Linguistics

In terms of linguistics, morphology is the study of words. It looks at how words are formed and the relationship that words have with other words. It also analyzes the structure and different parts...

A "connotation" is the diverse and possible ways that the meaning of a word may be interpreted, either negatively or in positive way. The opposite of connotation is "denotation" which is the actual...

The linguistic knowledge of phonics is essential for everyday life. it entails the three most important actions to make our brains understand the world, as we know it: recognition, reproduction,...

One of the most respected researchers in the field of linguistics is J. Cummins, who has devoted extensive time to the analysis of language usage in L1 and L2 learners. Cummins (1984) proposed the...

Avestan refers to the ancient Indo-Iranian language in which the Avesta, or Zoroastrian scriptures, were written. The language is not currently in use anywhere because it was a proto-Iranian...

When analyzed through an empirical method, language studies follow the qualitative research design. This design consists on the compilation of data that answers questions about a specific...

It is true that calling this field of study "applied linguistics" is somewhat of a misnomer because the term "applied" suggests that a specific strategy has been placed upon one or many linguistic...

In the field of linguistics there are several elements that are studied in order to understand the semantics, syntax, and morphology of a language. Contrastive analysis is a practice used in our...

Keep in mind that multiple tests should be done. One test alone might not settle the matter of whether a word or phrase is a constituent. Topicalization- move the potential constituent to the...

a. *The students speak can Esperanto. Some auxiliary verbs and modals must agree with the tense feature (T) of the main verb in English and precede the verb phrase (VP) containing the head verb....

The three periods in the development of the English language are Old English, Middle English and Modern English. Old English is comprised of many languages, mainly from Germanic invaders that...

Everyone has been dis-appointed. Has anyone ever been appointed?

In linguistics, intonation refers to a change in the pitch, timing, or volume of speech in order to signal an intent of the speaker's. Intonation can provide the attitude or emotion of the speaker,...

This is a great question. Style in linguistic is important for many reason. Let me list a few of them. First, style in linguistics seeks to explain why an individual or group chooses a particular...

Let's begin with a sentence: "Mark hit the ball with the bat." What is the verb? Hit, right? There are other elements of this sentence, too, and they all relate in some way to the verb “hit.”...

Diglossia refers to a sociolinguistic phenomenom where the standard and vernacular language of a nation suffers changes in usage per region, or by the unique use of a particular group. As a result,...

The main problem with empirical research in language teaching is that language acquisition is not an exact process that can be entirely predicted, and it occurs differently from person to person....

I assume you are referring to critical classroom discourse analysis (CCDA). A classic article in the field is Kumaravadivelu's article on CCDA. (Kumaravadivelu, B. “Critical Classroom Discourse...

Psycholinguistics is the study of how the human mind processes, understands, and creates language. Scientists and scholars from a variety of disciplines study psycholinguistics, and their work...

The only problem with the phrase that you suggest is the way in which it is worded. It seems to be a warning written on an assessment report (or report card) concerning L2 learning, stating that...

No matter what language we speak, we all make adjustments to our speech, depending on audience and context. Sometimes we are more formal, for example, speaking to professors or managers, but...

First, bilingualism is a catch-all phrase that captures many varying degrees of language proficiency. While one person may identify as bilingual, he may be only able to navigate the basics of oral...

Bilingualism is the ability of a person to speak two languages equally well, with the second one learned at the same time as or after the first or native language is learned. Often a person...

Though not speech itself, people pay a great deal of attention to eye contact as a mode of communication. Good eye contact makes a speaker seem credible, approachable, and confident. People who...

There is often a vast difference in the grammatical and cultural rules for speaking and writing in any given language. In English for instance, we tend to speak far more casually than we write....

Standard varieties in language include dialects, standard languages, registers and styles of language, and individual idiosyncratic language forms. The terms "standard variety" thus covers language...

Morphology is the study of word formation, sound and meaning. In general, inflectional morphology examines the structure and meaning of the word. Inflectional morphologists study things like...

Neither American nor British English are themselves uniform, containing many regional variations. To compare American and British Englishes, it is probably best to select the two parallel...

In 1921, Edward Sapir declared that Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols. The...

In the study of linguistics, particularly socio-linguistics, which, essentially, deals with language use in social situations, paralinguistics are important for identifying non-verbal (non-word...

The few solid theories of second language acquisition existing today, from among hundreds of them, often share basic tenets that grant them as viable. These are assumptions based on social,...

This is a good question and this word is often times defined so ambiguously. Syntax is the study of the principles that govern phrases, clauses, and sentence structure. Each language in the world...

Pidgins and creoles are interesting from the point of language change because they demonstrate how languages can change when people who speak different languages are brought together and need to...

Excellent question! The process of language learning, in general, is the same when babies learn their first language, as when adults learn a second language. However, the differences in brain...

In one regard, one might say vowels create phonemes that create meaning. For example, {pit} and {pet} have very different meanings because the vowel phoneme in each, /i/ and /e/, changes the...

Languages change in three major ways. They experience changes in vocabulary, pronunciation, and syntax. The two words that you mention here are examples of one way that vocabulary change can...

A word that has lost one of its meanings over time is the word tell. It is derived from the Old English word tellan, which became telle in Middle English. The Dutch word tellen, meaning to count...

Languages evolve over time to suit the needs of humans. Some words retain their usefulness and are preserved; others become archaic and fade out of existence. The English language, in particular,...

I think you must be looking for synonyms for the words you list in your question. Intercept: block Condoling: comforting Presumptuous: audacious Apathy: emotionlessness Foreshadowing: hint It is...

Semiotics is a huge topic. In this format, I can provide only a skeletal overview. [Your original question had to be cut down to one part to accord with eNotes policy and to fit the space...

The English language, which began as a conglomeration of native tongues, was greatly influenced by the Roman conquest of the British Isles near the end of Rome’s dominance of the Western world—not...

A lexical relationship between languages is independent from syntax (word order); as an example, German and English have a strong syntactical relationship (one reason German is easy to learn by a...

Louis Alvarez's 1988 documentary film American Tongues explores the diversity of accents in the United States and reflects on their origins. The Boston Brahmins are members of the traditional East...

The difference between language acquisition and language learning is so profound that researchers who study neurolinguistics, which analyzes how language impacts the brain, have found out that the...

There are plenty of reasons that led to the development of applied linguistics as a science. There are also reasons today that grant that the expansion of this field continues as extensively as...

This is a large and complex topic. Assuming you are a new student to phonetics/phonology, a skeleton view will give you an orientation. "Distinctive features" is a technical term meaning analysis...

Both Ana and Bo are noticing linguistic trends, but their generalizations aren't quite correct. This linguistic puzzle is something of a logic puzzle, and you can look for trends in the word...

Human language is considered unique in the ways that it differs from the communicative capabilities of other animals. The differences are related both to the brain and to the physical apparatus of...

A good English dictionary (Webster’s Collegiate is the standard) will provide accent marks for all words. Since English is a language with many sources, there are no hard and fast rules (although...

"Different speakers of English" seems to denote speakers of varieties of English. If British English is the baseline for the English language, then a few varieties are American English, Indian...