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Some Guidelines for Writing Linguistics Papers

By Fritz Newmeyer

1.         STRIVE FOR CLARITY .  Be clear!  A technical linguistics paper is not a mystery story -- there should never be any surprises. Say what your conclusion is going to be at the beginning of the paper with a few words on how you plan to get to the conclusion.  A good typical opening for a paper is something like:

In this paper, I will argue that a voiced segment must be bound in its governing category. This conclusion challenges previous work by Kenstowicz (1983) and Postal (1987), who maintain that such segments are invisible to all syntactic constraints.  My argument will take the following form. In section 2, I will show that [d] and [o] are 'alpha-emitters', and thus free in COMP. In section 3, I will establish that being free in COMP entails the property of counterjunctive trijacency (CT). Section 4, shows how, given the natural assumption that CT is sigma-sensitive, the effect of being subject to CT and that of being bound in one's governing category are notational variants. The final section, section 5, generalizes [d] and [o] to all voiced segments and speculates on the implications of the general findings in this paper for Gricean implicature.

Summarize in an analogous fashion at the end.  In fact, the first paragraph of a paper and the last can be virtually identical. Each section should be like a mini-paper in itself, previewing what will be said and summarizing at the end.

Your paper should be peppered with phrases like I will now argue..., As we have seen... , etc.  Anything to baby the reader is fine!

Almost all papers refer to the work of others, either to adopt or to challenge some principle proposed elsewhere. That's fine, of course, but it is absolutely essential that the reader understand whether a particular point is your own contribution or whether it is that of the author being cited. It is surprising how easy it is to confuse the reader, if you present someone else's idea in one paragraph and discuss the idea in the next, without saying at the beginning of the second paragraph if you are continuing to present the other author's ideas or are beginning to challenge them.

Avoid using deictic this as in all-too-common passages like This suggests that we must abandon the UCP. Invariably there is more than one potential antecedent for this . Write instead: The failure of coreference to hold between the subject and the object trace in sentence (89) suggests that we must abandon the UCP.

2.      EXAMPLES. The reader should never be in doubt as to the relevance of a particular example and should know why it is being given before  reading it. In other words, as the reader encounters an example or set of examples, they should already know what to be looking for. They shouldn't have to wait until after reading the examples to find out why they are there.

It should be clear when you give an example whether you thought of the example yourself or if you are citing somebody else's example.

Never break up a sentence of text with an example. Examples should follow a full sentence of text, which should end in a colon.

An example in the text itself should be in italics (or underlined) followed by the gloss, if necessary, in quotation marks. For example:  The German word Buch 'book' is neuter.

NONENGLISH EXAMPLES.  Examples from other languages should consist of (1) The sentence itself; (2) A word-for-word or morpheme-for-morpheme translation, containing the relevant grammatical information; (3) The actual translation:

3.      IN-TEXT CITATIONS. Use the author-date format: Chomsky (1981) and Lakoff (1983) agree that language exists.   Use small letters after the date if there is more than one reference per year for any author, as in Chomsky (1963a) .

If you are giving a direct quotation, you must use quotation marks, and put the author, date, and page number after the quotation. It’s the law! Also, it's not enough to change a word here or there in a quotation and decide that you now don't need to use quotation marks. In fact, you still do. But there is very rarely any reason to put a direct quote in a paper. It is always much better to paraphrase the material that you want to cite in your own words. Even so, you still have to give a citation to the author you are paraphrasing.

4.      FOOTNOTES .   Footnotes should always be contentful. Something like See Selkirk (1980) belongs in the main text, not in a footnote. Footnotes are normally reserved for little bits of extra clarification or material for further thought that would be digressions if they were put in the main text.

The first footnote is often an acknowledgement. By tradition, term papers do not have acknowledgements, MA theses sometimes do, while Ph D dissertations, articles, and books invariably do. However, if you rely heavily on an individual for data , even in a term paper, there should be an acknowledgement to that effect.

5.      REFERENCES. There is no single agreed upon format for references in the bibliography -- just copy a format from a journal article if you are unsure. But make sure that you include page numbers for articles and publisher and city for books.

After you have finished the paper, make sure that every paper or book that you cited in the main text has a reference in the reference list.

6 .        PERSON, NUMBER, AND VOICE .  It is best to write in the first person singular:  I will argue that... .  Personally, I find the first person plural very pompous sounding:  (e.g. We will argue that... ).

Above all, avoid the agentless passive construction. Never use phraseology like  It has been argued that ... You would be amazed how often it is really not clear who has done the arguing.

7 .        THE ONLY "PROOFS" ARE IN MATHEMATICAL LINGUISTICS. You should avoid using the word prove as in I will prove in this paper that tense has its own maximal projection. Proofs are attributes of deductive systems, not empirical science.  It is much better to use instead expressions such as attempt to establish , argue convincingly , suggest , and so on.

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Term paper guidelines

The files listed below offer guidelines  for academic writing and research in both English Linguistics and Literary Studies:

English Linguistics

  • Term paper guidelines (English), short version (146 KB, pdf, 21.01.2016)
  • Term paper guidelines (English), long version (341 KB, pdf, 21.01.2016)
  • Video tutorial "How to format a termpaper" [MP4] (96 MB, mp4, 17.01.2017)
  • How to do a digital presentation (55 KB, pdf, 10.12.2020)

Literary Studies

  • Style Sheet Literary Studies 2021 (546 KB, pdf, 06.01.2021)

Linguistics Research Paper

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This sample linguistics research paper features: 8700 words (approx. 29 pages), an outline, and a bibliography with 32 sources. Browse other research paper examples for more inspiration. If you need a thorough research paper written according to all the academic standards, you can always turn to our experienced writers for help. This is how your paper can get an A! Feel free to contact our writing service for professional assistance. We offer high-quality assignments for reasonable rates.

Definitions

20th-century delineations, formal linguistics, noam chomsky, language competence and the sentence, functional linguistics, structural and comparative linguistics, sociolinguistic perspectives, language mixtures, pidgins and creoles, linguistics and politics, language extinction, psycholinguistics, semantics and pragmatics.

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Introduction

Linguistics Research Paper

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The reasons and methods for trying to understand language have changed from one historic era to the next, making scholarly activity in the field known as linguistics as vibrant as each era. Knowledge of the changes in perspective about language development provides one key to unlocking the door to characterize the nature of human beings as well as unlocking the door to the evolution and growth of societies. For example, Franz Boas (1858–1942) used what became known as descriptive-structural linguistics in his studies of culture and anthropology in the early 20th century. His interpretation of language was, in the words of Michael Agar (1994), “just a ‘part’ of anthropological fieldwork, and the point of fieldwork was to get to culture” (p. 49). This sense of linguistics as a vehicle was shared by the students of Boas and became a primary interpretation for many years, especially through the influence of Leonard Bloomfield. One can only imagine the kinds and degrees of meaning that are lost to us about peoples of the world due to the formal methods used in the study of language in the early 20th century and the relegation of language, as a research tool, as it was by Boas and Bloomfield. However, for the time, descriptivestructural linguistics was a significant advancement, albeit more of a part of anthropology rather than a separate field in itself. That changed dramatically in the latter half of the 20th century, particularly with the dynamic referred to by Noam Chomsky (2005) as the second cognitive revolution when the number of new research fields increased (e.g., cognitive psychology, computer science, artificial intelligence). The first cognitive revolution is a cognomen for the period between the 17th and early 19th centuries when classical thoughts and theories about language were proposed, especially by philosophers such as René Descartes, Gottfried Leibnitz, and Immanuel Kant.

In the 21st century, the methods of language study and characterizations of linguistics hardly resemble those of Boas and anthropologists in his era. Current scholars cannot capture all the characteristics of language in just one definition or modality to designate linguistics as one singular field of study. Multiple views of language and linguistics support a richer perspective about the study of language and people than one that identifies linguistic methods only as tools to find out about culture.

Philology in the 1800s was the ancestor to general linguistics. Those who identified themselves as philologists were oftentimes recruits from the field of philosophy. Their studies provided historical perspectives about languages—classifying and categorizing them by phonology, morphology, and syntax (but not so much by semantics and pragmatics).

Much of the early linguistic research (i.e., up to the first half of the 20th century) was undertaken to find out about the speech of ancient peoples. Thus, there was a reliance on writings—as well as on the spoken word—as these survived and changed into modern eras. Comparative linguistics enabled scientists to look for patterns in spoken languages in order to find connections among them that might give some indication of evolution. Those involved in comparative linguistics were close cousins to researchers in the current subfield of sociolinguistics, which attempts to understand language use and its social implications as well as the consequences of language and literacy development and education among citizens of world nations and societies within them.

