Linguistics: An Overview

In this episode, Sara gives an overview of the different branches of linguistics and coins the term "perinatal linguistics" to describe the work at the intersection of birth work and applied linguistics. As a perinatal linguist, Sara uses the knowledge, theories, and frameworks of linguistics to describe situations and experiences within pregnancy and birth and aims to improve the pregnancy and birth experience for birthgivers.   URLS mentioned in this episode: www.summitbirthutah.com/birthwords   TRANSCRIPT: Hi. Welcome, welcome to the second episode of the Birth Words podcast, where we talk about linguistics. I think linguistics is one of those words that people have heard, but are kind of only generally aware of what it really means. And to be honest, those that study linguistics don't necessarily all agree. So we'll talk generally about what linguistics means. The first clarification that I want to give is that linguistics is not about rules about how you should speak. But it's about studying instead, how people do speak. Why do they speak in the ways that they do, and to what effect? What difference does it make when people speak in certain ways, and what underlies the choices that people make in the words that they choose? So in linguistics, we talk about language as a semiotic system: Signs are used to communicate meaning. In some languages, like American Sign Language, this is very obvious—that literally a sign is used to communicate meaning. But when you think about language, that's really all that words are as well: a sign. A verbal sign that communicates meaning to those in a given community that use the same signs to communicate similar meaning. And it's not always the same for every person. But there's generally a level of mutual intelligibility among speakers of the same language, and specifically the same dialect of a language. So, some questions to consider as we think about language as a semiotic system: (Again, that means signs are used to communicate to meaning.) Questions we can ask: what meaning is being communicated? Is the meaning that's being communicated the intended meaning? And what effect does it have on the hearer? Is it empowering or disempowering to the hearer? Is it respectful? Is it a language, a dialect that your interlocutor, the person that you're speaking with, also speaks? Or is there some interplay of different native dialects going on? So I turned today for my introductory linguistics episode to a favorite textbook from college. And back when I thought that I was going to study English and minor in editing, I took a basic course in English language and the textbook for the course was Linguistics for Non-Linguists. And I loved it. I underlined like way too much really, really nerdy stuff in it. Kept it on the shelf for years. And I plan to use it as a reference for this podcast quite a bit, as its title is Linguistics for Non-Linguists, and non-linguists are my target audience for this podcast. So Parker and Riley, the authors of the book, tell us that linguistic theory is “the study of the psychological system of language.” And they clarify “psychological system” to mean “the internalized, unconscious knowledge that enables a speaker to produce and understand utterances in his or her native language.” So again, when we speak, there's so much going on underneath it that's internalized and unconscious, that enables us to communicate. And so linguists really look at, How is that meaning communicated? To what effect? and Why is it communicated in the way that it is? and What does it all mean? So linguists study observable data, namely how people are speaking. They make hypotheses about what it indicates about the speakers’ internal psychological linguistic system, and then they make theories to attempt to explain the system. There are lots of branches of linguistics. Pragmatics means how language is used to communicate within a context. Semantics looks at the meaning of words, sentences and phrases. Syntax is the study of phrases, clauses and sentences. Morphology is the study of word formation. You notice we're getting narrower and narrower with each of these categories. Phonology is the study of sound systems of language and pronunciation. And then there are other lots and lots of other branches that we can look at with linguistics. We can talk about linguistic variation among different social different regions, ethnicities and genders. We can study language acquisition—how does that happen? What are the norms? What happens when there's an intersection of different language communities? And we can talk about language processing. How do we understand one another through language? Psycholinguistics looks at how this really happens in our minds. Discourse analysis closely studies how people understand one another and how they often don't. And neurolinguistics is an interesting branch that talks about how the brain processes language My specific… Well, it's not actually that specific, it's another rather broad arm of linguistics or sister to linguistics, is applied linguistics. And I really liked Wikipedia’s definition of Applied Linguistics, so we're going to go with that: “Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field which identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems.” So, as applied linguists, we look at what these different linguistic branches and theories and frameworks can do in real life. We have real life problems going on with things involving language, and how can we apply our knowledge and our theories to make these problems better—to better understand them? So, there are some different branches of applied linguistics: conversation analysis, which is fairly self-explanatory—analyzing conversation, and how the norms of conversation are followed and when conversation understanding breaks down; discourse analysis, which looks at broad fields of language, language in use, and analyzes how language is used in different contexts; critical discourse analysis, which views language as a social practice. And it examines the societal power relations that come and the role that language plays in power relations. There's forensic linguistics, which is a really interesting application, and multilingualism, and so much more that applied linguists study. So now, today, I am officially coining the term perinatal linguistics. So I'm applying the knowledge, methods, and theories of linguistics to the perinatal context: the experiences leading up to, during, and immediately following childbirth. So on this podcast will be telling stories, we’ll be examining the stories from linguistic frameworks, we’ll be delving into important topics at the intersection of birth and language. And if you have suggestions for topics you'd like to dig into on the podcast, please submit your suggestions. I would love to hear them. You can go to www.summitbirthutah.com/birth words, that URL will be in the show notes. And there will be a place there for you to submit your suggestions. And also, if you're interested in sharing your birth story and the role that language played in it, I would love to hear that as well. I'd love to have you as a guest on the podcast. There's a forum at the website www.summitbirthutah.com/birtwords, and you can submit a request to share your story on the podcast. I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions. I'm looking forward to sharing my ideas with you. So tune in next Monday. Bye!   Outro: Did words play an important role in your birth experience? If you're interested in sharing your story on the podcast, go to summitbirthutah.com/birthwords. If you're liking what you hear on the podcast, please leave a review on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, or wherever you choose to listen. For more resources about harnessing the power of words to benefit the birth experience, visit summitbirthutah.com/birthwords   Transcribed by https://otter.ai   REFERENCES: Parker, F. & Riley, K. (2004). Linguistics for non-linguists (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon, Inc. Applied Linguistics. (2019). Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applied_linguistics