Fundamental and applied linguistics. What are fundamental and applied linguistics? Applied and fundamental linguistics

Today, fundamental and applied linguistics is one of the most popular and innovative specialties. Students study their native and foreign languages, traditional linguistic sciences (semantics, syntax, morphology, phonetics, etc.), as well as applied linguistic disciplines, innovative computer linguistics. In addition, the curriculum includes mathematical sciences, translation theory, history, and theoretical courses in ancient languages. Thus, students gain knowledge that in the future will help them become true professionals in their field.

How can graduates who have received a diploma in the specialty “45.03.03 Fundamental and Applied Linguistics Bachelor’s Degree” work? It is worth saying that they will be in demand in various fields, because they can teach, translate, write and edit texts. Young specialists can devote themselves to research activities in theoretical and applied linguistics. Lexicographer, translator, web developer, linguist, copywriter, linguistic expert, proofreader - this is an incomplete list of professions that graduates of the specialty Fundamental and Applied Linguistics can choose for themselves.

History of linguistics

Linguistics originated in ancient times. The emergence of primary knowledge about the structure of language is associated with the emergence of writing.

Linguistic thought begins to take shape in the Middle East (3 - 1 thousand BC: Egypt, Sumer and Babylonia, the Hittite kingdom, Phenicia, Ugarit, etc.) Here at the turn of 4 - 3 thousand BC. Egyptian and Sumerian-Akkadian writing arose. Among the Western Semites (Byblos, Ugarit, Phenicia) by the middle of 2 thousand BC. alphabetical writing was formed. Its principles formed the basis of many graphic systems, including Indian writing systems in the East. The Phoenician (Canaanite) alphabet was the prototype of the Greek letter, the characters of which were subsequently used in Etruscan, Latin, Coptic, Gothic, Slavic, etc. letter. The actual theoretical approach to language in the East is formed and reaches a high degree of development in ancient China, ancient India and the Arab Caliphate.

Greco-Roman linguistic tradition as the foremother of European linguistics

In Europe, linguistic knowledge originates in ancient Greece and then continues to be developed in Rome. Here the initial systems of grammatical concepts were formed. Grammar was understood as an art. Its jurisdiction included the rules of reading and stress, classification of consonants and vowels, syllable structure, definitions of words and sentences, classification of parts of speech, categories of names and verbs, nominal and verbal word formation, features of Greek dialects.

Along with grammar, rhetoric, stylistics, and philology actively developed.

The Greco-Roman (ancient, Mediterranean) linguistic tradition subsequently became the foundation of European linguistic thought.

Linguistics of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance

European linguistics of the Middle Ages and subsequent periods had to solve the problems of creating writing in native languages. In the West, writing systems were formed through the gradual, mostly spontaneous adaptation of Latin characters to the sound systems of their languages. In the East, in the sphere of influence of Byzantium, original alphabets were invented, which had Greek writing as their main prototype.

At the end of the 14th - beginning of the 16th centuries. The milliners made a serious contribution to the study of grammatical meanings. The modist grammar, the central concept of which was methods of notation, was the first theory of language in the European linguistic tradition.

With the growing interest in national languages, the first grammars of many European, as well as a number of non-European languages, began to appear. The period of great geographical discoveries and colonial conquests made available to scientists a huge amount of empirical material in many hundreds of languages. The need arose to organize this material, and numerous attempts were made to classify languages on the basis of their typological similarities and presumed kinship. The foundations of linguistic comparativeism were laid, i.e. direction dealing with multiple languages.

Linguistics of the 19th century.

In linguistic comparativism, the leading role from the very beginning belonged to comparative historical linguistics; a phonetic law named after Grimm was formulated. It recorded regular sound correspondences between Germanic and other Indo-European languages (first consonant movement) and between High German and other Germanic languages (second consonant movement).

In science of the 19th century. The historical (genetic) approach to language was firmly established.

Development of linguistics in the 20th century.

In linguistics of the 20th century. In line with the structuralist approach, attempts were made to abandon the appeal to other sciences in order to explain the specifics of natural human language and to interpret language as a special phenomenon that has no analogues, exceptional in nature, as a sign system developing and functioning according to its own laws.

