Editing Linguistic description

{{short description|Work of objectively describing a particular language}}
{{redirect|Linguistic analysis|the logical and philosophical school|Analytic philosophy|and|Ordinary language philosophy}}
{{Linguistics|Topics}}
{{Anthropology|linguistic}}

In the [[Linguistics|study of language]], '''description''' or '''descriptive linguistics''' is the work of [[Objectivity (science)|objectively]] analyzing and describing how [[language]] is actually used (or how it was used in the past) by a [[speech community]].<ref name="FPencyclo">[[#FPencyclo|François & Ponsonnet (2013)]].</ref> 

All academic research in [[linguistics]] is descriptive; like all other scientific disciplines, it aims to describe reality, without the bias of preconceived ideas about how it ought to be.<ref>{{cite book|last=Kordić|first=Snježana|author-link=Snježana Kordić|year=2010|language=sh|title=Jezik i nacionalizam|trans-title=Language and Nationalism|url=http://bib.irb.hr/datoteka/475567.Jezik_i_nacionalizam.pdf|series=Rotulus Universitas|location=Zagreb|publisher=Durieux|page=60|doi=10.2139/ssrn.3467646|isbn=978-953-188-311-5|lccn=2011520778|oclc=729837512|ol=15270636W|id={{CROSBI|475567}}. {{COBISS|13436977}}|archive-date= 1 June 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120601175359/http://bib.irb.hr/datoteka/475567.Jezik_i_nacionalizam.pdf|access-date=11 August 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Harimurti Kridalaksana|author-link1=Harimurti Kridalaksana|editor1=Kushartanti|editor2=Untung Yuwono|editor3=Multamia Lauder|title=Pesona bahasa: langkah awal memahami linguistik|chapter=Bahasa dan Linguistik|year=2007|location=Jakarta|publisher=Gramedia Pustaka Utama|isbn=9789792216813|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8rt2JikaPCoC|pages=11–12|language=id}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=André Martinet|title=Eléments de linguistique générale|year=1980|publisher=Armand Colin|location=Paris|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ElmentsDeLinguistiqueGGnraleAndrnMartinet/page/n172 6]–7|isbn=9786024523695|url=https://archive.org/details/ElmentsDeLinguistiqueGGnraleAndrnMartinet|language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Moch. Syarif Hidayatullah|title=Cakrawala Linguistik Arab (Edisi Revisi)|year=2017|publisher=Gramedia Widiasarana Indonesia|pages=5–6, 18|isbn=9786024523695|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dLs8DwAAQBAJ|language=id}}</ref> Modern descriptive linguistics is based on a [[structural linguistics|structural approach]] to language, as exemplified in the work of [[Leonard Bloomfield]] and others.<ref>{{cite book|author=Hans Heinrich Stern|chapter=Concepts of language|title=Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching: Historical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Applied Linguistic Research|year=1983|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=136|isbn=9780194370653|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p6T3eo5ltFAC}}</ref> This type of linguistics utilizes different methods in order to describe a language such as basic data collection, and different types of elicitation methods.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|last=Chelliah|first=Shobhana|title=Handbook of Descriptive Linguistic Fieldwork|publisher=Springer Netherlands|year=2011}}</ref>

==Descriptive versus prescriptive linguistics==
Linguistic description is often contrasted with [[linguistic prescription]],<ref name="McArthur1992p286">{{cite book|editor-last=McArthur|editor-first=Tom|year=1992|title=The Oxford Companion to the English Language|publisher=Oxford University Press}} — entry for "Descriptivism and prescriptivism" quotation: "Contrasting terms in linguistics." (p.286)</ref> which is found especially in [[education]] and in [[publishing]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Robert Lawrence Trask|title=Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics|pages=[https://archive.org/details/keyconceptsinlan0000tras/page/47 47]–48|year=1999|publisher=Routledge|url=https://archive.org/details/keyconceptsinlan0000tras|url-access=registration|isbn=9780415157414|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Nils Langer|title=Linguistic Purism in Action: How auxiliary tun was stigmatized in Early New High German|year=2013|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=9783110881103|pages=223|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IZUiAAAAQBAJ|language=en}}</ref>

