated his initial formulation linguistics) alongside the sociology of language (a
of generative linguistics (Chomsky 1957), with its branch of sociology), or philosophical linguistics (a
concern to explicate underlying linguistic relations in branch of linguistics) alongside linguistic philosophy
ways that could account for the creative linguistic (a particular approach within philosophy). Nonethe-
abilities (or 'competence') of the individual. less, the shared subject-matter, and a growing mutual
familiarization with the intellectual background of the
contributing disciplines, produced in the last quarter
of the twentieth century a growing number of research
3. Classification by Interaction
collaborations, interdisciplinary conferences, jointly
The generative orientation constituted a revolution in authored textbooks, and shared teaching courses in
linguistic thought; and although other kinds oflinguis- many of these hybrid subjects, resulting in a growing
tic theories and models continued to be devised and identity and coherence.
developed in the latter part of the century, it was the Hybrid subjects can be placed in clusters, on the
generative approach, in its various formulations, basis of an overlap in their subject-matter. The earliest
which provided the subject's center of gravity. At the clusters to be given clear definition all relate to a
same time, partly independent of this state of affairs concern to see language in its cultural and social
and partly as a consequence of it, several areas of context. Anthropological linguistics (or linguistic
interaction with other academic disciplines emerged. anthropology) focuses on language variation and use
These 'hybrid' subjects were the result of asynergy in relation to human cultural patterns and beliefs (in
between two intellectual streams. On the one hand, its early years, especially on the Amerindian peoples of
linguists sensed that they needed to take their subject North America). Overlapping with this is ethno-
in fresh directions if they wished to account for linguistics, studying language in relation to ethnic
everything that influenced the way people spoke and types and behavior, and widely practiced through
wrote (and also signed, for the analysis of deaf signing approaches (variously called the ethnography of com-
was also emerging as a new research field). On the munication or ethnography of speaking) which
oth-er hand, scholars in other academic disciplines analyze the entire range of variables, extralinguistic as
were finding that they needed to provide more soph- well as linguistic, involved in social interaction. Socio-
isticated accounts of language structure and use in linguistics, studying all aspects of the relationship
order to maintain their own research agendas. The between language and society, is the most well es-
potential for interaction had in some cases been recog- tablished of this cluster of subjects, and is sometimes
nized for many years. In the case of the interaction used as a covering label for all domains of inquiry in
between linguistics and anthropology, it had been which there is a preoccupation with the social func-

8951
tions of language. Ho dence comes from the investigation of abnormal lan-
sometimes differentia:ed ::o~ !:" guage development and language breakdown. It thus
land Europe, reftectiJg a co:;rnfi co see language as an overlaps with clinical linguistics, which is exclusively
integral part of sociological :Ci'o:y. So too is inter- devoted to the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment
actional sociolinguis:ics. :e:erring to the study of of all forms of language disability in children and
speech in face-ta-face corn m ur.ica lion. adults.
Several other facets 0:
the sociolinguistic cluster Any of these domains can of course be studied from
have maintained their individual nomenclature. One the point of view of ,mind' as distinct from 'body,' and
example is dialectology (sometimes called dialect psycho linguistics (sometimes called psychological
geography), which focuses on the properties of re- linguistics) has emerged as a major subject, investigat-
gional (and more recently social) dialects. Another is ing the interaction between language and such topics
areallinguistics, which studies the linguistic properties as memory, perception, attention, and personality, in
(languages as well as dialects) of large geographical normal and abnormal states. Depending on the
regions~such as Western Europe or the British Isles. domain of inquiry involved, compound names will be
Closely related is geolinguistics (also geographical encountered, such as clinical psycho linguistics and
linguistics), which studies the geographical distri- developmental psycholinguistics. Psychology shares
bution of languages throughout the world with ref- with education an interest in learning, and there has
erence to their political, economic, and cultural status. been special concern to understand how language is
Pragm alinguistics studies language use from the view- dealt with in schools and other educational insti-
point of a language's structural resources; it contrasts tutions. Educational linguistics (sometimes pedagogi-
with those pragmatic studies which examine the callinguistics) focuses on the way government policies
conditions on language use deriving from the social and planning, teacher training, curricula, syllabuses,
situation (sometimes referred to as sociopragmatics). and pedagogical materials handle the teaching of the
Finally, there is the study of (linguistic) style, mother tongue and foreign languages. The later
stylistics~a study which, though chiefly concerned decades of the twentieth century also saw a growing
with the nature of the personal linguistic identity of metalinguistic concern, with researchers investigating
individuals (especially in a literary context), has often the ways in which children become increasingly aware
been extended to include the distinctive linguistic fea- of language and its elements, in a domain which by the
tures of group-identifying functions of language, such 1990s had been labeled language awareness. Within
as are found in advertising, science, and the media. the teaching profession, a corresponding fresh interest
W hen the focus is specifically on the distinctive in the study of language, largely motivated in the UK
language used in social institutions, such as law, by the arrival of the National Curriculum, introduced
medicine, and religion, some linguists use the label a new acronym, KAL (knowledge about language).