In the latter half of the 20th century, the pursuit of language understanding enhanced the identity of linguistics as a field constituted of several subfields, with each involving the study of specific human dimensions evidenced in language use. For example, forensic linguistics provides insights into language, law, and crime; neurolinguistics includes the relationships between language and the human nervous system. This latter field holds much promise for understanding individuals afflicted with aphasia and other communication disorders. It also provides answers regarding second-language learning and multilingualism. Another linguistic subfield, computational linguistics, is one that has supported the developments of the computer age. This field involves scholars from a wide range of related disciplines (e.g., logicians, computer scientists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists) in the study of natural language understanding to create models for incorporation in technological devices and instrumentation for crosslinguistic communication and translation. For example, the quality of voice recognition on the telephone, as well as the complexities of voice recognition responses, was unimaginable even in the early 1980s. Likewise, translations of written languages in computer search engines, such as Google, require sensitivity to meaning as well as to the interpretations of words and grammar between any two languages.

The branching off of language studies into a range of related linguistic disciplines demonstrates that there is no limit to the number and variety of questions that can be approached. Answers are constrained only by one’s choice of definition, purpose, and characterization of language. Even so, the richness of language research, both past and present, shows that an answer to one question many times leads to new and more interesting ones. And, for the most part, language questions are now perceived to pose dynamic challenges in and among subfields of linguistics. For example, why should we be concerned about the extinction of languages? How did spoken languages evolve?

The Nature of Language

Studies of language by researchers who are designated as members of one of the several subfields of linguistics is limited by the particular theory or theories held by the particular researcher(s). Each theory is derived from the definitions of elements or characteristics of language that are of interest to the individual. Definitions of language chosen by linguists will influence the direction in which research will proceed; however, among the linguists, there is much cross-disciplinary understanding that continuously reshapes arguments and individual theories.

There are a great variety of scholarly definitions for language as well as for languages. Each reflects the theoretical perspectives and areas of study of the specific group (i.e., subfield) of linguists. If one were to ask for a definition from those who are not considered academics, however, they more often than not would associate language with spoken communication. Joel Davis, in his discussions about the mother tongue, explains that there is somewhat of a dilemma for linguists to pose a singular definition to language because of the multiplicity of characteristics and the use of one’s own language to describe language in general. To capture the nature of language and define it, linguists attempt to study language structure (form) as well as language use ( function ). Studies may reveal things in single languages or singular situations or may uncover things by comparison of one language to another language or other languages.

Those who look at the structure of languages do so to establish a foundation for exploring distinct parts and compositions of specific languages in order to see what might be common among them. Van Valin explains that from the beginning of the 20th century, those who were curious about “linguistic science,” such as Boas and his contemporary Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913), were especially focused on identifying language systems to support the further study of language use. This positioned the definitions of language within a construct that came to be known as structural linguistics. In the 1930s, Leonard Bloomfield reinforced the idea of structuralism, claiming that the main object of linguistic study should involve grammatical principles that have little or nothing to do with observations of what individuals know or think about their language.

In the second half of the 20th century, as researchers from fields such as psychology, cognitive science, and sociology began to take interest in language studies, definitions of language could be distinguished as representative of one of two major linguistic areas, formalism or functionalism. The former area involves linguistic study of the systematic, organized ways that language is structured. The latter area is more concerned with language use and the reasons why individuals choose to speak in certain ways and not in others.

Franz Boas, Ferdinand de Saussure, and Leonard Bloomfield are among those who are acknowledged as formal linguistic researchers in the first half of the 20th century. Their theories and the field of structural linguistics led the way to expanded ideas about language study. Boas is considered to be the father of American anthropology, and as stated above, his use of linguistic analyses was only as a tool to get to culture. Although Saussure did not write down his ideas in articles or books, his lecture notes distributed among his students became a text after his death titled Course in General Linguistics. Language researchers give recognition to Saussure for the growth of linguistics as a science, and his work has been a central one for the development of the subfield of sociolinguistics. Bloomfield is best known as a linguist, although some classify him as an anthropologist. Of his many writings, his book Language was revered for its discussions of structural linguistics and comparative work to characterize languages.

The work of these three scholars—Boas, Saussure, and Bloomfield—left an indelible imprint on the field of linguistics. In their wake, there began a strong desire among young language researchers to pursue studies in formal linguistics. However, none was to compare to Noam Chomsky who moved formal linguistics into a new home, that of generative transformational grammar.

A political activist and formal linguist, Chomsky designated two particular foci for characterizing and, thus, added to the definitions of language. In his book Aspects of a Theory of Syntax, he distinguishes between language competence and language performance. Previously, those researchers who were identified with structural linguistics ignored or paid little attention to language competence which, as stated by Van Valin (2001), “refers to a native speaker’s knowledge of his or her native language” (p. 326). Structuralists were more concerned about language performance, or how speakers used the language forms to communicate. In Chomsky’s work and that of others who ascribe to the newer area of formalism, there is more of an involvement with explorations of cognition, and this situates language competence as the main focus for striving to define language. Those who study generative transformational grammar in the tradition of Chomsky look for linguistic characteristics that are universal to all languages (e.g., all natural languages have nouns and verbs). Language is approached by exploring its generative capacity using a logical system of transformations to manipulate syntax.

Chomsky’s work drew attention to distinctions between the surface and deep structures of sentences. For example, he notes that the difference between the following two sentences is at the level of deep structure; both are composed of the same syntactic elements in the same order at the surface but differ at the deep level:

John is easy to please.

John is eager to please.

A critical part of the linguistic theories of Chomsky concerns how humans are “wired” for language. Having critiqued the work presented in B. F. Skinner’s Verbal Behavior, Chomsky reinforced his own belief that humans have innate knowledge of grammar as evidenced in the ways that individuals can generate new, never before uttered sentences.

This particular view of universal grammar and linguistic nativism contradicted the work of Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf; both had proposed a theory of linguistic relativity. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis states that the cognition of individuals is influenced by their linguistic experiences within their given cultures. In other words, people in different cultures have different worldviews that have been tempered by the ways that their languages are structured and used.

In the 1960s, Thomas G. Bever and D. Terence Langendoen characterized language competence in this way, “A person knows how to carry out three kinds of activities with his language: He can produce sentences, he can understand sentences, and he can make judgments about potential sentences” (Stockwell & Macaulay, 1972, p. 32). In the previous comment, there is the singular concentration on the role of the sentence. In formal linguistic research, the sentence has been the central grammatical vehicle through which characteristics of language are identified. Although all languages are the subject of study, it is particularly in English and many other SVO languages (i.e., subject-verb-object sentence ordered) that the sentence has provided a foundation for analyses.

Formal linguists who are designated as psycholinguists have long held that designing research at levels of discourse beyond the sentence is especially unwieldy, and it may be difficult to resolve a hypothesis with absolute certainty. One psychologist, who demonstrated this point in his work regarding the interpretation of written texts in the 1980s through the 21st century, is Karl Haberlandt, a scholar in the field of memory and cognition.

The previous discussion requires a clarification about the definition of sentence. Formal linguistics looks at the syntax of sentences and the rules by which the grammar of a language allows for the order of words in sentences. For example, English transitive sentences commonly follow the order [s]ubject, [v]erb, [o]bject, but there may be variations of this order that are acceptable in English conversation. French follows a SVO pattern but is SOV when personal pronouns are used (e.g., Je t’aime, “I you love”). Consider also the ordering of adjectives in English, for example, three enormous green avocados versus green enormous three avocados.

Although not a member of any of the subfields of linguistics yet mentioned here, Richard Montague is a linguist known for his attempts to quantify language by matching the logic of set theory to characterizing the semantics of sentences. Although his life was a short one, his legacy of Montague grammar remains to challenge those who respect formal linguistics and considerations of the ordering of language.

The second area of focus from which we might posit definitions of language is that of functionalism. Individuals who are involved in this particular area propose theories of language use that may or may not allow for grammatical connections. Van Valin classifies the functional linguists as extreme, moderate, or conservative. Those who are in the first category do not admit to any use for grammatical (i.e., syntactic) analysis in their studies. To them, all language study is necessarily at the level of discourse, and observations of language grammar are restricted to the discourse. Those who are conservative functional linguists study language by adding on language use components to formal linguistic grammars. They keep the syntactic structures as the main part of the design of their research and amend them with discourse rules. Susumu Kuno is a well-known functional linguist who proposed a functional sentence perspective that guided a part of his research at Harvard University.