As English-linguist Larry Andrews describes it, descriptive grammar is the linguistic approach which studies what a language is like, as opposed to prescriptive, which declares what a language should be like.<ref name="Andrews">{{cite book|last=Andrews|first=Larry|title=Language Exploration and Awareness: A Resource Book for Teachers|date=2006|publisher=Lawrence Earlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers|location=Mahwah, NJ|isbn=0-8058-4308-6}}</ref>{{rp|25}} In other words, descriptive grammarians focus analysis on how all kinds of people in all sorts of environments, usually in more casual, everyday settings, communicate, whereas prescriptive grammarians focus on the grammatical rules and structures predetermined by linguistic registers and figures of power. An example that Andrews uses in his book is ''fewer than'' vs ''less than''.<ref name="Andrews"/>{{rp|26}} A descriptive grammarian would state that both statements are equally valid, as long as the meaning behind the statement can be understood. A prescriptive grammarian would analyze the rules and conventions behind both statements to determine which statement is correct or otherwise preferable. Andrews also believes that, although most linguists would be descriptive grammarians, most public school teachers tend to be prescriptive.<ref name="Andrews"/>{{rp|26}}

==History of the discipline==
{{further|History of grammar}}
{{See also|Philology}}
The earliest known descriptive linguistic work took place in a [[Sanskrit]] community in northern India; the most well-known scholar of that linguistic tradition was [[Pāṇini]], whose works are commonly dated to around the {{BCE|5th century}}.<ref name="FPencyclo" /> Philological traditions later arose around the description of [[Ancient Greek|Greek]], [[Latin]], [[Chinese language|Chinese]], [[Tamil language|Tamil]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], and [[Arabic language|Arabic]]. The description of modern European languages did not begin before the [[Renaissance]] – e.g. [[Spanish language|Spanish]] in [[1492]], [[French language|French]] in [[1532]], [[English language|English]] in [[1586]]; the same period saw the first grammatical descriptions of [[Nahuatl]] ([[1547]]) or [[Quechuan languages|Quechua]] ([[1560]]) in the [[New World]], followed by numerous others.<ref name="FPencyclo" />{{rp|185}}

Even though more and more languages were discovered, the full diversity of language was not yet fully recognized. For centuries, language descriptions tended to use grammatical categories that existed for languages considered to be more prestigious, like [[Latin]].

Linguistic description as a discipline really took off at the end of the 19th century, with the [[Structural linguistics#History|Structuralist revolution]] (from [[Ferdinand de Saussure]] to [[Leonard Bloomfield]]), and the notion that every language forms a unique symbolic system, different from other languages, worthy of being described “in its own terms”.<ref name="FPencyclo" />{{rp|185}}

== Methods ==
The first critical step of language description is to collect data. To do this, a researcher does fieldwork in a [[speech community]] of their choice, and they record samples from different speakers. The data they collect often comes from different kind of speech genres that include [[Narrative|narratives]], daily conversations, [[poetry]], [[Song|songs]] and many others.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/855731853|title=Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia |date=2013|publisher=SAGE|editor-first1=R. Jon |editor-last1=McGee |editor-first2=Richard L. |editor-last2=Warms|isbn=978-1-4522-7631-1|location=Thousand Oaks, California|pages=184–187|oclc=855731853}}</ref> While speech that comes naturally is preferred, researchers use [[Elicitation technique|elicitation]], by asking speakers for translations, grammar rules, pronunciation, or by testing sentences using substitution frames. Substitution frames are pre-made sentences put together by the researcher that are like fill in the blanks. They do this with [[Noun|nouns]] and [[Verb|verbs]] to see how the structure of the sentence might change or how the noun and verb might change in structure.<ref name=":1" />

There are different types of elicitation used in the fieldwork for linguistic description. These include schedule controlled elicitation, and analysis controlled elicitation, each with their own sub branches. Schedule controlled elicitation is when the researcher has a questionnaire of material to elicit to individuals and asks the questions in a certain order according to a schedule.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Chelliah|first=Shobhana|title=Handbook of Descriptive Linguistic Fieldwork|publisher=Springer Netherlands|year=2011}}</ref> These types of schedules and questionnaires usually focus on [[Language family|language families]], and are typically flexible and are able to be changed if need be. The other type of elicitation is analysis controlled elicitation which is elicitation that is not under a schedule.<ref name=":0" /> The analysis of the language here in fact controls the elicitation. There are many sub types of analysis controlled elicitation, such as target language interrogation elicitation, stimulus driven elicitation, and many other types of elicitation.<ref name=":0" /> Target language interrogation elicitation is when the researcher asks individuals questions in the target language, and the researcher records all the different answers from all the individuals and compares them. Stimulus driven elicitation is when a researcher provides pictures, objects or video clips to the language speakers and asks them to describe the items presented to them.<ref name=":0" /> These types of elicitation help the researcher build a [[vocabulary]], and basic [[Grammar|grammatical structures]].

