Explain Briefly the Development of Linguistics (Essay Sample)

The Development of Linguistics in the 20th Centuary
The study of language can be approached from different angles. It can be studied as a human behavior or as a social phenomenon. However, basic definitions of language exist. It is generally accepted that language is a communication pathway. That is, it enables humans to pass a specific message. Some language scholars also look at language as a collection of sentences and utterances that can be used in combination to carry certain meaning (Dunlea, 2006). Therefore, the definition of linguistics can be summarized as the systematic scientific study of language.
The study of language has come a long way. The study of language can be traced back to many centuries (Kebbe, 2010). However, the detailed study of language began in the twentieth century. Before this, all attempts at studying language were isolated and restricted to some regions. For example, ancient materials on the study of the Arabic language have been found. These were early forms of linguistics. They mainly focused on certain aspects of linguistics (Dunlea, 2006). Nonetheless, the material made a big contribution to the field of linguistics.
Before the twentieth century, the study of language was known as philology (Kebbe, 2010). Philologists studied language from an external perspective. Many scholars were either interested in characterizing language as a social phenomenon or as a human behavior. Those who saw language as a social phenomenon equated it to other social phenomena. For instance, they believed that language was subject to changes brought about by changes in the social environment. Philologists also paid attention to language structure. Philology paved the way for modern linguistics. During this period, linguistics was not studied as a unified subject. Sub-specialties like semantics were studied separately. It is in the twentieth century that all the various parts of linguistics were integrated together. The integration enabled a more detailed study of language.
The history of linguistics in the twentieth century has been divided into various periods depending on the predominant views at the time (Kebbe, 2010). Each period is represented by a hypothesis. The classification emerged in the nineteen fifties. This system has greatly helped the development of linguistics. Various schools of thought emerged after the classification system became widely accepted. It is noteworthy to state that the hypotheses are in a continuum. Each era leads us to the next. The hypotheses include the genetic hypothesis (1786), the regularity hypothesis (1876), the quantizing hypothesis (1916), and the exact accountability hypothesis (1957) (Hockett, 1958). This paper will examine each of the hypotheses in detail.
The genetic hypothesis (1786)
There are many languages in the world. It is believed that the languages are more than 5 thousand. The languages can be grouped into families of closely related languages. This is based on the observation that languages undergo both semantic and phonetic changes over time (Kebbe, 2010). The genetic hypothesis is of the view that many modern languages that appear different can be traced back to a common ancient language (Hockett, 1958). It is not known when the ancient languages diverged into several new languages. Languages that have a similar ancestor are called cognates. This period is concerned with grouping of languages based on their origin. Most scholars of this period were mainly interested in the European languages. It made sense for most scholars to trace the origin of the European languages since materials written in the old languages were available. This interest continued throughout the twentieth century and in the twenty first century. It is noteworthy to state that this breakthrough was significant because it led to the development of more recent ideologies.
The genetic hypothesis has its origin in the study of Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. As early as 1767, the similarity between Latin and Sanskrit had been pointed out. However, there was no in-depth comparison (Kebbe, 2010). Franz Bopp also identified the similarities. However, interest in comparative linguistics arose in 1786, after Sir William Jones declared that the languages of Europe and Sanskrit were genetically related. An in depth comparative study of Sanskrit and the European languages then followed. Comparative linguistics led to the view that these languages shared a common origin. The scholars began by grouping languages into families or cognates. For instance, the semantic and phonetic similarities between English and German led them to believe that the two languages are cognates. The common language of origin was named Proto-Germanic language. Further examination of other languages yielded another family. The family comprised of languages derived from Latin like Spanish, Italian, and French. Comparison of Latin and Germanic languages indicates that they have a common ancestor. The parent language has been named proto-Indo-European language. This was after studies revealed semantic and phonetic similarities between Latin, Proto-Germanic, and Sanskrit. Another family named the Indo-European family was found to be a cognate of Latin and Proto-Germanic. The linguistics used various modern languages to reconstruct the ancient languages. Later some linguistics who studied the Indo-European languages realized that vowel changes occurred in some related words. The vowel variations gave rise to new sounds. Thereafter, the new words carried a different meaning. This observation was summarized in Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law. Both Grimm and Verner were philologists.
The regularity hypothesis
By 1836, Germanic and romance languages scholars had done extensive research on the languages (Kebbe, 2010). This was boosted by the availability of written texts especially in Latin. The Germanic scholars relied on reconstruction of the parent language using the middle age Germanic languages (Fasold and Connor-Linton, 2006). After this intense interest in linguistics, there was a more systematic and structured approach to linguistics.
In 1875, a group of German scholars founded a school. The scholars were later nicknamed the neogrammarians (Kebbe, 2010). They became the first scholars to put comparative studies in a logical historical order. The origins of the regularity hypothesis can be traced to the neogrammarians. The hypothesis held that sound laws did not have exceptions. That is, they were of the opinion that if sound changed, it would affect all the words containing that sound. The hypothesis postulated that the new sound would affect words in a particular place within a specified phonetic context (Fasold and Connor-Linton, 2006). The neogrammarians stated that one of four scenarios could explain words that did not follow the rules put forth by their hypothesis.
Chance correspondence: - sometimes words from two different language families may exhibit some phonetic and semantic similarity. The words should not be considered descendants of the same language even if they have closely related meaning and pronunciation. In other words, the similarity is merely coincidental (Kebbe, 2010).
Rule deficiency: - some exceptions may occur due to a deficiency in sound laws. The sound rules may fail to put into consideration all the words that are affected by the sound in a different way. The neogrammarians suggested that if such a scenario occurs, then the laws should be adjusted to accommodate all the words affected by the sound.
Loan words: - some words borrowed from other languages may enter a language long after sound changes have occurred. The new words will not conform to the sound system of other words in the borrowing language.
Analogical reformation: - some borrowed words may not follow the laws of sound owing to their reformation. The borrowed word may be modified to fit the existing language rules without changing its sound. This may be attributed to fact that language speakers seek to remove irregularities in the language. However, it has been noted that some words clusters may move from a regular pattern to an irregular one.
Critique of the neogrammarian hypothesis
Some linguists have criticized the regularity hypothesis for being overly reliant on sound changes (Kebbe, 2010). It is not possible for a change in sound to affect all the words that contain the sound at the same time. Furthermore, some words may retain their original sound. This indicates that the sound laws are not universal in nature. The neogrammarians also refer to geographic boundaries in their work. The physical span of such a geographic region is not specified.
The quantizing hypothesis
A major breakthrough in the field of linguistics occurred in 1916 following a publication by Ferdinand De Saussure (Kebbe, 2010). The publication led to renewed interest in linguistics. The hypothesis is based on phonetic distinctiveness of words. It centers on the differences between distinctive and non-distinctive sounds of a language (Yule, 2005). The study of phonemes led to the emergence of another related hypothesis called the phonetic hypothesis.
De Saussure also made a significant contribution to linguistics through his work on speech and language (Kebbe, 2010). He pointed out that language and speech are different concepts. By separating the two, he was able to study language comprehensively. This gave rise to the view that language consists of rules and regulations. This implies that when one learns a new language, they are learning the rules governing the language. On the other hand, speech is an outward expression of the learnt rules. Speech may be modified to suit certain contexts. That is, language usage may be adapted to suit the listener.
The quantizing hypothesis lays emphasis on sound distinctiveness (Kebbe, 2010). This implies that sounds vary acco...