Essentials of Linguistics, 2nd Ed

Essentials of Linguistics PDF (released under CC BY-SA 4.0)


 * phonetics: the study and classification of speech sounds.


 * mental grammar: The innate (or generative) grammar stored in the brain that allows a speaker to produce language that other speakers can understand.


 * modalities of language: vocalized (spoken/listened to), signed (like ASL), writing/reading


 * mental lexicon: a dictionary in your mind, where words are recognized by form and by meaning. In most languages, the relationship between "form" and "meaning" is arbitrary rather than iconic (representative symbol).


 * language morphology: the study of words, how they are formed, and their relationship to other words in the same language.


 * phonology: the study of the patterns of sounds in a language and across languages.


 * syntax: the arrangement of words and phrases in a specific order to make "grammatically correct" phrases and sentences.


 * semantics: the study of meaning in language. It can be applied to single words, phrases and/or entire texts.


 * language pragmatics: the study of how context contributes to meaning.