Microlinguistics is a branch of
linguistics that concerns itself with the study of
language systems in the abstract, without regard to the
meaning
Meaning most commonly refers to:
* Meaning (linguistics), meaning which is communicated through the use of language
* Meaning (philosophy), definition, elements, and types of meaning discussed in philosophy
* Meaning (non-linguistic), a general te ...
or national content of linguistic expressions. In micro-linguistics, language is reduced to the abstract mental elements of
syntax
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
and
phonology. It contrasts with
macro-linguistics, which includes meanings, and especially with
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of l ...
, which studies how language and meaning function within human social systems. The term ''micro-linguistics'' was first used in print by
George L. Trager
George Leonard Trager (; March 22, 1906 – August 31, 1992) was an American linguist. He was the president of the Linguistic Society of America in 1960.
He was born in Newark, New Jersey.
During his years at Yale in the 1930s and 1940s, he was ...
, in an article published in 1949, in ''Studies in Linguistics: Occasional Papers''.
[.]
References
Syntax
Phonology
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