Moderate functional linguistics is especially represented by the work of M. A. K. Halliday. This subfield of linguistics is particularly appealing to anthropologists since it encourages comparative studies of communication and discourse without completely discounting the need for reference to grammatical theories. Moderate formal linguistics includes the consideration of semantics and pragmatics within the analysis of spoken human discourse. Dell Hymes (1996), credited with naming the linguistic subfield of anthropological linguistics, commented on the nature of language and provided a functionalist perspective of grammar in which he criticized Chomskian theories of formal generative grammar. This perspective demonstrates the thinking of the moderate functional linguist:

The heart of the matter is this. A dominant conception of the goals of “linguistic theory” encourages one to think of language exclusively in terms of the vast potentiality of formal grammar, and to think of that potentiality exclusively in terms of universality. But a perspective which treats language only as an attribute is unintelligible. In actuality language is in large part what users have made of it. (Hymes, 1996, p. 26)

One important functional linguist and anthropologist who had studied under Boas, and whose work was particularly vital in the latter half of the 20th century, is Joseph Greenberg (1915–2001). He is credited with providing the first thorough classification of African languages. Greenberg looked for language universals through language performance, rather than through formalistic analyses such as those of Chomsky. Since his work resulted in characterizing languages in this way, Greenberg is also mentioned in discussions of typological universal grammar.

Classification of Human Languages

The classification and categorization of human languages is particularly complex. First, there is the complexity derived from the theories and definitions of the linguists who are influenced by their own subfields of linguistics. Second, there is the complex weave among the topics of language evolution, language modification and change, and language death that in some respects is an uncompleted textile, metaphorically speaking. Each of these areas is connected to the other in simple and intricate ways, and they continue to enkindle disagreements among researchers who want to classify languages. When, why, and how does/did language evolution occur? What are the causes and correlates of language change? Are there any simple reasons why languages die? How do languages differ regarding interpretation and communication both between and among cultures?

In the last quarter of the 20th century, it became somewhat clear that no one subfield of linguistics could provide full answers to those questions that concern the classification of languages. Thus, some linguists have joined forces with individuals who have opposing views from their own or who are experts in allied fields. For example, anthropological linguists do well to partner with formal linguists, neurolinguists, and archaeologists to search for the origins of spoken language. Researchers such as Marc Hauser, Noam Chomsky, Morten Christensen, and Simon Kirby have commented on the need for cross-collaborative efforts to study the evolution of language and languages, and they have been collaborative themselves.

Philologists who, for the most part, were later to be known as comparative philologists and, subsequently, comparative linguists, started out with questions concerning spoken languages and their origins. One of their main areas of inquiry was guided by material gleaned from artifacts that survived from ancient civilizations; most of these included writings and monuments from the Sumerian civilization dating between 5000 and 2000 BCE. Researchers hypothesized about modes of spoken language by evaluating ancient patterns of writing, that is, by separating out demarcations from other elements of what might be a grammar. They also strove to classify spoken languages by documenting those that occurred in various parts of the world, creating models of word structures and grammars as well as looking for consistency and similarities from one geographical area to another. This kind of work, of the philologists and comparative linguists, was, however, once limited by the Societé de Linguistique de Paris in 1866 as a response to the proliferation of ill-conceived explorations into the evolution of language prompted by the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. It was not until the last decade of the 20th century that research on the origins and evolution of languages had a resurgence among a new breed of anthropological linguists, who were not at all like their comparative linguist predecessors, as well as among teams of researchers from fields such as computer science, neurology, biology, and formal linguistics. Though still using theories derived from formal linguists, new paradigms for research included language competence and communication theories.

In 1997, Philip Parker produced a statistical analysis of over 460 language groups in 234 countries, showing the connections between linguist cultures and life issues in their societies (e.g., economics, resources that defined cultures, and demography). He used variables such as the availability of water, transportation, and means for communication to see patterns regarding the development of nations, especially in third world countries. Parker’s work can be studied to understand the difficulties involved in trying to classify languages as well as in identifying new languages or finding those that are going extinct.

Those who identify themselves as sociolinguists are concerned with the study of how individuals use language to be understood within particular communication contexts. This includes research about sports, courts of law, teen talk, conversations between individuals of the same or different genders, and even ITM (instant text messaging). Sociolinguists primarily concentrate on spoken languages or on gestural languages, such as American Sign Language. However, several scholars have become curious about written languages, especially about literacy. Rather than using formal linguistics, as did the structural linguists, sociolinguists use observations about the human condition, human situations, and ethnographic data to understand language. When their research includes formal linguistic analyses, it is to demonstrate language interpretations and comparisons of language use within particular social contexts.

Sociolinguists are well acquainted with the theories of Saussure. Although Saussure was only 2 years old when Darwin wrote On the Origin of the Species (1859), linguists in the early 20th century have remarked that Saussure showed an awareness of Darwin’s ideas in his lectures on language change and evolution. At that time, those linguists who were concerned with anthropology or language growth and language interactions within societies more than with the formal characterization of languages attended to linguistic performance rather than to linguistic competence. This was the period of structural and comparative linguistics. Until the early 1950s, the term sociolinguist was not used. In the following two decades, researchers were involved in what now is commonly identified as sociolinguistic studies, but these individuals were not fully recognized within the subfield of linguistics called sociolinguistics until well into the 1970s.

Sociolinguists are especially concerned with the processes involved in language use in societies. Their research designs are commonly ethnographic. Dell Hymes has been identified as the father of the ethnography of communication approach used in sociolinguistic research. As an anthropologist, Hymes observed that those in his field and those in linguistics needed to combine theoretical dispositions to fill in the gaps in each other’s research. He saw that the legacy of Boas resulted in many anthropologists thinking about the use of linguistics in their work only at the level of a tool as Agar has interpreted it. Hymes also saw that linguists were focusing on what he thought was too much formalism. An ethnography of speaking would enable those in each field to get a fuller picture of the language processes used by individuals, as well as reasons for their use, processes that are associated with one of a variety of social constructs—politeness behaviors, courts of law, and the deference to the elderly.

Deborah Tannen’s research, concerning gender differences in conversations in the United States in the 1980s, involved the use of video to compare the conversational behaviors of children, teens, and adults who were paired by gender and put into a room for a short time with only their partners. Her work has added much to understanding the effects of communication behaviors, by environment and human nature, along the continuum to adulthood. Although Tannen could have dissected her subjects’ conversations using formal grammatical methods, she was much better able to answer her research questions by analyzing the processes, both verbal and nonverbal, that they used. In fact, the nonverbal behaviors were especially revealing.

Tannen’s previous research had prepared her for her gender comparison study. In one early piece of research, she participated as a collaborator with several other linguists to observe and subsequently characterize differences in verbal interpretations of a film by individuals from several nations around the world. This led to the publication in 1980 of The Pear Stories, edited by Wallace Chafe. Tannen compared the narratives of Athenian Greeks to those of American English speakers and concluded that the style and form of interpretations vary according to how people of a given culture adopt the conventionalization of rhetorical forms used in their culture. She supports her claims with research from sociolinguists John Gumperz and Dell Hymes. Her comments about cultural stereotypes in this early study are one reason that this work should be reread in the 21st century, especially by political scientists and those concerned about cultural misunderstandings derived from translations between the languages of two nations, particularly when the conversations have consequences for peace between these nations:

The cultural differences which have emerged in the present study constitute real differences in habitual ways of talking which operate in actual interaction and create impressions on listeners—the intended impression, very likely, on listeners from the same culture, but possibly confused or misguided impressions on listeners from other cultures. It is easy to see how stereotypes may be created and reinforced. Considering the differences in oral narrative strategies found in the pear narratives, it is not surprising that Americans might develop the impression that Greeks are romantic and irrational, and Greeks might conclude thatAmericans are cold and lacking in human feelings. (Tannen, 1980, p. 88)

The concept of language mixtures is one that has been identified through sociolinguistic research. It includes areas of oral communication accommodation between people who speak different native languages as well as the use of new “half-languages,” as McWhorter calls them—that is, pidgins and creoles. As people migrate, voluntarily or as a consequence of a historical situation (e.g., the great potato famine, the slave trade), they have a need, to a greater or lesser extent, to communicate with those who do not speak their language. For example, the United States experienced large waves of immigration from the mid1800s to the 1920s. As these new Americans populated cities on the East Coast and continued to settle throughout the United States, they maintained their original cultures in ethnic neighborhoods and were comfortable speaking their native languages. Schools accommodated these immigrants, providing instruction in English as well as in dominant European languages. Across the neighborhoods, individuals tried to communicate for economic reasons and for socialization. Sometimes, the elderly preferred to speak only their mother tongue, even insisting that their children or grandchildren do so whenever in their presence. Regardless, these new citizens created what linguists call an interlanguage, which includes words and expressions from both the new language and their mother tongues.

