Goals of Linguistic Essay

Mr. 1. base 1. 1. Approaching the issue The task of setting out (to character a neutral word) the terminuss of a man beings activity may be burn downed in a variety of ways depending on conditions such as who is confused in the activity and who has the power to determine the goals. In the case of the goals of a scientific afflict, the question may, in principle, be approached by established scientific methods * Deductive approach The highest and or so normal goal is taken as an axiom, more particularized and lower-level goals argon deduced from it.* Inductive approach By methods of the sociology of science, the goals in truth chased by scientists may be ascertained by sociological methods, it may be ascertained what goals a community thinks should be pursued by the sciences that it entertains. The deductive approach suffers at least from the following shortcomings * The petition of the highest goal is itself out cheek the scope of science. * Clean deduction is only workable in the logical disciplines. What is c completelyed deduction in (the rest of) philosophy, the humanities and complaisant sciences is really informal and heavily dependent on the interpretation of words.The inducive approach suffers at least from the following shortcomings * Just like many other people, scientists occasionally pursue selfish or idiosyncratic goals, which a rigorously inductive approach would not be able to separate out. * The extra-scientific members of a tender community be they politicians or citizens defy limited presuppositions of making a rational contri only whenion to the discussion of the goals of a science, lacking twain fellowship and experience of the personality and possibilities of scientific work and presuppositions for appreciating the religious side of neutral fellowship (see below).On the basis of available evidence, it is safe to adduce that few of them slew distinguish mingled with scientific insight and proficient progr ess. Thus, if unmatchable wants at all a scientific approach to the problem of the goals of a discipline, one would have to combine as prevalent deductive and inductive methods, hoping that they will compensate for each others shortcomings. It would certainly be reasonable to do this scientific work (from m to time). However, it has apparently not been done.I will in that respectfore abide by winning a common-sense approach to the problem, informed both by some epistemology of philology and by some experience with linguistic work. 1. 2. Fundamentals standardised any human activity, philology has a place in a teleonomic hierarchy (see teleonomische Hierarchie) which is headed by its ultimate goals. Science is the pursuit of goalive knowledge/understanding (Greek episteme, German Erkenntnis). The attainment of such knowledge is its ultimate goal. This goal is itself subordinate to the goal of human life, which is the improvement of the conditio humana.It is in the nature of human cognition as opposed to Gods cognition , that it can be fully achieved only in communication. To say that the goal is headingiveive knowledge is therefore almost tantamount to saying that it is rational communication. This recasting also serves the purpose of avoiding a static conception of tendencyive knowledge. In the more specific discussion below, the exercise of communication in the achievements of the goals of a science will come up again. Understanding has both sides, a spiritual and a unimaginative one.* On the spiritual side, the human mind is enriched if it understands something and this in itself is a contribution to improving the conditio humana. * On the interoperable side, understanding something is a presupposition for controlling it. Controlling1 the world in which we live is another(prenominal) contribution to improving the conditio humana. Some sciences take aim a stronger contribution to the spiritual side, others make a stronger contribution to the practical side. This is the basis for the distinction betwixt pure and applied science. Linguistics is the study of human saving communication.Understanding this inclination has a purely spiritual aspect, which constitutes what might be called pure philology and what is more commonly called general linguistics. It also has a practical aspect, which concerns the role of run-ins in human lives and societies and the possibilities of improving it. This epistemic interest constitutes applied linguistics. given over the divergence in the epistemic interest of pure and applied science, there can be no universal schema by which the goals and tasks of a science should be systematized.As discussed elsewhere (see Wissenschaft), there is a raw material distinction between logical, empirical and hermeneutic approaches. Linguistics takes components of all of them. here(predicate) we will focus on the tasks of linguistics as an empirical discipline. For such a discipline, the main tasks are 1. elaboration of a surmisal of its object 2. documentation and commentary of its object 3. elaboration of procedures for the solution of practical problems in the object area. In what follows, the main goals of linguistics will be characterized, at a general level, according to this schema.2. Theory the nature of human language The spiritual aspect of the human understanding of some object is established in the elaboration of a theory of that object. In this respect, the task of linguistics consists in the elaboration of a theory of human language and its coitus to the languages. Its most important aspects include * the structure(s) and function(s) of human language and languages * the relationship between unity and diversity of human languages * linguistic change * acquisition of ones native languageIn characterizing the nature of human language, linguistic theory also delimits it against other kinds of semiosis, both synchronically in the comparison of intercommunicate and written languages with sign languages, whistling languages and, furthermore, with animal languages, and diachronically in the comparison with archpriest semiotic systems from which human language may have evolved. 3. Empiry documentation and explanation of languages As recalled above, linguistics is (among other things) an empirical science.In such a discipline, there is a necessary interrelation between the elaboration of a theory of the object and the interpretation of the object one informs the other. Furthermore, since speech and redden languages are volatile, they have to be documented. The tasks of linguistics in this area may be systematized as follows 1. language documentation recording, cook upation, analysis and archiving of speech regular(a)ts and texts that represent a certain language 2. language commentary 1. the setting of the language * ethnographic * social/cultural * genealogical 2. the language system* semantic system grammar, lexicon * expression syste ms phonology, writing The documentation of a language moldiness be such that people who do not have admission price to the language itself can use the documentation as a deputy for as many purposes as possible. In accompaniment, it should be possible to violate a description of a language on the basis of its documentation. The description makes explicit the meanings that the language expresses and the functions it fulfils what it codes and what it leaves uncoded , and represents the structure of the expressions that afford this.It does all of this in the most systematic and comprehensive way possible. Such a description may be used for a variety of purposes, most of which are mentioned below in the section on applied linguistics. Both documentation and description take the historical dimension of the object into bill. That is, in the synchronic perspective, they are systematic, while in the diachronic perspective, they are historical. 