okay basic linguistics 40 saw by Peggy
Marcy professor in the teacher education
program at California State University
in San Bernardino California all right
before I get started I want to explain
that there are lots of good and bad
videos on YouTube already about
linguistics so well how do you need my
attempt well I just didn't see a very
generic and concise summary from the
standpoint of the TESOL professional but
by no means am i a linguistic expert
some YouTube channels you may want to
follow up with our native laying and
linguistics marburg I've drawn
information from both sources in fact I
really like the introduction that native
language of linguistics therefore I've
chosen to use his points as my table of
contents linguistics is the study of
language in general it is a scientific
field of study
I personally am more interested in
applied linguistics in other words how
do the various aspects of linguistics
contribute to my everyday teaching the
main branch of linguistics is
theoretical linguistics usually just
referred to as linguistics this field is
broken down into various subcategories
linguists look at the sounds of a
language and how they are formed
structures of a language and meanings of
a language let's look at each
subcategory briefly phonology phonology
is not equal to pronunciation because
phonology is the study of the various
sounds available in any language how
they are made and how they can be
combined it is more theoretical than
pronunciation pronunciation is the
actual act of making the sound or the
application of phonology
morphology this is the study of how
words are built in the language to do
that they have to take a word apart to
the smallest sections of meaning they
can these are referred to as morphemes
for example walk is a morpheme the
endings of s and E D or morphemes also
morphology tells me that I can combine
these to create walks and walked but not
to make walk-ins the average esl/efl
instructor deals with this regularly
under the category of grammar in the
classroom syntax syntax is also part of
the structure of the language so it is
also covered in the classroom under the
common title of grammar specifically
syntax looks at how sentences are
created what combination of words is
allowed and what is not then textbooks
are written describing these rules and
become the grammar of the language
syntax only cares whether the correct
form of a sentence is followed and not
really about the meaning some what about
the meaning but not not primarily about
the meaning mostly about the form and
the structure text messaging is an
example of a communication style that
cares mostly about meaning and very
little about form an effective teacher
can diagnosis a student's writing or
speech and prescribe grammar practice
that will fix mistakes but grammar
textbooks by themselves are not
prescriptive they are descriptive it
takes the teacher to make them
prescriptive
lexicology lexicology studies the words
that are available in a language
dictionaries attempt to be written
lexicons for an entire language the
teachers usually are more focused on
what words are in their students
individual lexicons stored in their
brains this includes idioms slang and
other common Sainz for example when we
teach the word rain do we ever help
students understand the related words of
mist sprinkle and shower the famous
research here pertains to how many words
that Eskimos have for snow at one time
you know it has been said that there
were around a hundred words for snow
then linguist or that researcher part
and said that Boas the original
anthropologists with incorrectly
combining his more famous so it became
known as a hoax
or urban myth however in 2013 the
Washington Post reported on research
definitively proving there are over 50
words for snow among the Inuit in Canada
the point is that a language is lexicon
is determined by their surroundings and
other cultural values semantics
semantics focuses on the meaning of
language semantics looks specifically at
the work meanings of words and how those
meanings change based upon surrounding
words many esl/efl instructors focus on
explaining to learners the denotative
meaning of vocabulary denotative is the
definition written in the dictionary but
it is just as important to teach
connotative meanings as well connotative
refers to how a word makes you feel how
is the word interpreted semantics also
looks at words with multiple definitions
in figurative language
finally pragmatics basically pragmatics
considers every aspect of communication
it includes nonverbal communication as
well as the physical location such as
the difference between language in a
classroom and language at a park it also
considers whether a person culturally
likes to stand close
to the listener or farther away it pays
attention to the relationship between
the speaker and listener have they just
met or do they share a lot of common
experiences as one older than the other
does one have more authority authority
than the other when you have a student
say they understood every word in the
sentence but they still don't understand
what you mean it's because they can't
sort out the significant context in
order to pragmatically comprehend one of
the benefits of communicative language
teaching is that at places of great
significance upon pragmatic competence
in review this video has looked at key
subcategories of linguistics phonology
studies how sounds are made to form
words and meaning morphology studies how
words are put together
syntax describes the rules for how
sentences can be put together lexicology
studies what types of words are
available in a language and what are the
differences between seemingly related
words semantics focuses on the coded
meaning of words phrases and sentences
and how their combined pragmatics cares
most about understanding and
communication so it includes all
relevant contextual aspects between
speaker and listener thank you