Interlanguage is defined in one of two ways. It may be that an individual creates or mixes terms between the native language and the target language. A Polish immigrant might use an expression such as “Ja be˛de˛ is´ do marku” (“I will go to the market”), substituting the first syllable of the English word, market, in the Polish word, rynku, and retaining the final syllable of the Polish word. ( Rynku is the Polish word for market.)

A second way that interlanguage occurs is in situations where each individual in a conversation uses clever verbal manipulations. It may be that the speaker imposes the syntax of the native language on the order of words in the new language. For example, Larry Selinker, an expert in interlanguage, gives an example where an Israeli says, “I bought downtown the postcard.”

As individuals become bilingual, they will switch between the two languages in their attempts to be understood or to clarify for the listener what they mean. This behavior is called code-switching, and over time, individuals who are in constant communication may create new words and expressions that possess characteristics of each or both languages.

Studies of interlanguage and code-switching provide information regarding the development of new languages but especially new words. Researchers such as Joshua Fishman have observed a special form of language mixture that evolves slowly within speech communities—that is, groups or societies that use one variety of their native language. An example of this situation, called diglossia, is a language vernacular. Some languages have one formal language variety and one or more informal ones. Vernaculars are often called the “common language” of the people. What is very interesting about diglossia is that in some places in the world, as in some parts of Africa, two speech communities may live side by side and never mix. Speakers of one language will continue to use their mother tongue when addressing individuals who speak another language. Yet the latter will understand the former but never adopt any of the morphology, phonology, or grammar of those speakers.

Pidgins are formed when speakers of one language interact with those of a second language for particular purposes. As with language mixtures, they are called contact languages, and for the most part, they developed during the colonial periods when European traders sailed to countries in Africa, as well as to South America, and to islands in one of the great oceans. However, pidgins may arise anytime speakers of two languages have a particular need to communicate. They are characterized by a mixture of words from each language (e.g., French and Eˇwé, an official language of Togo) in a somewhat “abbreviated” kind of grammar. Frequently, pidgin languages die out as individuals become bilingual or if there is no longer a need for communication between speakers of each natural language. Many pidgin languages that prevail become regularized from one generation to the subsequent one, and they take on well-defined morphological and syntactic rules. When this happens, they are then called creole languages. McWhorter observes that, just as natural languages may occur in one of several varieties, creoles, too, may have more than one variety. Creoles often have the same generative properties as natural languages. One very well studied creole language is Tok Pisin of Papua, New Guinea. It is estimated that between 4 and 6 million people speak it.

Linguistic studies regarding language mixtures, including pidgins and creoles, have been a source of valuable information to historians and geographers as well as to anthropologists and sociologists. Besides gaining an understanding about more recent history, especially the colonial eras and migrations in modern times, researchers have been able to hypothesize about the structures of and changes in societies where there has been contact with groups from countries and nations distant from themselves. Those linguists who promote theories of linguistic relativism are able to better understand the effects of language change brought on by social interactions among peoples from different parts of the world. As moderate functionalists, they are also able to evaluate language use by integrating generative functional linguistics into their evaluations.

An edited text by Joseph, DeStephano, Jacobs, and Lehiste (2003) draws on research that is particularly important to sociolinguistic studies—that is, the nature and relationship of languages that may or may not share the same cultural space. In When Languages Collide: Perspectives on Language Conflict, Language Competition, and Language Coexistence, linguists from diverse subfields share essays regarding, as the editors say, “a variety of language-related problems that affect real people in real situations.” Although each one represents the views and perspectives of particular researchers, taken together, they give a powerful message showing that the complexities of language and languages are entities that are indicative of the complexities of human behavior and the structure of societies.

As is the case with so many texts in the subfield of sociolinguistics, When Languages Collide permits much reflection on the multiple roles of language through the paradigms of both formalism and functionalism. It especially provides thought regarding language endangerment and societal change. Among the topics discussed are language ideologies (i.e., the role of governments in determining language use), language resurgence (e.g., increased speakers in the Navajo nation), and language endangerment. Joshua Fishman, an eminent sociolinguist, expounds on the growth of literacy and the political structures of society. His chapter is especially intriguing since most of his other research involves studies of spoken language. Julie Auger describes the growth of literacy among people in the border areas of Belgium and northwestern France. In this area, a fragile language, Picard, has a growing literary tradition in spite of the fact that few individuals speak it.

Just as there has been a resurgence in studies about the classification of existing languages and cultures, there have also been linguists and anthropologists who have tried to understand the reasons for language endangerment and the extinction of languages. They have attempted to keep records about endangered languages, looking at linguistic structures and geographic areas where endangerment predominates. David Crystal, considered one of the world’s foremost experts on language, has compiled research about the language survival situation and reasons for language extinction. In Language Death, Crystal (2000) gave calculations that show that in 100 years between 25% and 80% of the world’s languages will be extinct. As of 2005, the actual number count of known languages (spoken and signed) was estimated as 6,912. Thus, approximately 1,728 languages, as a lower estimate, could be extinct by the year 2105. He states that currently 96% of the world’s population speaks only 4% of existing languages.

Research about language death is a relatively new pursuit. Just as societies have become concerned with ecology, global warming, and survival, they are becoming more aware of the case of linguistic ecology. There currently exists an International Clearing House for Endangered Languages at the University of Tokyo and an Endangered Language Fund in the United States. A new subfield of linguistics, ecolinguistics, has been designated for concentration on issues of language diversity and language death.

Reasons for extinction include the lessening of the numbers of peoples who speak the language, as in Northern (Tundra) Yukaghir, Russia, as well as language assimilation into a language that predominates in a geographic area. Only around 120 individuals in Northern Yukaghir speak the indigenous language of the villages. It is believed that this language is at least 8,000 years old. All of the community of 1,100 people can speak a second language, Yakut, which is the name of the Russian republic in which they live. The two indigenous languages are spoken by the elderly at home. In Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Gordon (2005) noted that these people have no ethnic identity due to their assimilation with other groups in the area, such as theYakuts and the Evens.Yet the NorthernYukaghirs do share cultural bonds as explained in the research of Elena Maslova, a formal linguist.

Salikoko Mufwene has summarized the work of linguists, such as David Crystal and Jean Aitchison, regarding language death, decay, murder, and suicide. He also has conjectured about the possibilities for language persistence and language ecology. To do so, Mufwene looks to the social dimensions of language characterization as he has researched it within the subfield of sociolinguistics. He, like other linguists who are concerned about societies and cultures, takes a historical perspective and includes questions and answers from work on migration and colonization in particular areas of the world (e.g., Sub-Saharan Africa). His research adds a special dimension to the subfield of sociolinguistics, which he calls sociohistorical linguistics.

Psycholinguistics is a subfield of linguistics in which researchers study psychological processes involved in language development and use. The primary focus for the psycholinguist is language behavior, and this may include studies of memory, cognition, speech processing, auditory processing, and reading. This subfield, just as sociolinguistics, is a relatively young one. From the late 20th century to the early 21st century, there has been an exponential growth in the number of psycholinguistic studies concerned with cognition and language processing. What is particularly interesting about this field is its focus on the individual as a speaker, writer, and thinker.

Members of the subfield of psycholinguistics are typically identified within the field of psychology and to some extent in educational psychology. Since a primary goal is to understand connections between the mind and language, there appears to be much more collaboration of psycholinguists with others in allied fields than there is among other subfields of linguistics. Perhaps this collaborative nature exists because a large body of psycholinguistic research has to do with language acquisition. Those involved in developmental psycholinguistics have provided a wealth of research regarding language learning in infants and children, cross-linguistic issues in language development, and correlates of brain development and language maturation.

Although most psycholinguists follow the theories of formalism, many may be identified as functionalists. This is especially true among developmental psycholinguists who study child discourse, bilingualism, and language education. Since psycholinguists have a proclivity for collaboration, researchers who are in fields of applied linguistics (i.e., fields that study language use in a variety of situations) tend to be collaborators with psycholinguists and educational psychologists. For example, Evelyn Hatch, a researcher in second-language learning and discourse, uses a variety of research theories that relate to the theory of knowledge known as constructivism. Annette KarmiloffSmith, who did much early work on children’s narrative interpretations, focuses on the fields of developmental psychology and neuroscience. It has been stated elsewhere that Daniel Slobin’s contributions in developmental psycholinguistics have enabled the field of linguistics in general to understand language acquisition among children in nations that represent a range of spoken language families.

