Language and Linguistics

By: Vincent Bohnert

The Literacy of Speaking Languages

Someone who can speak many different languages is referred to as a linguist. A linguist can have many different types of jobs. Some common professions include: becoming a teacher, librarian, or a translator.

To expand upon this, knowing multiple languages does not have to define one’s career. Someone who is ambitious in their particular career may want to learn another language in order to develop one’s understanding of that career. Not to mention it could earn one a promotion.

It’s great knowledge to have when traveling to a foreign country. Traveling to another country would also help one gain first-hand experience when communicating with the locals. It could also help one obtain a job overseas.

Science Behind Language

Linguistics is known as the scientific study of language. A language is more than just a means of communication; it also encompasses emotional tone, semantic meaning, and a deeper understanding of culture.

Depending on the way someone talks or looks when they talk, we can interpret emotional tone. This can help us better understand the situation and how that person is feeling.

Semantic meaning refers to the specific meaning of a word. Sometimes, we can even derive words based on prefixes and suffixes. That way we can infer what a word means even if it’s a new word. This is true for all languages.

The culture of a group of people can also be recognized through language. For instance, what language they speak and how they speak it are two variables of determining culture.

Emotion Through LanguageThis picture illustrates two people showing emotion. Even though there are no captions displaying the conversation going on, we can infer that the situation is tense. If there were captions, however, we would be able to know what exactly is going on and why those two guys are displaying their respective body language.

Picture URL:

http://chantalsouaid.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/arguing-people.jpg

Semantic Meaning Through Language

This list of words relate to different disciplines of science. This is a great example of semantics because of the categorized columns of meanings. As you can see, there is a column for the roots of words, an example of a word with that root, and how the root meaning relates to the actual word meaning. Every language has words that look similar and have similar meanings.

Picture URL:

http://phs-physics-and-chemistry.wikispaces.com/file/view/Screen_shot_2010-08-30_at_5.14.21_PM.png/159170291/800x646/Screen_shot_2010-08-30_at_5.14.21_PM.png

Culture Through LanguageSpeaking with different groups of people can help someone understand culture. Understanding what they say is only part of being a linguist. Knowing why they said it and why they do what they do is the more in-depth look at culture. We can achieve this insight by speaking the same language. This will lead to better relationships with different language speaking countries as well.

Picture URL:

http://c.tadst.com/gfx/600x400/worlddaycul-diver.jpg?1

Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Aristotle is a famous Greek philosopher who made contributions to many different subjects of science, math, and language. Most of his work is based on the concepts of logic and philosophy. Since philosophy encompasses many different fields of knowledge, Aristotle learned about many different disciplines.

Picture URL:

http://media4.picsearch.com/is?GWCWjkTCQcqR6t55J23YvYvdpMJ8fyDOrNykE4oBgP4&height=320

A Famous Quote by Aristotle

Famous philosopher, mathematician, and linguist

“It is the mark of an educated man to look for precision in each class of thing in so far as its nature admits.”

This relates to Aristotle’s ambition to learn from many different subjects including language. It’s a general statement, no doubt. What I take from it is that an educated man pursues knowledge in as many facets and subjects as he’s allowed to and as he desires to.

Some Other Noteworthy Linguists

Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) has a PhD in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently a professor at MIT. Chomsky has produced a multitude of highly esteemed but controversial theories regarding human linguistic capacity. He also has many followers when it comes to foreign policy.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) helped invent the telephone. He has a notable 18 patents under his name and is profoundly known for his work with deaf people “Visible Speech.”

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) is widely known for his fantasy novels such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. While he was writing these tales, he taught at the prestigious Oxford University specializing in language and linguistics.

References

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/understanding-linguistics-the-science-of-language.html

http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-semantics.html

http://www.iep.utm.edu/aristotl/#H2

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/aristotleworks/a/121610-Aristotle-Quotes.htm

http://www.biography.com/people/noam-chomsky-37616#synopsis

http://www.biography.com/people/alexander-graham-bell-9205497#synopsis

http://www.biography.com/people/jrr-tolkien-9508428#synopsis