institutional linguistics. A further cluster of hybrids relates to the numerical
Another cluster of hybrid subjects looks at language sciences. M athematicallinguistics studies the formal
in relation to human biology. In its broadest character- properties of language, usually employing concepts of
ization, the subject is referred to as biologicallinguis- an algebraic or statistical kind. Its main application
tics (or biolinguisics), focusing on the preconditions has been in the formalization of linguistic theory, as
for language development and use from the viewpoints developed in relation to generative linguistics, but
of both the history of language in the human race and several other areas of language study have received
the development of language in the individual (the mathematical investigation. In particular, statistical
latter topic usually being distinguished by the name (or quantitative) linguistics studies the frequency and
developmental linguistics or child language acqui- distribution of linguistic units in texts, with the aim of
sition). Its topics include the genetic transmission of establishing general laws concerning the statistical
language, neurophysiological models of language pro- properties of language (such as the relationship be-
duction, and the anatomical comparison of humans tween word types and tokens), and identifying the
and other species. It also subsumes the study of distinctive characteristics of authors (stylostatistics).
pathological forms of language behavior (as in In the later part of the twentieth century, compu-
aphasia, dyslexia, and language delay), though the tational techniques and concepts came to be increas-
complexity of these conditions, and the interdisci- ingly applied to the elucidation of linguistic problems,
plinary nature of their diagnosis and treatment, has under the heading of computational linguistics. Sev-
prompted the development of separate specialisms. eral research areas have been developed, including
Chief among these is neurolinguistics (sometimes natural language processing, automatic speech syn-
referred to as neurological linguistics), which focuses thesis and recognition, machine translation, the mak-
on the neurological basis of language development ing of concordances, and the many areas where
and use, in particular aiming to understand the statistical counts and analyses are required. The
way the brain controls the processes of speaking, provision of large machine-readable texts (computer
listening, reading, writing, and signing. Although its corpora) was a special development of the 1990s, and
focus is on clinically normal states, much of its evi- gave rise to the domain of corpus linguistics. Linguistic

8952
 in volveme:.; I:' t;.~o~~::-:;;ectio n- in rela tion to such authenticate police statements. The field of forensic
s cc:;:::=,::~; :::ilgramming, information re- phonetics is often distinguished as a separate domain,
ion, indexing, reference dealing with such matters as speaker identification,
science. z:.;: toIb:.F management-has been lim- voice line-ups, speaker profiling, tape enhancement,
ited to iso:2c~d i=:c:=:::s. and has not yet resulted in a tape authentication, and the decoding of disputed
hybrid ~:;:':,I, ::.:.",::~::;one imagines that, given the utterances.