Other concerns of psycholinguists have to do with language perception and language processing. A correlate of these areas is that of forensic linguistics, a growing subfield that has, as one of its areas of focus, the study of language interpretation and expression in matters of the law and crime. Knowledge of the use of memory and language perception is important to forensic linguists, and they are able to draw from the larger subfield of psycholinguistics for their own research.

Language Identification and Tools of Linguistic Studies

The large family of linguists includes those who are driven to research using formal theories and those who are motivated by paradigms of functionalism. At one end of the spectrum are the conservative formal linguists, whose interests are in how the mind uses language and the identification and description of universal principles of grammar, as well as those that are unique to every language group. At the other end of the spectrum are the extreme functionalists, whose work is to uncover meaning in the conversations (verbal discourse) of individuals and to see deductively what is similar and what is different in the language use of peoples. Some linguists look at their research through the lens of the historian or anthropologist; others look through the lens of computational models, as these models are able to mimic natural language. And others take a route of applied linguistics to bring research down to a utilitarian level, as in forensic psychology and in psycholinguistics as a component of educational psychology.

Researchers may be especially concerned about the actual language or languages for study, or they may be more concerned with the individuals in societies and the conditions of their lives that are determined by their language or languages. Whether a sociolinguist or a computational linguist, the resources used in linguistics include words, sentences, conversations, gestures, body language, writings, and a range of nonverbal signals. Linguists separate and manipulate these resources in the main categories of phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. These categories apply to analyses of spoken language as well as signed languages, of which there are 119 known throughout the world. Of these, American Sign Language (ASL) is most studied by formal linguists, as well as sociolinguists and other functional linguists.

Languages are also delineated as natural or contrived. Simply put, a natural language is any human language that has developed naturally over time. Invented languages are not a significant area of study by linguists, although this area can be of value regarding computer paradigms. Computational linguists and those involved in the field of artificial intelligence study natural languages and try to figure out how to simulate these in computer technology.

There are many linguists who believe that a research paper of Steven Pinker and Paul Bloom (1990), “Natural Language and Natural Language Selection,” was the main driving force for the spread of legitimate studies about language evolution into the 21st century. As stated previously, there had been a moratorium on this area of research imposed by the Societé de Linguistique de Paris in 1866 due to an unwieldy number of studies of questionable integrity that arose after the 1859 publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.

Phonology refers to the sound system of a language. Descriptive linguistics, during the time of the structural linguists, provided a large body of information regarding the articulation of speech, the classification of speech sounds in natural languages around the world, and the characterization of the brain areas in which receptive and expressive language originate and function. Regarding ASL, linguists only began to characterize phonology (which involves facial expression and physical involvement other than the hands) in the latter half of the 1900s, especially after ASL was acknowledged as a real language.

Through linguistic studies in the early 20th century to the present, there has been much research in developmental linguistics regarding language acquisition and the growth of language as it occurs contrastively in the speech development of infants and children throughout the world. Slobin’s research, comparing the expressive language of children in countries where languages belong to different language families (e.g., Turkish, Korean, Estonian, English), has proven invaluable for further studies of language acquisition. For example, he observed that initially all infants babble similar sounds, but those that are not common in the speech of a particular language drop off and are “forgotten” as the infant says his or her first words generally around the age of 12 months.

Research on the history of the phonology of languages, such as that of John McWhorter, provides a window into the possible ways that languages have changed as well as the development of new languages. McWhorter gives an example of the movement from Latin to French. In the Latin word for woman, femina (FEH-mee-nah), the accented syllable remains and the two weaker syllables are dropped as this word becomes femme (FAHM) in French. McWhorter comments that new words and languages develop with the “erosion” of sounds from the parent language to the new one.

Change in the phonology of languages is believed to be a very slow process, as is the modification of vocabulary forms. These precede changes in grammar. However, research by Atkinson, Meade, Vendetti, Greenhill, and Pagel (2008) indicates that there may be rapid bursts, which they call punctuational bursts, that occur at the beginning of the development of “fledgling languages” that may be derivatives of older languages. These characteristics are then followed by a period of slower development. The authors observed this in their studies of the languages of three language families and hypothesized that it holds for phonology, morphology, and syntax.

Anthropological linguists are especially curious about the studies of phonology to find out when humans first began to speak. Biologists as well have proposed theories based on the findings of archaeologists and paleontologists regarding the evolution of humans. Although there is evidence from fossils that the anatomical parts for speech were in place 150,000 years ago, scientists question when vocalization was cultivated for the use of communication. Even though the physical structures were available in the middle Paleolithic era, archaeological evidence of social organization suggests that the liberal use of speech and verbal language might have more reasonably started around 40,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic explosion.

One of the reasons that linguists from several subfields might find it worthwhile to collaborate with other researchers—particularly those in speech perception, audiology, neuroscience, and computational linguistics—is that each has expertise regarding different aspects of phonology. One possible goal of the collaboration might be to enable applications of new knowledge about phonology to support the development of instrumentation or technology to fulfill a medical or engineering purpose. For example, the development of the cochlear implant by individuals such as Graeme Clark involved a team of experts from 10 fields, including electronic and communication engineering, speech processing, speech science, and psychophysics.

Morphology is a branch of grammar that describes the combination of sounds into words, the development of the lexicon of a language. As with phonology, morphology is rule driven. Crystal (1985) explained that there are two divisions of morphology, inflectional morphology and derivational morphology. The study of the structure of words is especially interesting since they are representations of actual entities in a language that involve meaning. Early structural linguists were able to look at the use of words and the growth of language lexicons in order to situate them within the grammar of a language. For example, Boas, in his Handbook of American Indian Languages (1911), called attention to the way that Eskimos (Aleuts) take a single root word and combine it with other morphological components to designate different words for snow according to their unique experience of it in Alaska. This point has frequently been discussed by others, including Benjamin Whorf, who used it to support his theory of linguistic relativism.

In generative linguistics, morphology and syntax are considered central foci for grammar. Crystal explains that the same syntactic rules apply to the structure of words, as well as they do to phrases and sentences.

Sometimes, one may hear the comment, “I don’t have a word for that in my language.” And sometimes, it may take more than a single word to describe a concept captured in another language by a single word. As with the example above regarding snow, linguists may argue for linguistic relativism using similar comments. What intrigues linguists is the way that words may represent degrees of meaning for an entity. For example, alternative verbs for walk give different impressions of movement in a conversation or text (e.g., strut, saunter, shuffle ) . Linguistic studies about conversations and word use provide information regarding the growth of languages and language change, even at the level of morphological analysis.

Wierzbecka explains that polysemous words (i.e., words that have many meanings) are a special case for the study of languages. It is not that there may not be an equivalent word in one language available in another but that a particular usage of the word is not permitted. She gives the example of the word freedom, comparing it in five languages. In English, freedom can be used in the context of freedom from (interruption), freedom to (speak), and freedom of (choice). In Polish, the word wolno´sc´ is used to represent moral and political issues, matters of life and death. Unlike English, it cannot be used in a context such as freedom of access, freedom of movement. It can, however, be used as freedom of conscience.

Syntax refers to the grammar of a language. The study of syntax involves knowledge of the rules that govern the ways that words combine to achieve meaning in a given language. It is at the level of syntax that so much of the work of linguistics has been especially important. Whether in formal or functional paradigms, linguists have concentrated on the sentence and on syntax as primary characteristics that separate humans from the rest of the animal world. The work of Chomsky has contributed not only to the formal understanding of language structure but also to the enabling of researchers to understand something that makes humans special. Belletti and Rizzi (2002) stated it this way:

The critical formal contribution of early generative grammar was to show that the regularity and unboundedness of natural language syntax were expressible by precise grammatical models endowed with recursive procedures. Knowing a language amounts to tacitly possessing a recursive generative procedure. (p. 3)

Formal linguistics, as well as psycholinguistics, makes heavy use of syntactic and morphological structures in its research. There are several methodologies for syntactic, grammatical analysis. Besides those that are based on Chomsky’s generative transformational grammar, there are mathematical methods, such as that of Montague, and methods that probe universal grammar, such as that of optimality-theoretic syntax.

In the case of discourse analyses, those who might be considered conservative functionalists, using the definitions of Van Valin, sometimes combine methods—more of a formal approach to observations of syntax in conversational discourse.

Semantics refers to the study of meaning. Pragmatics refers to the connections between specific contexts and meaning. Although these two are specific areas of linguistics, together they have provided for theories of understanding and human cognition.

