Chapter 1

What Is Linguistics?

The field of linguistics, the scientific study of human natural language, is

a growing and exciting area of study, with an important impact on fields
as diverse as education, anthropology, sociology, language teaching, cog-
nitive psychology, philosophy, computer science, neuroscience, and artifi-
cial intelligence, among others. Indeed, the last five fields cited, along
with linguistics, are the key components of the field of cognitive science,
the study of the structure and functioning of human cognitive processes.
In spite of the importance of the field of linguistics, many people, even
highly educated people, will tell you that they have only a vague idea of
what the field is about. Some believe that a linguist is a person who
speaks several languages fluently. Others believe that linguists are lan-
guage experts who can help you decide whether it is better to say ‘‘It is
I’’ or ‘‘It’s me.’’ Yet it is quite possible to be a professional linguist (and
an excellent one at that) without having taught a single language class,
without having interpreted at the UN, and without speaking any more
than one language.
What is linguistics, then? Fundamentally, the field is concerned with
the nature of language and (linguistic) communication. It is apparent that
people have been fascinated with language and communication for thou-
sands of years, yet in many ways we are only beginning to understand the
complex nature of this aspect of human life. If we ask, What is the nature
of language? or How does communication work? we quickly realize that
these questions have no simple answers and are much too broad to be
answered in a direct way. Similarly, questions such as What is energy?
or What is matter? cannot be answered in a simple fashion, and indeed
research in physics is carried out in numerous subfields, some of which in-
volve investigating the nature of energy and matter. Linguistics is no dif-
ferent: the field as a whole represents an attempt to break down the broad
questions about the nature of language and communication into smaller,
6 Chapter 1

Figure 1.1
A competence model

more manageable questions that we can hope to answer, and in so doing

establish reasonable results that we can build on in moving closer to
answers to the larger questions. Unless we limit our sights in this way
and restrict ourselves to particular frameworks for examining di¤erent
aspects of language and communication, we cannot hope to make prog-
ress in answering the broad questions that have fascinated people for so
long. As we will see, the field covers a surprisingly broad range of topics
related to language and communication.
Chomsky (1965, 1972) proposes that three models are central to the
general study of (spoken) language. The first he calls a model of linguistic
competence, because it models what fluent speakers know when they
know a language: ‘‘At the crudest level of description, we may say that a
language associates sound and meaning in a particular way: to have com-
mand of a language is to be able, in principle, to understand what is said,
and to produce a signal with the intended semantic interpretation’’ (1972,
115). Such a model can be represented as in figure 1.1.
Following Chomsky, linguists often call the model of competence in
a language—the model of what speakers know when they know a
language—a grammar of that language: ‘‘We will say that a grammar of
a language L generates a set of pairs (s, I) where s is the phonetic repre-
sentation of a certain signal [sounds] and I is the semantic interpretation
[meaning]’’ (1972, 116). Linguistics traditionally concentrates on building
a model of competence at the various levels of language organization—
sounds, words, sentences, meaning, and use—as well as how languages
vary from one another and evolve over time. We cover these subjects in
chapters 2–9.
The second model Chomsky calls a model of linguistic performance, be-
cause it models how speakers actually use their linguistic competence.
Such a model reflects not just a speaker’s knowledge of his or her lan-
guage, but also extralinguistic influences on speaking such as memory
limitations and the speaker’s purposes: ‘‘To study a language, then, we
must attempt to dissociate a variety of factors that interact with underly-
ing competence to determine actual performance’’ (1972, 116). Chom-
7 What Is Linguistics?

Figure 1.2
A performance model

Figure 1.3
An acquisition model

sky’s idea is that a performance model should contain a competence

model as a part: ‘‘Any . . . model for the production [and comprehension]
of sentences must incorporate the system of grammatical rules’’ (1972,
117). Such a model can be represented as in figure 1.2. Reading this
model from left to right gives a model of speech production, and reading
it from right to left gives a model of speech comprehension.
Chomsky’s third device is called a language acquisition model, because
it reflects the changes in a person’s competence and performance as he
or she acquires a language and thus provides a model of the child’s
language-learning achievements. Such a model can be represented as in
figure 1.3.
The study of performance and acquisition models is traditionally a ma-
jor concern of psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics. Although originally
proposed for spoken languages, these three models have been extended to
cover other realizations of language as well, such as sign languages, read-
ing, and writing.
In sum, Chomsky’s three models can be interpreted as frameworks for
which the following questions are addressed:
1. What is the nature and structure of human language?
2. How is language put to use in thought and communication?
3. How do language and our ability to use it develop?
Part I of the text contains chapters dealing primarily with the structural
components of language. Chapter 2, ‘‘Morphology,’’ is concerned with
understanding the relatedness of words and with the way morphological
units combine to create new words. Chapter 3, ‘‘Phonetics and Phonemic
8 Chapter 1