growth I::: :;:;E :!ore:!_ :::e emergence of Internet linguis- There is an uncertain boundary between applied
tics can o;;ly::c-:! ;::atIer of time. linguistics and the various interdisciplinary subjects
!ot a:: G:"::1': :ecms can be neatly clustered. Some, reviewed in Sect. 3, especially as several of those
by their ;J:!:~,e, s:.a::d outside of classification, because concerns involve practical outcomes (e,g., planning a
their rok is !o e,"zluate aspects of the field as a whole, national language policy within sociolinguistics). On
The stud:; 0:- [he history of ideas in linguistics is the other hand, as these hybrid subjects develop their
linguistic hislOrtography. Philosophical linguistics own theoretical foundations, the distinction between
studies the ,ole of language in relation to the under- 'pure' and 'applied' is becoming more evident, and
standing and elucidation of philosophical concepts, as terminological distinctions such as that between
well as the philosophical status of linguistic theories, (theoretical) psycholinguistics and applied psycho-
methods. and observations. Critical linguistics emerg- linguistics are now more regularly encountered.
ed in the 1990s with the aim of revealing hidden power The term 'linguistics' will also be encountered in a
relations and ideological processes at work in spoken wide range of other contexts, where it is often no more
or written texts. Critical linguists criticize mainstream than a loosely used synonym for 'school of thought' or
linguistics for its formalist preoccupations, its lack of 'approach,' or even a stylistic replacement for the
adequate social explanations, and its obscuring of word language or grammar. Very general states of
ideological and political issues. This 'critical' per- mind on the part of the investigator can be given a
spective may be applied to individual branches of the linguistics designation. For example, mentalist(ic)
subject. In particular, critical discourse analysis studies linguistics is contrasted with behaviorist linguistics.
the relationship between discourse events and socio- M acrolinguistics, representing a relatively broad
political and cultural factors, especially the way frame of reference for linguistic inquiry, is opposed to
discourse is ideologically influenced by, and can itself microlinguistics. In relation to schools, we find such
influence, power relations in society. usages as Cartesian linguistics (showing the influence
of Descartes), Chomskyan linguistics (from N.
Chomsky), Whorfian linguistics (from B. L. Whorf),
Saussurean linguistics (from F. de Saussure), Firthian
4. Applications and Extensions linguistics (from 1. R. Firth), and neo-Firthian linguis-
tics (scholars whose teaching derived from Firth's
The list of possible hybrid subjects involving linguistics influence, notably M. A. K. Halliday (whose name
is by no means exhausted by the above itemization, has, in turn, been given to Hallidayan linguistics).
and new ones will doubtless emerge. A similar po- A t this level, there is an appreciable overlap with the
tential for expansion is also found in the various relevant aspect of language which is the focus of an
domains of applied linguistics. In its broadest defi- approach-for example, the terms Chomskyan
nition, this is the application of linguistic theories, linguistics and Chomskyan grammar are often used
methods, and findings to the elucidation of language synonymously, as are Whorfian linguistics and
problems which have arisen in other areas of ex- Whorfian semantics. The same point applies to such
perience, The most established and well-developed general approaches as functional(ist) linguistics, which
branch is the teaching and learning of foreign treats the notion of function as central, especially in
languages, and sometimes the term is used as if this grammar, and thus allows a terminological overlap
were the only domain involved. But several other with functional(ist) grammar. Systemic and poly-
domains of application have emerged since the middle systemic linguistics (which treat the notion of system
of the twentieth century, including speech pathology as central) may also be found alongside systemic and
and therapy, the teaching of the deaf, mother-tongue polysystemic grammar. Virtually any variety or use of
education, the writing of dictionaries (lexicography), language can be focused in this way, as in creole
the analysis of literary texts (literary stylistics), and linguistics (= the linguistic study of creole languages)
translation studies. Quite restricted and specialized and paralinguistics (= the linguistic study of para-
domains may be encountered. For example, theo- language-tones of voice, facial expressions, etc). But
linguistics has as its focus the study of the way eventually, as increasingly restricted areas of inquiry
language is used in theological, biblical, and other are encountered, the use of the general term ceases to
branches of religious studies. Forensic linguistics is the have a point, and linguists replace it by specific terms
use of linguistic techniques to investigate crimes in such as morphology, phonology, lexicology, seman-
which language data forms part of the evidence, such tics, onomastics, and other structural labels best
as in the use of grammatical or lexical criteria to explicated under the heading of 'language.'

8953
Linguistics: Orer

Lin~
Pro te
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