The field of semantics has been especially important to modern language philosophy and logic. Philosophers such as Rudolf Carnap (1891–1970) and W. V. O. Quine (1908–2000) delved into language philosophy with consequences for those studying artificial intelligence. Quine, in particular, explored the works of Chomsky and formalism in an attempt to verify his own direction regarding logic and language. Semantics also includes studies of speech acts and conversational implicature. John Searle, a prominent language philosopher who is identified with the free speech movement at Berkeley, has contributed greatly to speech act theory. This theory involves the search for meaning in what individuals say, and that requires further understanding of language contexts as well as linguistic culture. Conversational implicature is one component in speech act theory and has to do with particular conventions of speech in which there may be complicated underlying meanings. For example, a request at dinner, “Can you pass the salt?” does not require a yes/no answer but rather an acknowledgment in action by the guest. An understanding of speech act theory enables anthropological linguists to draw connections regarding the development of cultures as they observe commonalities in the use of language within particular cultural environments (e.g., traditions of rights of passage to adulthood and interactions in the marketplace).

Applications of meaning to grammar have practical consequences for computational linguists as well as for understanding political and other spoken and written discourse. Thus, those in the subfields of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics have provided much evidence, regarding the role of semantics in a wide range of grammatical and conversational contexts, among a wide number of diverse cultures around the world.

Concerns that have arisen due to linguistic and philosophical theories regarding semantics have to do with variations in both speaking and writing. Two of these areas are ambiguity and referencing. In many spoken languages, such as English, listeners accommodate much ambiguity in conversation. For example, sentences such as “Bill told John that he loved Mary” are well tolerated. Spatial relationships and nonverbal cues help listeners disambiguate referents in statements such as “Here it comes,” when contextualized within a situation such as a baseball flying into the spectator section of a ballpark.

Pragmatics plays an important role regarding semantic interpretation. Subfields in both formal linguistics and functional linguistics concentrate on identifying and interpreting the meaning of statements as they are applied to the real world. Areas of speech acts, conversational implicature, ambiguity, and referencing all involve consideration of real-world contexts. For example, a sentence such as the following is usually understood because of an individual’s prior knowledge of how the world works: “Sarah pulled the rug next to the chair and then sat on it.” In this sentence, a psychological principle known as parallel processing influences the listener’s determination of the referent for the pronoun it. One wants to match the rug as the referent; however, pragmatically speaking, it appears more sensible to choose the chair.

Studies of meaning in linguistics, whether at the philosophical level or that of human culture and society, involve each of the areas of phonology, morphology, and syntax to greater and lesser extents. Although these areas are often dealt with separately in research, they also may be used in one of several combinations or pairings.

It is particularly important for those in the field of anthropology to recognize and understand a wide range of linguistic theories in order to support their investigations and the works of cultures and societies. Rather than considering linguistics as an ancillary tool for research, as was the case with Boas, the new anthropologists of the 21st century need to consider the constitutive nature of language to humanity. The range of characteristics that constitute the matter of linguistics is so broad, however, that researchers of necessity need to collaborate in order to address their particular questions. Further study of the involvement of linguistics in the field of anthropology will require of the individual much reading in subfields, such as those described in this research paper.

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211 Research Topics in Linguistics To Get Top Grades

research topics in linguistics

Many people find it hard to decide on their linguistics research topics because of the assumed complexities involved. They struggle to choose easy research paper topics for English language too because they think it could be too simple for a university or college level certificate. All that you need to learn about Linguistics and English is sprawled across syntax, phonetics, morphology, phonology, semantics, grammar, vocabulary, and a few others. To easily create a top-notch essay or conduct a research study, you can consider this list of research topics in English language below for your university or college use. Note that you can fine-tune these to suit your interests.

Linguistics Research Paper Topics

If you want to study how language is applied and its importance in the world, you can consider these Linguistics topics for your research paper. They are:

  • An analysis of romantic ideas and their expression amongst French people
  • An overview of the hate language in the course against religion
  • Identify the determinants of hate language and the means of propagation
  • Evaluate a literature and examine how Linguistics is applied to the understanding of minor languages
  • Consider the impact of social media in the development of slangs
  • An overview of political slang and its use amongst New York teenagers
  • Examine the relevance of Linguistics in a digitalized world
  • Analyze foul language and how it’s used to oppress minors
  • Identify the role of language in the national identity of a socially dynamic society
  • Attempt an explanation to how the language barrier could affect the social life of an individual in a new society
  • Discuss the means through which language can enrich cultural identities
  • Examine the concept of bilingualism and how it applies in the real world
  • Analyze the possible strategies for teaching a foreign language
  • Discuss the priority of teachers in the teaching of grammar to non-native speakers
  • Choose a school of your choice and observe the slang used by its students: analyze how it affects their social lives
  • Attempt a critical overview of racist languages
  • What does endangered language means and how does it apply in the real world?
  • A critical overview of your second language and why it is a second language
  • What are the motivators of speech and why are they relevant?
  • Analyze the difference between the different types of communications and their significance to specially-abled persons
  • Give a critical overview of five literature on sign language
  • Evaluate the distinction between the means of language comprehension between an adult and a teenager
  • Consider a native American group and evaluate how cultural diversity has influenced their language
  • Analyze the complexities involved in code-switching and code-mixing
  • Give a critical overview of the importance of language to a teenager
  • Attempt a forensic overview of language accessibility and what it means
  • What do you believe are the means of communications and what are their uniqueness?
  • Attempt a study of Islamic poetry and its role in language development
  • Attempt a study on the role of Literature in language development
  • Evaluate the Influence of metaphors and other literary devices in the depth of each sentence
  • Identify the role of literary devices in the development of proverbs in any African country
  • Cognitive Linguistics: analyze two pieces of Literature that offers a critical view of perception
  • Identify and analyze the complexities in unspoken words
  • Expression is another kind of language: discuss
  • Identify the significance of symbols in the evolution of language
  • Discuss how learning more than a single language promote cross-cultural developments
  • Analyze how the loss of a mother tongue affect the language Efficiency of a community
  • Critically examine how sign language works
  • Using literature from the medieval era, attempt a study of the evolution of language
  • Identify how wars have led to the reduction in the popularity of a language of your choice across any country of the world
  • Critically examine five Literature on why accent changes based on environment
  • What are the forces that compel the comprehension of language in a child
  • Identify and explain the difference between the listening and speaking skills and their significance in the understanding of language
  • Give a critical overview of how natural language is processed
  • Examine the influence of language on culture and vice versa
  • It is possible to understand a language even without living in that society: discuss
  • Identify the arguments regarding speech defects
  • Discuss how the familiarity of language informs the creation of slangs
  • Explain the significance of religious phrases and sacred languages
  • Explore the roots and evolution of incantations in Africa

Sociolinguistic Research Topics

You may as well need interesting Linguistics topics based on sociolinguistic purposes for your research. Sociolinguistics is the study and recording of natural speech. It’s primarily the casual status of most informal conversations. You can consider the following Sociolinguistic research topics for your research:

  • What makes language exceptional to a particular person?
  • How does language form a unique means of expression to writers?
  • Examine the kind of speech used in health and emergencies
  • Analyze the language theory explored by family members during dinner
  • Evaluate the possible variation of language based on class
  • Evaluate the language of racism, social tension, and sexism
  • Discuss how Language promotes social and cultural familiarities
  • Give an overview of identity and language
  • Examine why some language speakers enjoy listening to foreigners who speak their native language
  • Give a forensic analysis of his the language of entertainment is different to the language in professional settings
  • Give an understanding of how Language changes
  • Examine the Sociolinguistics of the Caribbeans
  • Consider an overview of metaphor in France
  • Explain why the direct translation of written words is incomprehensible in Linguistics
  • Discuss the use of language in marginalizing a community
  • Analyze the history of Arabic and the culture that enhanced it
  • Discuss the growth of French and the influences of other languages
  • Examine how the English language developed and its interdependence on other languages
  • Give an overview of cultural diversity and Linguistics in teaching
  • Challenge the attachment of speech defect with disability of language listening and speaking abilities
  • Explore the uniqueness of language between siblings
  • Explore the means of making requests between a teenager and his parents
  • Observe and comment on how students relate with their teachers through language
  • Observe and comment on the communication of strategy of parents and teachers
  • Examine the connection of understanding first language with academic excellence

Language Research Topics

Numerous languages exist in different societies. This is why you may seek to understand the motivations behind language through these Linguistics project ideas. You can consider the following interesting Linguistics topics and their application to language:

  • What does language shift mean?
  • Discuss the stages of English language development?
  • Examine the position of ambiguity in a romantic Language of your choice
  • Why are some languages called romantic languages?
  • Observe the strategies of persuasion through Language
  • Discuss the connection between symbols and words
  • Identify the language of political speeches
  • Discuss the effectiveness of language in an indigenous cultural revolution
  • Trace the motivators for spoken language
  • What does language acquisition mean to you?
  • Examine three pieces of literature on language translation and its role in multilingual accessibility
  • Identify the science involved in language reception
  • Interrogate with the context of language disorders
  • Examine how psychotherapy applies to victims of language disorders
  • Study the growth of Hindi despite colonialism
  • Critically appraise the term, language erasure
  • Examine how colonialism and war is responsible for the loss of language
  • Give an overview of the difference between sounds and letters and how they apply to the German language
  • Explain why the placement of verb and preposition is different in German and English languages
  • Choose two languages of your choice and examine their historical relationship
  • Discuss the strategies employed by people while learning new languages
  • Discuss the role of all the figures of speech in the advancement of language
  • Analyze the complexities of autism and its victims
  • Offer a linguist approach to language uniqueness between a Down Syndrome child and an autist
  • Express dance as a language
  • Express music as a language
  • Express language as a form of language
  • Evaluate the role of cultural diversity in the decline of languages in South Africa
  • Discuss the development of the Greek language
  • Critically review two literary texts, one from the medieval era and another published a decade ago, and examine the language shifts

Linguistics Essay Topics

You may also need Linguistics research topics for your Linguistics essays. As a linguist in the making, these can help you consider controversies in Linguistics as a discipline and address them through your study. You can consider:

  • The connection of sociolinguistics in comprehending interests in multilingualism
  • Write on your belief of how language encourages sexism
  • What do you understand about the differences between British and American English?
  • Discuss how slangs grew and how they started
  • Consider how age leads to loss of language
  • Review how language is used in formal and informal conversation
  • Discuss what you understand by polite language
  • Discuss what you know by hate language
  • Evaluate how language has remained flexible throughout history
  • Mimicking a teacher is a form of exercising hate Language: discuss
  • Body Language and verbal speech are different things: discuss
  • Language can be exploitative: discuss
  • Do you think language is responsible for inciting aggression against the state?
  • Can you justify the structural representation of any symbol of your choice?
  • Religious symbols are not ordinary Language: what are your perspective on day-to-day languages and sacred ones?
  • Consider the usage of language by an English man and someone of another culture
  • Discuss the essence of code-mixing and code-switching
  • Attempt a psychological assessment on the role of language in academic development
  • How does language pose a challenge to studying?
  • Choose a multicultural society of your choice and explain the problem they face
  • What forms does Language use in expression?
  • Identify the reasons behind unspoken words and actions
  • Why do universal languages exist as a means of easy communication?
  • Examine the role of the English language in the world
  • Examine the role of Arabic in the world
  • Examine the role of romantic languages in the world
  • Evaluate the significance of each teaching Resources in a language classroom
  • Consider an assessment of language analysis
  • Why do people comprehend beyond what is written or expressed?
  • What is the impact of hate speech on a woman?
  • Do you believe that grammatical errors are how everyone’s comprehension of language is determined?
  • Observe the Influence of technology in language learning and development
  • Which parts of the body are responsible for understanding new languages
  • How has language informed development?
  • Would you say language has improved human relations or worsened it considering it as a tool for violence?
  • Would you say language in a black populous state is different from its social culture in white populous states?
  • Give an overview of the English language in Nigeria
  • Give an overview of the English language in Uganda
  • Give an overview of the English language in India
  • Give an overview of Russian in Europe
  • Give a conceptual analysis on stress and how it works
  • Consider the means of vocabulary development and its role in cultural relationships
  • Examine the effects of Linguistics in language
  • Present your understanding of sign language
  • What do you understand about descriptive language and prescriptive Language?

List of Research Topics in English Language

You may need English research topics for your next research. These are topics that are socially crafted for you as a student of language in any institution. You can consider the following for in-depth analysis:

  • Examine the travail of women in any feminist text of your choice
  • Examine the movement of feminist literature in the Industrial period
  • Give an overview of five Gothic literature and what you understand from them
  • Examine rock music and how it emerged as a genre
  • Evaluate the cultural association with Nina Simone’s music
  • What is the relevance of Shakespeare in English literature?
  • How has literature promoted the English language?
  • Identify the effect of spelling errors in the academic performance of students in an institution of your choice
  • Critically survey a university and give rationalize the literary texts offered as Significant
  • Examine the use of feminist literature in advancing the course against patriarchy
  • Give an overview of the themes in William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”
  • Express the significance of Ernest Hemingway’s diction in contemporary literature
  • Examine the predominant devices in the works of William Shakespeare
  • Explain the predominant devices in the works of Christopher Marlowe
  • Charles Dickens and his works: express the dominating themes in his Literature
  • Why is Literature described as the mirror of society?
  • Examine the issues of feminism in Sefi Atta’s “Everything Good Will Come” and Bernadine Evaristos’s “Girl, Woman, Other”
  • Give an overview of the stylistics employed in the writing of “Girl, Woman, Other” by Bernadine Evaristo
  • Describe the language of advertisement in social media and newspapers
  • Describe what poetic Language means
  • Examine the use of code-switching and code-mixing on Mexican Americans
  • Examine the use of code-switching and code-mixing in Indian Americans
  • Discuss the influence of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” on satirical literature
  • Examine the Linguistics features of “Native Son” by Richard Wright
  • What is the role of indigenous literature in promoting cultural identities
  • How has literature informed cultural consciousness?
  • Analyze five literature on semantics and their Influence on the study
  • Assess the role of grammar in day to day communications
  • Observe the role of multidisciplinary approaches in understanding the English language
  • What does stylistics mean while analyzing medieval literary texts?
  • Analyze the views of philosophers on language, society, and culture

English Research Paper Topics for College Students

For your college work, you may need to undergo a study of any phenomenon in the world. Note that they could be Linguistics essay topics or mainly a research study of an idea of your choice. Thus, you can choose your research ideas from any of the following:

  • The concept of fairness in a democratic Government
  • The capacity of a leader isn’t in his or her academic degrees
  • The concept of discrimination in education
  • The theory of discrimination in Islamic states
  • The idea of school policing
  • A study on grade inflation and its consequences
  • A study of taxation and Its importance to the economy from a citizen’s perspectives
  • A study on how eloquence lead to discrimination amongst high school students
  • A study of the influence of the music industry in teens
  • An Evaluation of pornography and its impacts on College students
  • A descriptive study of how the FBI works according to Hollywood
  • A critical consideration of the cons and pros of vaccination
  • The health effect of sleep disorders
  • An overview of three literary texts across three genres of Literature and how they connect to you
  • A critical overview of “King Oedipus”: the role of the supernatural in day to day life
  • Examine the novel “12 Years a Slave” as a reflection of servitude and brutality exerted by white slave owners
  • Rationalize the emergence of racist Literature with concrete examples
  • A study of the limits of literature in accessing rural readers
  • Analyze the perspectives of modern authors on the Influence of medieval Literature on their craft
  • What do you understand by the mortality of a literary text?
  • A study of controversial Literature and its role in shaping the discussion
  • A critical overview of three literary texts that dealt with domestic abuse and their role in changing the narratives about domestic violence
  • Choose three contemporary poets and analyze the themes of their works
  • Do you believe that contemporary American literature is the repetition of unnecessary themes already treated in the past?
  • A study of the evolution of Literature and its styles
  • The use of sexual innuendos in literature
  • The use of sexist languages in literature and its effect on the public
  • The disaster associated with media reports of fake news
  • Conduct a study on how language is used as a tool for manipulation
  • Attempt a criticism of a controversial Literary text and why it shouldn’t be studied or sold in the first place

Finding Linguistics Hard To Write About?

With these topics, you can commence your research with ease. However, if you need professional writing help for any part of the research, you can scout here online for the best research paper writing service . There are several expert writers on ENL hosted on our website that you can consider for a fast response on your research study at a cheap price. As students, you may be unable to cover every part of your research on your own. This inability is the reason you should consider expert writers for custom research topics in Linguistics approved by your professor for high grades.

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Computational Linguistics, Term Paper Example

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The scientific study of the human language and its structure is what is referred to as linguistics. Linguistics also comprises the study and exploration of syntax, phonetics and grammar. Particular topics discussed in linguistics involve dialectology, sociolinguistics, computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, structural linguistics and comparative linguistics. In this particular discussion, the main topic of focus regarding to use of linguistics is the subject on computational linguistics. This is an interdisciplinary topic that deals with modeling of natural human language to translate to rule-base or statistical semantic from a computational perception (Church & Mercer, 1993).

