what is linguistics?
- phonetics
phonetics is the study of the sounds of language. it studies the movements made by mouth and throat to produce different sounds (articulatory phonetics), the way that the brain distinguishes sounds (auditory phonetics), and the actual measurable difference between sounds (acoustic phonetics).
- phonology
phonology is the study of how sounds work within the context of a given language. it studies how languages organise different sounds and how they conflate distinct sounds within a language.
- morphology
morphology is the study of morphemes, the smallest unit of meaning in a language.
- syntax
syntax is the study of how morphemes are combined within a language. syntax is not primarily concerned with meaning, and you can therefore have phrases that are syntactically correct "colourless green ideas sleep furiously"
- semantics
semantics is the study of meaning in general, where words get their meaning, and how smaller bits of meaning come together to form complex thoughts.
- pragmatics
- typology
typology
- correlation to difficulty of acquisition
it's fairly well known that
- dominant order
- analytic vs synthetic
- isolational, agglutinative, and fusional
- noun classes
- binary, trinary, etc
- noun cases
- understanding syntax
phonetics
- IPA
- POA
- MOA
- vowels
phonology
- contrast
- phonemes
- allophones
- contextual allophony
- free variation
- phonotactics