linguistics

Introduction
History of linguistics
- Earlier history
  - Non-Western traditions
  - Greek and Roman antiquity
  - The European Middle Ages
  - The Renaissance
- The 19th century
  - Development of the comparative method
  - The role of analogy
  - Other 19th-century theories and development
    - Inner and outer form
    - Phonetics and dialectology
- The 20th century
  - Structuralism
    - Structural linguistics in Europe
    - Structural linguistics in America
  - Transformational-generative grammar
  - Tagmemic, stratificational, and other approaches
Methods of synchronic linguistic analysis
- Structural linguistics
  - Phonology
  - Morphology
  - Syntax
  - Semantics
- Transformational-generative grammar
  - Harris’s grammar
  - Chomsky’s grammar
  - Modifications in Chomsky’s grammar
- Tagmemics
  - Modes of language
  - Hierarchy of levels
- Stratificational grammar
  - Technical terminology
  - Interstratal relationships
- The Prague school
  - Combination of structuralism and functionalism
  - Phonological contributions
  - Theory of markedness
  - Later contributions
Historical (diachronic) linguistics
- Linguistic change
  - Sound change
  - Grammatical change
  - Semantic change
  - Borrowing
- The comparative method
  - Grimm’s law
  - Proto-Indo-European reconstruction
  - Steps in the comparative method
  - Criticisms of the comparative method
  - Internal reconstruction
- Language classification
Linguistics and other disciplines
- Psycholinguistics
  - Language acquisition by children
  - Speech perception
  - Other areas of research
- Sociolinguistics
  - Delineation of the field
  - Social dimensions
- Other relationships
  - Anthropological linguistics
  - Computational linguistics
  - Mathematical linguistics
  - Stylistics
  - Applied linguistics
Dialectology and linguistic geography
- Dialect geography
  - Early dialect studies
  - Dialect atlases
  - The value and applications of dialectology
- Social dialectology

References & Edit History Related Topics

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Ferdinand de Saussure

The father of American anthropology

Simple sentence constituent structure

Constituent structure of a class of simple sentences

phrase structure of VP, or verb phrase

phrase structure of the sentence “The man will hit the ball”

derived phrase marker for a passive sentence

Representation of a transformational grammar

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Wilhelm von Humboldt

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Last Updated: Nov 24, 2025

Photos

Wilhelm von Humboldt

Ferdinand de Saussure

The father of American anthropology

Simple sentence constituent structure

Constituent structure of a class of simple sentences

phrase structure of VP, or verb phrase

phrase structure of the sentence “The man will hit the ball”

derived phrase marker for a passive sentence

Representation of a transformational grammar

See All Images →

Topics

applied linguistics linguistic geography mathematical linguistics analogist anomalist structural linguistics sociolinguistics grammar Whorfian hypothesis stylistics anthropology geography economics political science sociology pedagogy archaeology cultural anthropology comparative law physical anthropology

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Key People

Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky

American linguist

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Lancelot Thomas Hogben

English scientist

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Michel Thomas

linguist and teacher

Kristeva, Julia

Julia Kristeva

French author

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Joseph H. Greenberg

American anthropologist and linguist

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Roman Jakobson

American linguist

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Karl Brugmann

German linguist

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John R. Firth

British linguist

William Labov

William Labov

American linguist

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Oswin Köhler

German linguist and ethnologist

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Karl Verner

Danish linguist

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Mary R. Haas

American linguist

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Gottfried Hermann

German classical scholar

Steven Pinker

Steven Pinker

Canadian-American psychologist

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Kenneth L. Pike

American linguist

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Mikhail Bakhtin

Russian philosopher and literary critic

Ferdinand de Saussure

Ferdinand de Saussure

Swiss linguist

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Friedrich Müller

Austrian linguist

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Mario Pei

American linguist

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Sydney M. Lamb

American linguist

Hand with pencil writing on page. (handwriting; write)

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Child tracing letters of the alphabet

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