Computational linguistics mandates the use of artificial intelligence. The use of computational linguistics was invented in the 1950s period United States with the intention for individuals to use computers. Computer technology has increased the rate of text and language processing making it easier for people to communicate. Presently, human beings are able to translate texts written if different or foreign languages at a faster pace than ever before through using automated computer systems. Since computers are known to process arithmetic calculations at a much faster and accurate pace as compared to humans, extensive research was put into the innovation of technical computer systems that would be able process a remarkable capacity language or texts. A perfect example is the Google translator.

Initially, the research conducted on mechanical processing of language failed to offer and deliver accurate translations. This instigated the innovation and development of programmed processes to comprehend human languages. Computational linguistics revolutionized the era developing and designing software programs and algorithms that could logically process the data and information of human language. The invention of computational linguistics was facilitated by the introduction of artificial intelligence study in the period of 1960s. This field mainly dealt with the study of how of computational entities and agents communicated with each other at the level comprehendible by the humans natural language (Association for Computational Linguistics, 1984).

Notably, in order to be able to translate a foreign language into an understandable one for an individual it is important observed that one had to understand the aspects of both languages. The elements of the human language entail the grammar, which comprises of both the syntax (the grammar of the sentence structure) and the morphology (the grammar of word forms). One has to first understand the semantics and the vocabulary (or ‘lexicon’) in order to comprehend the syntax of language. Additionally, one also has to extensively understand the pragmatics of language use. Therefore, one can note that the effort made by language researchers to make translations between foreign languages stimulated the evolution of a unique discipline dedicated towards the understanding of how to language can be symbolized and processed through using computers.

Conventionally, computational linguistics was generally implemented by computer scientists who had focused on studying the utilization of computers to the process natural human language. Deprived of the invention of computer linguistics, one would not be able to process words on a computer system. Computational linguists has simplified how experts work, for example, the mathematicians, cognitive scientists, philosophers, psycholinguists, cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, anthropologists, computer scientists among others experts in artificial intelligence. The topic of computational linguists has expansively promoted communication between different regions and ethnic groups. The training offered through computational linguistics has promoted the language expertise and created job opportunities for many people around the world, for example, computer scientists and application developers.

The topic of computational linguistics is subdivided into two components, that is, the applied and theoretical modules. The theoretical computational linguistics section addresses the subjects regarding cognitive science and theoretical linguistics. While the applied computational linguistics segment puts emphasis on the real-world consequences resulting from the modeling and use of the human natural language. Currently, the study conducted within the range of computational linguistics is often prepared and done within a computational linguistics laboratory, a computer science division, a computational linguistics department, or at any other advanced linguistics department (LI, 2014). Various studies and research designs currently being innovated in the field of computational linguistics intend to build or create computer based software applications that would process text or speeches. The mentioned inventions would go long way towards increasing and improving the level of human computer interaction.

The only drawbacks depicted by the invention of word processing programs is that the language meant for human-machine communication will only be viable in cases where there are adaptive resources. The conversation between agents can be only complete if the developed language utilizes an evidence based databases that manages the language input and output. The theoretical approaches have facilitated the study of language structure which promoted the ability for speech synthesis and speech recognition (Jurafsky & James, 2000).

Speech generation using computers has introduced a different method of understanding and comprehending how machine language research constantly produces new ways of inventing or designing the neural networks. The evolution of language linguistic through the use of technical computerized applications assists people by giving them the insight on how to adapt and respond to artificially intelligent systems. As a result, one can conclude that machines or robots are capable of thinking, communicating and processing language.

Association for Computational Linguistics. (1984).  Computational linguistics . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Journals.

Church, K. W., & Mercer, R. L. (1993). Introduction to the special issue on computational linguistics using large corpora.  Computational linguistics ,  19 (1), 1-24.

Jurafsky, D., & James, H. (2000). Speech and language processing an introduction to natural language processing, computational linguistics, and speech.

LI, W. (2014).  Applied linguistics . http://site.ebrary.com/id/10768999.

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Title: tinybenchmarks: evaluating llms with fewer examples.

Abstract: The versatility of large language models (LLMs) led to the creation of diverse benchmarks that thoroughly test a variety of language models' abilities. These benchmarks consist of tens of thousands of examples making evaluation of LLMs very expensive. In this paper, we investigate strategies to reduce the number of evaluations needed to assess the performance of an LLM on several key benchmarks. For example, we show that to accurately estimate the performance of an LLM on MMLU, a popular multiple-choice QA benchmark consisting of 14K examples, it is sufficient to evaluate this LLM on 100 curated examples. We release evaluation tools and tiny versions of popular benchmarks: Open LLM Leaderboard, MMLU, HELM, and AlpacaEval 2.0. Our empirical analysis demonstrates that these tools and tiny benchmarks are sufficient to reliably and efficiently reproduce the original evaluation results.

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CBSE Class 10 English Question Paper 2024 PDF (All Sets) with Answer Key

CBSE Class 10 English Paper 2024: Download from here the Class 10 English question paper for the CBSE board exam 2024. Watch video to see students' reactions on the difficulty level of the English exam. Also, get the link to download the CBSE class 10 English answer key.

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CBSE Class 10 English Exam Pattern 2024

The CBSE Class 10 English (Language & Literature) question paper had 11 questions for 80 marks. The time allowed to write the paper was 3 hours. All questions were compulsory with some questions having internal choices.

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  • Section B: Grammar and Writing Skills (20 marks) - Objective Questions, Letter and Paragraph Writing
  • Section C: Literature (40 marks) - Extract Based Questions and Descriptive Questions

CBSE Class 10 English Question Paper 2024 (Set 1)

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Mary Poppins film age rating raised over 'discriminatory language'

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Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews

Mary Poppins, the classic film starring Julie Andrews, has had its age rating raised by British film censors because it features "discriminatory language".

The 1964 film has been reclassified from a U, which stands for universal, to a PG, for parental guidance.

In it, a derogatory term originally used by white Europeans about nomadic peoples in southern Africa is used to refer to soot-faced chimney-sweeps.

That now "exceeds our guidelines" for U films, the BBFC said.

The film is set in London in 1910 and follows a magical nanny, played by Dame Julie, who looks after a family's children with the help of Bert, a busking chimney-sweep played by Dick Van Dyke.

It won five Oscars in 1965, including best actress and best song.

Mary Poppins

In the film, Admiral Boom, a neighbour and Naval veteran who thinks he is still in charge of a ship, uses the word twice.

The British Board of Film Classification said it classified the film in 1964 and then again for a re-release in 2013.

"Most recently, the film was resubmitted to us in February 2024 for another theatrical re-release, and we reclassified it PG for discriminatory language," a spokesperson said.

"Mary Poppins (1964) includes two uses of the discriminatory term 'hottentots'.

"While Mary Poppins has a historical context, the use of discriminatory language is not condemned, and ultimately exceeds our guidelines for acceptable language at U. We therefore classified the film PG for discriminatory language."

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The Oxford English Dictionary says the term, which referred to the Khoikhoi and San people, is "generally considered both archaic and offensive".

The BBFC said its research about racism and discrimination showed that a key concern for people, particularly parents, was "the potential to expose children to discriminatory language or behaviour which they may find distressing or repeat without realising the potential offence".

The organisation says a PG rating "should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older" and that "unaccompanied children of any age may watch, but parents are advised to consider whether the content may upset younger, or more sensitive, children.

A U rating means a film should be "suitable for audiences aged four years and over" although the website adds "it is impossible to predict what might upset any particular child".

A sequel to the first film starring Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda was released in 2018, and it has also been a also a West End show in London.

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    Examples: Due to the fact that the structures to be tested are not highly frequent in written or spoken English, let alone in learner language, procedures of low explicitness, e.g. unstructured interviews or spontaneous conversation, will not provide data rich enough for our purposes (see Nunan 1992: 137). Schmidt (1924: 4) claims that ...

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    Definition: Term paper is a type of academic writing assignment that is typically assigned to students at the end of a semester or term. It is usually a research-based paper that is meant to demonstrate the student's understanding of a particular topic, as well as their ability to analyze and synthesize information from various sources.

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  27. Mary Poppins film age rating raised over 'discriminatory language'

    In it, a derogatory term originally used by white Europeans about nomadic peoples in southern Africa is used to refer to soot-faced chimney-sweeps. That now "exceeds our guidelines" for U films ...