LINGUISTIC THEORY CONCEPTS

Linguistics: The scientific study of human language (Linguistics: An Introduction of Linguistic Theory. Victoria A. Fromkin)

Semantics: The study of meaning (Semantics Second Edition. F. R. Palmer)

Prescriptive Linguistics: Will judge the expression as constituting either “good” or “bad” grammar, and will condemn its use if it is seen to fail to measure up to the norms of the standard language. (University College London. G. Nelson)

Descriptive Linguistics: Will study the use of ain´t (as in, for instance, I ain´t ready yet) in terms of regional and social variation, in terms of the distribution of the usage in formal and informal contexts, and will perhaps also study the history and development of the expression. (University College London. G. Nelson)

Ethnography: Describes the History of the group, the geography of the location, kinship patterns, symbols, politics, economic systems, and the degree of contact between the target culture and the mainstream culture. (Ethnography, Step by Step Third Edition. David M. Fetterman)

Ethnolinguistics: The study of group´s experience of life as it is organized and expressed through the group´s language tools and as a science whose aim is examine the relationships between a language on the one hand and society and culture on the other. (Language, culture and identity. Philip Riley)

Sociolinguistics: The study of language in relation to society. (Sociolinguistics Second Edition. R. A. Hudson)

Generative Grammar: a precisely formulated set of rules whose output is all (and only) the sentences of a language -i.e., of the language that is generates. There are many different kinds of generative grammar, including transformational grammar as developed by Noam Chomsky from the mid-1959s. (www.britannica.com)

Universal Grammar: Is a theory in linguistics that suggests that there are properties that all possible natural human languages have. The theory suggests that some rules of grammar are hard-wired into the brain, and manifest themselves without being taught. (www.wikipedia.com)

Neurolinguistics: Studies the relationship of language and communication to different aspects of brain functions, in other words it tries to explore how the brain understands and produces language and communication. (Introduction to Neurolinguistics. Elisabeth Ahlsén)