Modern linguistics is equally interested in both the internal structure of language and the influence on it of the environment in which the language system functions and develops (person, ethnicity, society).

Goals of linguistics. Fundamental and applied linguistics

Fundamental linguistics aims to understand the hidden laws of language; applied linguistics solves many social problems: political, economic, educational, religious, engineering, military, medical, cultural.

Sections of linguistics
Within linguistics, sections are distinguished in accordance with different aspects of its subject.
Grammar(deals with the study and description of the structure of words and inflections, types of phrases and types of sentences)
Graphic arts(explores the relationships between letters and signs)
Lexicology(studies the vocabulary of a language, or vocabulary)
Morphology(rules for constructing nominative units (word forms) from the simplest significative units (morphemes) and, conversely, dividing word forms into morphemes)
Onomastics(studies proper names, the history of their origin and transformation as a result of prolonged use in the source language or in connection with borrowing from other languages of communication)
Spelling(spelling, a system of rules that determine the uniformity of ways of conveying speech in writing)
Pragmatics(studies the conditions for speakers’ use of linguistic signs)
Semantics((semasiology) is a science that examines the meaning of linguistic units: morphemes, lexemes, phrases, sentences.)
Semiotics(studies the properties of sign systems)
Syntax(the study of phrases and sentences) Word formation– the study of ways and means of forming new words.
Stylistics(the science of the main varieties of language and speech, or styles)
Phonetics(the science of the sound side of language (about sounds, syllables, phonetic forms in words, speech beats, phrases))
Phonology(studies the structure of the sound structure of a language and the functioning of sounds in the language system)
Phraseology(studies stable figures of speech)
Etymology(studies the origins of words)

Objectives of linguistics:

Ø Establishing the nature and essence of language
Ø Studying the structure of language
Ø Learning language as an integral system
Ø Study of language development
Ø Study of the origin and development of writing
Ø Classification of languages
Ø Selection of research methods: comparative historical, descriptive, comparative, quantitative
Ø Study of the connection between linguistics and other sciences

In solving its problems, linguistics is in close contact with many sciences of the humanities (social), natural, logical-mathematical and engineering-technical cycles.

Linguistics (linguistics, linguistics) is a science that studies languages (in principle, all that exist, have ever existed and may arise in the future), and thereby human language in general. Like any science, linguistics arose in connection with practical needs, but gradually developed into a complex and branched system of disciplines of both theoretical and applied nature. Within theoretical linguistics, a distinction is made between the particular and the general.

§ 2. Linguistics is closely related to many other sciences. First of all, of course, with philosophy, which studies the most general laws of nature, society and thinking.
Since language is a socio-historical phenomenon, linguistics is included in the circle of sciences about human society and human culture. such as sociology, history, ethnography, archaeology.
Since language is directly related to human consciousness, thinking and mental life, linguistics has close connections with logic and psychology, and through psychology also with the physiology of higher nervous activity. The study of problems of the origin and early development of language is carried out by linguists in contact with anthropology.
Linguistics at a number of points comes into contact with literary studies, poetics and folkloristics, uniting with them into a complex discipline - philology, which studies the language, literature and culture of a given people in their interrelations.
Since our speech is embodied in sounds, important areas of linguistics are related to acoustics
- a branch of physics that studies sound, as well as the anatomy and physiology of speech sound production organs in the human body.
Finally, solving various applied problems, linguistics interacts with pedagogy and methodology, with medicine, and nowadays, increasingly with such sciences as mathematical logic, statistics, information theory and cybernetics.
In recent decades, as a result of the interaction of linguistics with other sciences, new scientific disciplines have emerged at the intersection of traditional fields of knowledge
Private linguistics deals with a single language (Russian, English, Uzbek, etc.) or a group of related languages (say, Slavic languages). It can be synchronic, describing the facts of a language at some point in its history (most often the facts of a modern language), or diachronic (historical), tracing the development of a language over a certain period of time. A type of diachronic linguistics is comparative-historical, which elucidates their historical past by comparing related languages.
General linguistics deals with the general features of human language. It explores the essence and nature of language, the problem of its origin and the general laws of its development and functioning; it also develops methods for studying languages. Within the framework of general linguistics, typological linguistics is distinguished, which compares both related and unrelated languages with each other, a comparison aimed at clarifying the general patterns of language. General and, in particular, typological linguistics identifies and formulates linguistic universals, that is, provisions that are valid for all languages of the world or for the vast majority of languages.
One of the important tasks of general linguistics is the scientific definition of the concepts used by linguistics, such as, for example, the above-mentioned “vowel” and “consonant”, “sentence”, “proper noun”, etc.
Applied linguistics also solves particular problems relating to one language, and problems that are fundamentally applicable to the material of any language: the creation and improvement of writing; teaching writing, reading, speech culture, and a non-native language; creation of systems for automatic translation, automatic search, annotation and summarization of information, creation of systems that ensure human-machine communication in natural language.

