 Language enables us to express our thoughts, ideas and feelings to others and also to understand theirs. Linguistics is the scientific study of this rich and varied human ability. It seeks among others to answer a number of fundamental questions. For example, what is the nature of language? And then of course in this e-lecture, what is linguistics? And finally, why should one study linguistics? In this introductory e-lecture, we first define the term language and then discuss the major branches of linguistics. Since in most cases, linguistics is a new subject to students, a number of aspects in favor of studying linguistics will also be included. Let's look at language first. Here is a definition of language that contains a number of keywords that allow us to approach the topic in a suitable way. Language is the institution whereby humans communicate and interact with each other by means of habitually used oral, auditory, arbitrary symbols. Published by Richard Hall in 1968. Let's look at these keywords in more detail. Language is confined to humans. Animals certainly communicate with one another. However, all animal communication systems lack the ability to communicate about anything beyond the here and now. And they do not allow novel messages to be produced and understood. So language is confined to humans in a strict sense. Let us move on to the next keyword. Communication and interaction. Certainly animals communicate and interact, yet the communication systems humans use is certainly more complex than that of animals. Just look at the examples of animal communication in the VLCE Learning Unit Language and Linguistics. Well, next, language is used habitually. People use language everywhere, every day, usually with little cognitive effort. Words and sentences seem to flow out of the mouth in a subconscious, almost automatic way. Or do you normally think about each word you utter? Look at this man. These words just flow out of his mouth. Furthermore, language is used oral auditorily. The oral auditory channel, that is communication via the mouth and the ear, is the most important mode of human communication. And English has reserved a special label for it, namely speech. Finally, language makes use of arbitrary symbols. There is no obvious relationship between the linguistic sign, that is the word or the sound shape, and the object in the real world. So here we have the object table. Now why is it table in English Tisch in German, something else in Chinese, stole in Russian? There is certainly no direct relationship between the linguistic symbol, the word, and the real life object. Let us now see how linguists study language. Now first of all, linguistics is the scientific study of language. That's the definition of the field. And it can be subdivided into three main branches. The first branch has to do with everything that is concerned with sound. Speech sounds, the sounds of speech in general, or the sound elements in particular languages. Then we have a second big branch, which deals with structure. This could be the structure of words, the structure of sentences, and something in between the structure of phrases, for example. And finally, we have to look at the meaning of what is being said, the meaning of words, the meaning of sentences, and the meaning of even longer stretches of speech, such as utterances and conversation. Let us look at the branches in more detail. Now, the branch of sound has two sub-branches, namely phonetics and phonology. Phonetics studies human speech sounds in general from various angles. For example, these two sounds here, which are represented in these angular brackets, the first one would be something like this one, and the second one, so produced ones. Or in a vocally environment. Now, the question is, are these real speech sounds, are they used in any language? How are they produced? How are they perceived? How can they be analyzed acoustically? These are some goals of phonetics, the study of human speech. Now, we can also ask the question about the principles governing the sound systems of particular languages, and this branch is referred to as phonology. For example, we could ask the question, is something like this in English, here is the English flag, is something like a possible word in English? Well, we all know it is not. And obviously, here are some principles at work that we have to define. By contrast, this word here, fresh, so this one is out, but fresh, by contrast, could well be an English word, however it doesn't exist. In many languages, words are not indivisible, but are composed of smaller units. So, here we have the word nationalization, and you know it consists of at least four parts. Now, the field that deals with phenomena of this kind is referred to as morphology. It seeks to define how words are built from these smaller units, and what are the component parts of words such as these. Syntax, the next branch, is the study of sentence structure. For many linguists, this is the core area of linguistics, leading to most fundamental insights about natural language. For example, one could ask the question, is the sentence colorless green ideas sleep furiously, a sentence that has been used quite often in linguistics? Is this sentence grammatical or not? I'm not giving the answer here. Let's look at the next branch, the branch that deals with meaning. And here, of course, in this big branch, we could look at the meaning of words or sentences in the branch referred to as semantics. So, interesting questions could on the one hand be, what is the relationship between items such as wide and narrow? It is certainly different from the relationship of between the two items tulip and flower. Or we could ask about sentences such as Mary failed her exam, even though she didn't work at all. Well, what a strange world this is. The logic behind such a sentence is discussed under the heading of sentence semantics. Now, pragmatics is an even wider area, which is the branch of linguistics that studies the use of language and its effects. It is concerned with the meanings that sentences have in particular context in which they are uttered. What do you think about this sentence? I'll come to your party. Well, depending on the relationship between me and you, it could be a promise. Or if you'd rather dispense with my presence, it could be a warning. I'll leave it up to you. Now, having an idea about the object of study, namely language and the branches of linguistics, a fundamental question remains to be solved. Why the hell should you study linguistics? Couldn't you say, hmm, my mother tongue is English, German, Dutch or whatever? Doesn't that suffice? Isn't that good enough? Well, let's find out the answer to this question. I will give you six examples which should motivate you to study linguistics. More examples can be found on the Virtual Linguistics Campus. Here is the first question, which can be referred to under the heading of language awareness. Do native speakers, those speakers who claim to know a language, often know enough about their language? What do Germans say when they want to translate the word cheese into German? Do they say Kaiser or Kaiser? Well, linguists will tell you why they have the choice and on what sort of principles this choice can be based. What about the English word, ain't? Well, is it a colloquial, a standard feature of English or not? Is it confined to particular regions? Well, these are questions of language awareness. Another interesting question deals with language impairment. What happens when the use of language is impaired? Well, you would certainly consult someone who can apply remedial methods. Aha, a linguist, a speech therapist with a profound linguistic background. So here linguistics comes into action. And then if you look at computers, for example, now why can't computers use language as we do? They work really well, machine translation programs, speech analysis programs and so on. Nevertheless, they haven't yet reached the standard of human language capability. And this is probably due to the fact that they work differently as compared with the human brain and maybe they do not know enough about language. They can store a lot, they can do a lot, but they do not really understand what is being said. Linguistic research may help out here. And what about children? How do children manage to learn a language so easily? Do they perhaps imitate their parents? That would not be very good because parents and near relatives often use a sort of special baby talk around their lips when they start to speak, for example. Still children acquire their native tongue. Well, language acquisition is an important linguistic subfield that seeks to find out the main principles of this process. And believe it or not, linguistics is really important when it comes to the analysis of literature. Shakespeare, for example, used a type of English which is completely different from ours today. Well, when did he live? 1564 to 1618. Wasn't the English different then? Yes, of course it was. And there were so many elements in English that can hardly be understood today. Linguists tell you which ones. Well, and finally, language teaching. Is linguistics important for the teaching of a foreign language? Oh, yes it is. In order to teach a language properly, you should not only know the language, but you should also know its structure. You should know about a language. It is just like with a clinical surgeon. Medicals must have a precise idea about the structure of the human body. Just like teachers should know the structure of the language they teach. Linguistics and linguists will tell them. Are you convinced now? I hope you are. Well, over and above all these aspects, I think linguistics is simply a fascinating and interesting scientific discipline. Join us on the Virtual Linguistics Campus. Become a member of the VLC community and enjoy the fascination of language study. Thank you.