The Study of Language

19th Century: historical linguistics

• Plato and aristotle made major contributions to the study of language.
• Plato was the first person to distinguish between nouns and verbs.
• 1786 is the year which many people regard as the birthdate of linguistics.

Early-to mid-20th century: descriptive linguistics

• The emphasis shifted from language change to language description.
• Ferdinand de Saussure is responsible for this change of emphasis, he is sometimes labelled 'the father of modern linguistics'.
• De Saussure´s crucial contribution was his explicit and reiterated statement that all language items are essentially interlinked.

Mid-to late-20th century: generative linguistics and the search for universals

• In 1957, linguistics took a new turning. Noam Chomsky
• Chomsky has shifted attention away from detailed descriptions of actual utterances, and started asking questions about the nature of the system which produces the output.
• Anyone who knows a language must have internalized a set of rules which specify the sequences permitted in their language.
• Generative grammar consists of a set of statements or rules which specify which sequences of a language are possible, and wich impossible.
• Chomsky has redirected attention towards language universals. He points out that as all humans are rather similar, their internalized language mechanisms are likely to have important common properties.

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