§ 2. Linguistics is closely related to many other sciences. First of all, of course, with philosophy, which studies the most general laws of nature, society and thinking.
Since language is a socio-historical phenomenon, linguistics is included in the circle of sciences about human society and human culture. such as sociology, history, ethnography, archaeology.
Since language is directly related to human consciousness, thinking and mental life, linguistics has close connections with logic and psychology, and through psychology also with the physiology of higher nervous activity. The study of problems of the origin and early development of language is carried out by linguists in contact with anthropology.
Linguistics at a number of points comes into contact with literary studies, poetics and folkloristics, uniting with them into a complex discipline - philology, which studies the language, literature and culture of a given people in their interrelations.
Since our speech is embodied in sounds, important areas of linguistics are related to acoustics
- a branch of physics that studies sound, as well as the anatomy and physiology of speech sound production organs in the human body.
Finally, solving various applied problems, linguistics interacts with pedagogy and methodology, with medicine, and nowadays, increasingly with such sciences as mathematical logic, statistics, information theory and cybernetics.
In recent decades, as a result of the interaction of linguistics with other sciences, new scientific disciplines have emerged at the intersection of traditional fields of knowledge
- sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, mathematical linguistics and some others. Linguistics (linguistics, linguistics) is a science that studies languages (in principle, all that exist, have ever existed and may arise in the future), and thereby human language in general. Like any science, linguistics arose in connection with practical needs, but gradually developed into a complex and branched system of disciplines of both theoretical and applied nature. Within theoretical linguistics, a distinction is made between the particular and the general.
Private linguistics deals with a single language (Russian, English, Uzbek, etc.) or a group of related languages (say, Slavic languages). It can be synchronic, describing the facts of a language at some point in its history (most often the facts of a modern language), or diachronic (historical), tracing the development of a language over a certain period of time. A type of diachronic linguistics is comparative-historical, which elucidates their historical past by comparing related languages.
General linguistics deals with the general features of human language. It explores the essence and nature of language, the problem of its origin and the general laws of its development and functioning; it also develops methods for studying languages. Within the framework of general linguistics, typological linguistics is distinguished, which compares both related and unrelated languages with each other, a comparison aimed at clarifying the general patterns of language. General and, in particular, typological linguistics identifies and formulates linguistic universals, that is, provisions that are valid for all languages of the world or for the vast majority of languages.
One of the important tasks of general linguistics is the scientific definition of the concepts used by linguistics, such as, for example, the above-mentioned “vowel” and “consonant”, “sentence”, “proper noun”, etc.
Applied linguistics also solves particular problems relating to one language, and problems that are fundamentally applicable to the material of any language: the creation and improvement of writing; teaching writing, reading, speech culture, and a non-native language; creation of systems for automatic translation, automatic search, annotation and summarization of information, creation of systems that ensure human-machine communication in natural language.

Language is one of the main means of understanding the world. With its help we learn, master culture, and communicate with others. Languages are studied by philologists who graduated from the university with a degree in linguistics. They can either teach at a school or university, or work as translators, study the history of the language, compile dictionaries, and much more.

Graduate philologist - who is he?

One of the most common misconceptions is that people who study at philological faculties are deliberately “assigned” to school. In fact, linguists are not necessarily teachers of Russian or English or translators.

