Linguistics

Broadly conceived, linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. (Lay people sometimes use the term linguistician, but as Aitchison 2003 points out, this is "too much of a tongue-twister to become generally accepted.")

Important linguists and schools of thought

Early scholars of linguistics include Jakob Grimm, who devised the principle of consonantal shifts in pronunciation known as Grimm's Law in 1822, Karl Verner, who discovered Verner's Law, August Schleicher who created the "Stammbaumtheorie" and Johannes Schmidt who developed the "Wellentheorie" ("wave model") in 1872. Ferdinand de Saussure was the founder of modern structural linguistics. Edward Sapir a leader in American structural linguistics, was one of the first who explored the relations between language studies and anthropology. His methodology had strong influence on all his successors. Noam Chomsky's formal model of language, transformational-generative grammar, developed under the influence of his teacher Zellig Harris, who was in turn strongly influenced by Leonard Bloomfield, has been the dominant one from the 1960s.

Related Topics:
Scholar - Jakob Grimm - Grimm's Law - Karl Verner - Verner's Law - August Schleicher - Johannes Schmidt - Ferdinand de Saussure - Edward Sapir - Noam Chomsky's - Transformational-generative grammar - Zellig Harris - Leonard Bloomfield - 1960s

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Other important linguists and schools include Michael Halliday, whose systemic functional grammar is pursued widely in the U.K., Canada, Australia, China, and Japan; Dell Hymes, who developed a pragmatic approach called The Ethnography of Speaking; George Lakoff, Leonard Talmy, and Ronald Langacker, who were pioneers in cognitive linguistics; Charles Fillmore and Adele Goldberg, who are associated with construction grammar; and linguists developing several varieties of what they call functional grammar, including Leonard Talmy, Talmy Givon and Robert Van Valin, Jr..

Related Topics:
School - Michael Halliday - Systemic functional grammar - U.K. - Canada - Australia - China - Japan - Dell Hymes - George Lakoff - Leonard Talmy - Ronald Langacker - Cognitive linguistics - Charles Fillmore - Adele Goldberg - Construction grammar - Functional grammar - Talmy Givon - Robert Van Valin, Jr.

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