LINGUISTICS
Is the study of language not just particular languages, but the system of human communication. Some of the basic issues of this field are?
APPLIED LINGUISTICS
Application to areas such as speech pathology, reading, social work, missionary work, translation, dictionary compilation, language teaching, error analysis, computer language processing.
DIALECTOLOGY Investigation of regional variation in language.
ETHOLINGUISTICS (anthropological linguistics) Investigation of the relation between a people's language and culture.
HISTORICAL
(Diachronic) linguistics: Study of language change and evolution.
MORPHOLOGY Is the study of word formation and inflection.
NEUROLINGUISTICS Research into the specific location of language in the brain.
PARALINGUISTICS Is the study of nonverbal (auxiliary) human communication.
PHILOLOGY
Is the study of how language has been used in literature, especially in older manuscripts.
PHONETICS Is the description of how speech sounds are articulated and heard.
PHONOLOGY Is the study of how languages organize the units of speech into systems.
PRAGMATICS Is the study of the strategies people use to carry out communicative business in specific contexts.
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
Is the investigation of language as cognitively-based behavior;
SLA Second language acquisition (SLA): study of how older learners acquire language, and of ways to improve it.
SOCIOLINGUISTICS Study of social variation in language: the relation between social structure and language usage, and of social issues involving language.
SEMANTICS
Is the study of word and sentence meaning.
SYNTAX Study of the structure of sentences and of underlying principles for generating and processing them.