A person who has graduated from the specialty “Linguistics” can and has the right to work:

A teacher at a university or secondary educational institution.
Translator.
Secretary-referent.
Do research work.
Work in the field of artificial intelligence, especially if his specialty is applied linguistics.
Engage in the development of educational software and electronic dictionaries, abstracting systems.
Work as an editor or proofreader.
Work in the field of journalism.

Where to study?

You already know what to do as a linguistics major, but which university is the best to study at?

It doesn't matter which educational institution you choose. Almost all of them work according to more or less similar programs. During the training, students study the history of language development, dialects, phonetics, spelling, grammar and syntax of the language, vocabulary, and stylistics. Depending on the chosen specialty, additional courses may be introduced. For pedagogical specialties, a course on language teaching methods is required, and for applied ones, the emphasis is on language statistics, and even mathematics.

In Russia, the following universities are considered the most prestigious:

Moscow State Linguistic University.
M. V. Lomonosov.
Moscow State Humanitarian University named after M. A. Sholokhov.
University of the Foreign languages
UNIK Institute.

It is believed that the specialty “Linguistics” in the universities listed above is taught in the most in-depth and complete manner, and graduates themselves can later count on working in research institutes and laboratories, and work as translators in embassies and government services. But it is important to remember that not only the university, but also the grades in your diploma, your knowledge, influence the possibility of getting a job in a prestigious firm or company.

Areas of training

Studying at the chosen university can take place in the following ways:

Philology.
Linguistics - both fundamental and applied.
Translation from any language. Moreover, not only people who know English and German, Chinese, but also even Slavic languages such as Polish and Czech are in demand.

Negative and positive aspects of the profession

The advantages of the specialty “Linguistics” include the following:

Demand in the labor market.
A high level of language proficiency, especially a foreign one, is a big plus, which further promotes career growth.
There is always the opportunity to earn extra money on the side.

Low level of payment in a number of regions.
Quite boring and monotonous work.
In the case of teaching, a graduate of the specialty “Linguistics” may encounter a problem: excellent knowledge of the language with minimal teaching skills.
Unstable work, especially for translators.

In general, the graduate, if he, of course, studied, has very bright prospects.

Quite often on forums you can find the topics “Specialty “Linguistics”: who to work with?” Reviews show that graduates are quite willing to answer questions and advise on areas of work.

Often, philologists work not only at their main place (for example, in a translation agency or magazine, at a school), but also earn extra money through private language lessons, develop and sell their own programs for learning languages, are freelance journalists for magazines and newspapers, and earn extra money as copywriters.

In general, the profession is suitable for people with a humanitarian mindset, who have patience, love to read and research, and analyze certain processes occurring in language.

Description

Fundamental and applied linguistics today is one of the innovative and sought-after specialties in which specialists in this field are trained. According to the curriculum, on the one hand, students study such traditional areas as their native and two foreign languages, as well as traditional theoretical linguistic disciplines (semantics, phonetics, syntax, morphology, etc.) and applied linguistic disciplines (general lexicography, technology text processing, etc.), and on the other – innovative computer linguistics. In addition, the curriculum includes mathematical disciplines, history, translation studies, and theoretical courses in ancient languages (Old Church Slavonic, Ancient Greek, Latin). Teachers teach students:

speak freely and understand speech in the foreign language being studied, translate (written, oral, synchronously) and edit texts,
use applied linguistic programs and telecommunication technologies,
create intelligent systems,
use linguistic technologies in the socio-political sphere,
develop and improve electronic language resources and databases,
engage in research activities and formalize its results in the form of articles and reviews,
carry out linguistic examination of texts,
optimize and create content for websites (both in Russian and in foreign languages).

Who to work with

Bachelors with a diploma in “Fundamental and Applied Linguistics” are in demand in many areas: both in academic science and in the field of information technology or in high-tech sectors of the economy. Young specialists can conduct scientific research in applied and theoretical linguistics, develop new methods of mastering a foreign language, electronic dictionaries and intelligent systems. After graduating from university, young people can get a job as a website administrator, translator (including simultaneous interpreter), foreign language teacher, Web developer, content manager, lexicographer, computer linguist, copywriter, linguist, editor, proofreader, linguistic expert, computer developer programs and databases, referent.