Page 27 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Unit 2: Linguistics: Branches and Tools

2.4 Descriptive, Historical and Comparative Linguistics Notes

General linguistics includes a number of related subjects involved in the study of language as
understood in the preceding paragraphs. General linguistics can broadly be divided into three
sub-divisions descriptive linguistics, historical linguistics and comparative linguistics.
1. Descriptive linguistics is concerned with the description and analysis of the ways in which a
language operates and is used by a given set of speakers at a given time. The time may be
present. The time may equally well be the past, where adequate written records are available.
Nor is the descriptive study of a particular language concerned with the description of other
languages at the same time. Descriptive linguistics is often regarded as the major part of
general linguistics, and certainly the fundamental aspect of the study of language.
2. Historical linguistics is the study of developments in languages in the course of time. It is the
diachronic study of the language. It studies language change, and the causes and results of
such changes as have occurred from time to time.
3. Comparative linguistics is concerned with comparing from one or more points of view two or
more different languages. Comparative linguistics traces the evolution of language and, by
comparing one with another, establishes the relationships between them. This comparison is
generally done between the languages which are genetically related, that is, those that have
developed from some common source.
Comparative and historical linguistics may be said to have begun in 1786, the date when Sir
William Jones made the famous statement pointing out that Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Celtic and
Germanic appeared to have sprung from a common source. The old name for the subject was
Comparative Philology.

Self-Assessment
1. Choose the correct options:
(i) Linguistic have been attributed to Panini around ............... .
(a) 500 B.C. (b) 400 B.C. (c) 450 B.C. (d) none of these
(ii) Ethnolinguistics is the study of language relating to ............... .
(a) ethnic types and behaviour (b) geographical factors
(c) language development (d) none of these
(iii) Theolinguistics is the study of language deals with ............... .
(a) speech sounds (b) social interactions (c) religious beliefs (d) none of these
(iv) Comparative and historical linguistics may be said to have begun in ............... .
(a) 1785 (b) 1786 (c) 1790 (d) 1760

2.5 Summary

• Linguistics also looks at the broader context in which language is influenced by social,
cultural, historical and political factors. This includes the study of evolutionary linguistics,
which investigates into questions related to the origins and growth of languages; historical
linguistics, which explores language change; sociolinguistics, which looks at the relation
between linguistic variation and social structures; psycholinguistics, which explores the
representation and function of language in the mind; neurolinguistics, which looks at language
processing in the brain; language acquisition, on how children or adults acquire language;
and discourse analysis, which involves the structure of texts and conversations.
• Although linguistics is the scientific study of language, a number of other intellectual
disciplines are relevant to language and intersect with it. Semiotics, for example, is the

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