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Linguistics is the scientific<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=book }}</ref> study of language.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=book }}</ref> There are three aspects to this study: language form, language meaning, and language in context.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=book }}</ref> The earliest activities in the description of language have been attributed to Pāṇini, who was an early student of linguistics<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=book }}</ref>(fl. 4th century BCE),<ref>Sanskrit Literature The Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 2 (1909), p. 263.</ref> with his analysis of Sanskrit in Ashtadhyayi.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=book }}</ref>

Linguistics analyzes human language as a system for relating sounds (or signs in signed languages) and meaning.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=book }}</ref> Phonetics studies acoustic and articulatory properties of the production and perception of speech sounds and non-speech sounds. The study of language meaning, on the other hand, deals with how languages encode relations between entities, properties, and other aspects of the world to convey, process, and assign meaning, as well as to manage and resolve ambiguity. While the study of semantics typically concerns itself with truth conditions, pragmatics deals with how context influences meanings.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=book }}</ref>

Grammar is a system of rules which govern the form of the utterances in a given language. It encompasses both sound<ref>All references in this article to the study of sound should be taken to include the manual and non-manual signs used in sign languages.</ref> and meaning, and includes phonology (how sounds and gestures function together), morphology (the formation and composition of words), and syntax (the formation and composition of phrases and sentences from words).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=book }}</ref>

In the early 20th century, Ferdinand de Saussure distinguished between the notions of langue and parole in his formulation of structural linguistics. According to him, parole is the specific utterance of speech, whereas langue refers to an abstract phenomenon that theoretically defines the principles and system of rules that govern a language.<ref>de Saussure, F. (1986). Course in general linguistics (3rd ed.). (R. Harris, Trans.). Chicago: Open Court Publishing Company. (Original work published 1972). p. 9-10, 15.</ref> This distinction resembles the one made by Noam Chomsky between competence and performance, where competence is individual's ideal knowledge of a language, while performance is the specific way in which it is used.<ref>Chomsky, Noam. (1965). Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.</ref>


Linguistics also includes nonformal approaches to the study of other aspects of human language, such as social, cultural, historical and political factors.<ref>Journal of Language and Politics</ref> The study of cultural discourses and dialects is the domain of sociolinguistics, which looks at the relation between linguistic variation and social structures, as well as that of discourse analysis, which examines the structure of texts and conversations.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=book }}</ref> Research on language through historical and evolutionary linguistics focuses on how languages change, and on the origin and growth of languages, particularly over an extended period of time.



Linguistics sections
Intro  Nomenclature  Variation and Universality  Approach  History of linguistic thought  Areas of research  Applied linguistics  Inter-disciplinary fields  See also  References  Bibliography  External links  

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