Transcription,’’ introduces the physiology involved in the production of

speech sounds as well as phonemic and phonetic transcription systems
that are used to represent the sounds of English. Chapter 4, ‘‘Phonology,’’
surveys the organizational principles that determine the patterns the
speech sounds are subject to. Chapter 5, ‘‘Syntax,’’ presents a study of
the structure of sentences and phrases. Chapter 6, ‘‘Semantics,’’ surveys
the properties of linguistic meaning. Chapter 7, ‘‘Language Variation,’’
deals with the ways speakers and groups of speakers can di¤er from each
other in terms of the various forms of language that they use. Chapter 8,
‘‘Language Change,’’ examines how languages change over time and how
languages can be historically related.
Having examined certain structural properties of human language in
part I, we turn to functional properties in part II. Chapter 9, ‘‘Prag-
matics,’’ explores some of the issues involved in describing human com-
munication and proposes certain communication strategies that people
use when they talk to each other. Chapter 10, ‘‘Psychology of Language,’’
examines how language is produced and understood. Chapter 11, ‘‘Lan-
guage Acquisition in Children,’’ studies the stages involved in language
acquisition by humans with normal brain function and reviews the evi-
dence for positing a genetically endowed ‘‘Language Acquisition De-
vice.’’ Finally, chapter 12, ‘‘Language and the Brain,’’ deals with how
language is stored and processed in the brain, and discusses recent ad-
vances in genetics that contribute to understanding the biological basis
of human language.
To turn now from the particular to the general, what are some of the
background assumptions that linguists make when they study language?
Perhaps the most important fundamental assumption is that human lan-
guage at all levels is rule- (or principle-) governed. Every known language
has systematic rules governing pronunciation, word formation, and gram-
matical construction. Further, the way in which meanings are associated
with phrases of a language is characterized by regular rules. Finally, the
use of language to communicate is governed by important generalizations
that can be expressed in rules. The ultimate aim in each chapter, there-
fore, is to formulate rules to describe the phenomena under consideration.
Indeed, chapter 7, ‘‘Language Variation,’’ shows that even so-called ca-
sual speech is governed by systematic regularities expressible in rules.
At this point we must add an important qualification to what we have
just said. That is, we are using the terms rule and rule-governed in the spe-
cial way that linguists use them. This usage is very di¤erent from the lay-
person’s understanding of the terms. In school most of us were taught
9 What Is Linguistics?

so-called rules of grammar, which we were told to follow in order to

speak and write ‘‘correctly’’—rules such as ‘‘Do not end a sentence with
a preposition,’’ or ‘‘Don’t say ain’t,’’ or ‘‘Never split an infinitive.’’ Rules
of this sort are called prescriptive rules; that is to say, they prescribe, or
dictate to the speaker, the way the language supposedly should be written
or spoken in order for the speaker to appear correct or educated. Pre-
scriptive rules are really rules of style rather than rules of grammar.
In sharp contrast, when linguists speak of rules, they are not referring
to prescriptive rules from grammar books. Rather, linguists try to formu-
late descriptive rules when they analyze language, rules that describe the
actual language of some group of speakers and not some hypothetical
language that speakers ‘‘should’’ use. Descriptive rules express generaliza-
tions and regularities about various aspects of language. Thus, when we
say that language is rule-governed, we are really saying that the study of
human language has revealed numerous generalizations about and regu-
larities in the structure and function of language. Even though language is
governed by strict principles, speakers nonetheless control a system that
is unbounded in scope, which is to say that there is no limit to the kinds
of things that can be talked about. How language achieves this property
of e¤ability (unboundedness in scope) is addressed in chapters 2 and 5,
‘‘Morphology’’ and ‘‘Syntax.’’
Another important background assumption that linguists make is that
various human languages constitute a unified phenomenon: linguists as-
sume that it is possible to study human language in general and that the
study of particular languages will reveal features of language that are uni-
versal. What do we mean by universal features of language?
So far we have used the terms language and human language without
referring to any specific language, such as English or Chinese. Students
are sometimes puzzled by this general use of the term language; it would
seem that this use is rarely found outside of linguistics-related courses.
Foreign language courses, after all, deal with specific languages such as
French or Russian. Further, specific human languages appear on the sur-
face to be so di¤erent from each other that it is often di‰cult to under-
stand how linguists can speak of language as though it were a single
thing.
Although it is obvious that specific languages di¤er from each other
on the surface, if we look closer we find that human languages are sur-
prisingly similar. For instance, all known languages are at a similar level
of complexity and detail—there is no such thing as a primitive human
language. All languages provide a means for asking questions, making
10 Chapter 1

