INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTICS

What is Linguistics?

Linguistics is the study of language - how it is put together and how it functions. Various building blocks of various types and sizes are combined to create a language. Sounds are brought together and sometimes when this happens, they change their shape and do things that are interesting. The words are arranged in a specific order, and sometimes the beginning and end of words are changed to adjust the meaning. Then the meaning itself can be affected by the wording and with the knowledge of the speaker about what the listener will understand. Linguistics is the study of all of this.

Historical Linguistics is the study of how languages have changed over time. Some changes happen because of slow (maybe incremental) changes within the language, such as in pronunciation or in the meaning of a word. Other changes happen because of contact with speakers of other languages. The most well know example of this is "borrowing," but language contact can cause other types of change as well. It can be interesting to compare phonology, syntax and word lists of similar or geographically close languages to see how similar they are. Some linguists then use this information to figure out the past of the languages, such as when two languages split from each other. Combined with other known facts about the speakers of the language, it can lead to important discoveries about their history.

Each human language is a complex of knowledge and abilities enabling speakers of the language to communicate with each other, to express ideas, hypotheses, emotions, desires, and all the other things that need expressing. Linguistics is the study of these knowledge systems in all their aspects: how is such a knowledge system structured, how is it acquired, how is it used in the production and comprehension of messages, how does it change over time? Linguists consequently are concerned with a number of particular questions about the nature of language. What properties do all human languages have in common? How do languages differ, and to what extent are the differences systematic, i.e. can we find patterns in the differences? How do children acquire such complete knowledge of a language in such a short time? What are the ways in which languages can change over time, and are there limitations to how languages change? What is the nature of the cognitive processes that come into play when we produce and understand language?

The part of linguistics that is concerned with the structure of language is divided into a number of subfields: 

Syntax - the study of the formation of sentences 

What is the syntax?

In linguistics, the word comes from the Greek syntax which is a combination of the words syn meaning "together", and said taxis which means "circuit", "order". So syntax is one of the branch of linguistics that studies the rules that determine how the words form phrases and phrases to form sentences. Etymologically the term syntax is putting together words into sentences and groups of words or groups of words into sentences. 

Syntax is the study of how phrases, clauses and sentences are constructed and combined in particular languages. Writing a grammar requires defining the rules that govern the structure of the sentences of the language. Such rules involve both the order of words, and the form of words in their various possible positions. There are common patterns among even unrelated languages, and many linguists believe this is the result of general principles which apply to most, if not all, languages. For example, languages where the direct object generally follows the verb have a lot of things in common, in contrast to the things in common held by languages in which the direct object generally precedes the verb.

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