Theoretical (or general) linguistics is about structure (grammar),
and meaning (semantics).
In semantics, autonomous
linguistics explores the nature of language abstracted away from the many
aspects of usage, and contextual
linguistics combines linguistics with other fields, such as philosophy or sociology,
to explain language's social functions.
Linguistics also compares languages and explores their histories, in order to
find universal properties of language and to account for its development and
origins. Slightly separate from general linguistics are the sub-fields of phonology,
which studies the role of language's sounds in particular languages, and phonetics,
the study of how sounds are produced and perceived.
Applied
linguistics puts linguistic theories into practice in areas such as
foreign language teaching, speech
therapy, translation and speech
pathology.
Linguistics -
Wikipedia
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