This process is long and tedious and spans over several years. This long process ends with a corpus, which is a body of reference materials, that can be used to test [[hypothesis]] regarding the language in question.{{cn|date=July 2024}}

==Challenges==
Almost all [[linguistic theory]] has its origin in practical problems of descriptive linguistics. [[Phonology]] (and its theoretical developments, such as the [[phoneme]]) deals with the function and interpretation of sound in language.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Dobrovolsky |first1=Michael |title=Phonology: the function and patterning of sounds |url=https://s18798.pcdn.co/neurolinglab/wp-content/uploads/sites/12757/2019/08/phonology.pdf |access-date=July 28, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Wiese |first1=R. |title=Phonology: Overview |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B0080448542000353 |website=ScienceDirect |access-date=July 28, 2024 |date=2006}}</ref> [[Syntax]] has developed to describe how words relate to each other in order to form sentences.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Wheeldon |first1=Linda R. |title=Generating Spoken Sentences: The Relationship Between Words and Syntax |url=https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2011.00281.x |website=Wiley Online Library |access-date=July 28, 2024 |date=June 1, 2011}}</ref> [[Lexicology]] collects words as well as their derivations and transformations: it has not given rise to much generalized theory.

Linguistics description might aim to achieve one or more of the following goals:<ref name="FPencyclo" />

# A description of the [[phonology]] of the language in question.
# A description of the [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] of words belonging to that language.
# A description of the [[syntax]] of well-formed sentences of that language.
# A description of [[Derivation (linguistics)|lexical derivation]].
# A documentation of the [[vocabulary]], including at least one thousand entries.
# A reproduction of a few genuine texts.

==See also==
* [[Mondegreen]]
* [[GOLD (ontology)]]
* [[Grammatical gender]]
* [[Text linguistics]]
* [[Language documentation]]
* [[Linguistic relativity]]
* [[Linguistic typology]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{cite book | last = Ameka | first = Felix K. |author1-link= Felix Ameka| author2 =Alan Charles Dench | author3=Nicholas Evans | author3-link=Nicholas Evans (linguist) | title = Catching language: the standing challenge of grammar writing | publisher = Walter de Gruyter | year = 2006 | pages = 662 | isbn = 3-11-018603-9}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia| publisher = SAGE Publications, Inc.| isbn = 9781412999632| volume = 1| pages = 184–187 |editor=Jon R. McGee |editor2=Richard L. Warms | last1 = François| first1 = Alexandre |author1-link=Alexandre François (linguist)| last2 = Ponsonnet| first2 = Maïa| title = Descriptive linguistics| encyclopedia = Theory in Social and Cultural Anthropology: An Encyclopedia| date = 2013 |url= http://alex.francois.online.fr/data/Francois-Ponsonnet_Descriptive-Linguistics_Theory-Social-Cultural-Anthropology_184-187.pdf |ref=FPencyclo}}
* Haviland, William A. (2005). [https://books.google.com/books?id=vaj33IYnl0YC&pg=PA93 ''Cultural Anthropology: The Human Challenge'']. Thomson Wadsworth. {{ISBN|978-0534624873}}
* Renouf, Antoinette & Andrew Kehoe (2006). [https://books.google.com/books?id=UBk7B4PWFmkC&pg=PA377 ''The Changing Face of Corpus Linguistics''] 408 pp. p.&nbsp;377.
* Rossiter, Andrew (2020). [https://linguapress.com/grammar/descriptive-grammar-english.htm ''A Descriptive Grammar of English'']. 207 pp. {{ISBN|979-8645611750}}

[[Category:Linguistics]]
[[Category:Analysis]]