4. Practice application of linguistics T he daily use of language for communication and cognition is replete with all kinds of tasks and problems that require science for a proper solution.Some of them are * digest of grammars, dictionaries and text editions for various purposes * native and foreign language teaching * exam of linguistic proficiency * standardizing and planning languages * devising and improving writing systems * ontogeny and maintenance of special languages and terminologies * analysis and alleviation of communication problems in social settings * diagnosis and therapy of aphasic impairments * intercultural communication, translation and interpreting * communication technology speech technology, automatic speech and text production and analysis, machine translation, corpus maturation The descriptions produced in pure linguistics not only descriptive linguistics, but also socio-, psycho-, neuro-, ethno- etc. linguistics are exploited for the formulation of technological procedures by which tasks aris ing in the handle enumerated may be solved. And contrariwise, the demands arising from those practical fields are taken as challenges by theoretical and descriptive linguistics to produce theories and descriptions that respond to them. 5.Methodology epistemological reflection and workings tools The nature of the goal of science objective knowledge requires the elaboration and testing of methods by which putative knowledge may be attained, verified/falsified and applied in the solution of practical or interdisciplinary problems. * The epistemological side of this activity is a stock-taking of the particular nature of the activity of the linguist, its goals, conditions and possibilities.There will be reflection on the logical, empirical and hermeneutic nature of the object of linguistics and the approaches appropriate to each facet. * The functional side of methodology is the elaboration of particular methods within such a methodological frame of the discipline. Given the interpl ay of specific aspects of the linguistic object with specific problems and purposes, specific sets of methods may be real to deal adequately with such aspects of the object, to solve such problems and serve such purposes.This involves * in the deductive perspective, the operationalization of concepts and theorems and the elaboration of tests * in the inductive perspective, the elaboration of standards of bureau of linguistic data and of tools for processing them. While a contribution from general epistemology may be expected for the epistemological side of linguistic methodology, its operational side is entirely the responsibility of the particular discipline. Its status as a scientific discipline crucially depends on its fulfillment of this task. 6. Cooperation interdisciplinary fertilization.The crossroads of science into disciplines is, first of all, a necessity of the division of labor. As sight above, a particular discipline is constituted by the combination of an object wi th an epistemic interest. The object is just a segment of the overall object area susceptible of scientific insight, the epistemic interest depends on all kinds of factors, and the combinations of these two elements are consequently manifold. In other words, no discipline is autonomous and self-contained. The contribution that it makes to human understanding can only be assessed if it is compared and combined with other disciplines.The theories developed by a discipline must define their object in such a way that it becomes vapourific where they leave off, i. e. where the interfaces for the combination of related theories are. And they must be formulated in such a way that non-specialists can understand them and relate them to the epistemic interest pursued by them. Thus, a linguistic theory has to make explicit what it purports to cover and what not for instance, only the linguistic system, not its use and linguists should say what they think is required for taking care of the r est.Moreover, the products of linguistic description and documentation must be represented in such a way that non-linguists may use them. For instance, there must be * grammars practicable by foreign language curriculum designers * semantic descriptions usable by ethnographers * models of linguistic competence testable by neurologists * formal grammatical descriptions usable by programmers. Finally, linguistics must be capable of and receptive in taking up insights and challenges from other disciplines.For instance, * phonological concepts must be related to phonic concepts * models of linguistic activity must be inspired by findings of psychology and neurology * models of linguistic competence must be able to account for the performance of plurilingual persons. Interdisciplinary cooperation is the touchstone of the communicative capacity of a scientific community. A discipline that can neither inspire other disciplines nor be inspired by them gets isolated and unnecessary. 7. Co nclusion Above, five areas of goals of linguistics have been identified 1.Theory the nature of human language 2. Empiry documentation and description of languages 3. Practice application of linguistics 4. Methodology epistemological reflection and working tools 5. Cooperation interdisciplinary fertilization These goals do not belong to the same level. intention 1, the elaboration of a theory of its object, is the highest goal of any science. As already mentioned, goal 1 is interdependent with goal 2, because a theory of an object area presupposes its proper description, and a proper description presupposes a theory on which it can be based.Furthermore, the production of documentations and descriptions is a service to the society. This is even more true of goal 3 The solution of daily-life tasks and problems is a practical contribution to the improvement of the conditio humana. It has to be done by someone, and if it is done by the discipline that has the relevant know-how, it is bo th repair for the solution of the problem and better for the social standing of the discipline. Finally, the demands emerging from extra-scientific practice may feed corroborate into the content and form of descriptions.Goals 4 and 5 are more science-immanent. neither the elaboration of a methodology nor interdisciplinary cooperation are anything that would be of go relevance outside a scientific context. They are, however, preconditions for the attainment of goals 1 3. As said before, no serious theory can be developed, no adequate descriptions and documentations can be produced, and no practical problems can be solved, without an arsenal of pertinent methods and without a systematic interchange with disciplines that partly share the object area or the epistemic interest.