requests, making assertions, and so on. And there is nothing that can be
expressed in one language that cannot be expressed in any other. Obvi-
ously, one language may have terms not found in another language, but
it is always possible to invent new terms to express what we mean: any-
thing we can imagine or think, we can express in any human language.
Turning to more abstract properties, even the formal structures of
language are similar: all languages have sentences made up of smaller
phrasal units, these units in turn being made up of words, which are
themselves made up of sequences of sounds. All of these features of hu-
man language are so obvious to us that we may fail to see how surprising
it is that languages share them. When linguists use the term language, or
natural human language, they are revealing their belief that at the abstract
level, beneath the surface variation, languages are remarkably similar in
form and function and conform to certain universal principles.
In relation to what we have just said about universal principles, we
should observe once again that most of the illustrative examples in this
book are drawn from the English language. This should not mislead you
into supposing that what we say is relevant only to English. We will be
introducing fundamental concepts of linguistics, and we believe that these
have to be applicable to all languages. We have chosen English examples
so that you can continually check our factual claims and decide whether
they are empirically well founded. Linguistics, perhaps more than any
other science, provides an opportunity for the student to participate in
the research process. Especially in chapter 5, ‘‘Syntax,’’ you will be able
to assess the accuracy of the evidence that bears on hypothesis formation,
and after having followed the argumentation in the chapter, you will be in
a position to carry out similar reasoning processes in the exercises at the
end.
Finally, we o¤er a brief observation about the general nature of linguis-
tics. To many linguists the ultimate aim of linguistics is not simply to un-
derstand how language itself is structured and how it functions. We hope
that as we come to understand more about human language, we will cor-
respondingly understand more about the processes of human thought. In
this view the study of language is ultimately the study of the human mind.
This goal is perhaps best expressed by Noam Chomsky in his book
Reflections on Language (1975, 3–4):
Why study language? There are many possible answers, and by focusing on some
I do not, of course, mean to disparage others or question their legitimacy. One
may, for example, simply be fascinated by the elements of language in themselves
and want to discover their order and arrangement, their origin in history or in the
11 What Is Linguistics?

individual, or the ways in which they are used in thought, in science or in art, or in
normal social interchange. One reason for studying language—and for me per-
sonally the most compelling reason—is that it is tempting to regard language, in
the traditional phrase, as ‘‘a mirror of mind.’’ I do not mean by this simply that
the concepts expressed and distinctions developed in normal language use give us
insight into the patterns of thought and the world of ‘‘common sense’’ constructed
by the human mind. More intriguing, to me at least, is the possibility that by
studying language we may discover abstract principles that govern its structure
and use, principles that are universal by biological necessity and not mere histori-
cal accident, that derive from mental characteristics of the species. A human lan-
guage is a system of remarkable complexity. To come to know a human language
would be an extraordinary intellectual achievement for a creature not specifically
designed to accomplish this task. A normal child acquires this knowledge on rela-
tively slight exposure and without specific training. He can then quite e¤ortlessly
make use of an intricate structure of specific rules and guiding principles to con-
vey his thoughts and feelings to others, arousing in them novel ideas and subtle
perceptions and judgments. For the conscious mind, not specifically designed for
the purpose, it remains a distant goal to reconstruct and comprehend what the
child has done intuitively and with minimal e¤ort. Thus language is a mirror of
mind in a deep and significant sense. It is a product of human intelligence, created
anew in each individual by operations that lie far beyond the reach of will or
consciousness.

Bibliography

Chomsky, N. 1965. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT

Press.
Chomsky, N. 1972. Language and mind. Enlarged ed. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich.
Chomsky, N. 1975. Reflections on language. New York: Pantheon Books.