General and Particular
Language is a social cultural
geographical phenomenon. There is a deep relationship between language and
society. Man acquires and uses language in society. A language is an
abstraction of abstractions, a system of systems. It has its further
abstractions such as, dialects, sociolects, idiolects etc. That is why we have
to keep in mind the geographical are in which this language is spoken, the
culture and the society in which it is used. Only then our study of a language
can be completed and comprehensive. So we should took at a language not only
from within but also from without. We should study it from the points of view of
form and functions.
The nature of linguistic abstractions
as we discussed above may be of different degrees. Whatever abstractions a
linguist makes must be a part of the one living language. Some abstractions are
of general nature while other are of particular nature the categories of
phonetics, phonology and grammar are general, while the components of the
lexicon of language are of particular. For example a dictionary or lexicon of a
language explains each and every word separately and makes statements for each
of them. They explain different shades of meaning of every word separately.
Thus they make particular study of each and every word. While on the other
hand, grammar, phonology and phonetics deals with general rules, classes and
categories such as rules, details of pronunciation, transcription and
orthography. Here word are stated in terms of their relations with other words
in the sentences. In a dictionary we find description of classes, categories
and structural rules of every word. The examples and illustrations are also
given as per rules of grammar. That way a dictionary gives the individual
information of each word. The Oxford English Dictionary gives such particular
information with explanations of each and every word in particular.
For example, it explains physical
abstract the meaning of different words such as, ‘summit of a mountain’, and
‘summit meeting’, ‘depth of water’ and ‘depth of despair’. It also explains
personal and impersonal meaning of different words such as ‘Prince Edward’ and
‘Cox’s Orange
is a prince of apples.’ This dictionary also gives historical facts about
different words. We also learn hoe certain nouns are sued as verbs and verbs as
nouns. It also gives us an idea about homophonoes (words pronounced alike) such
as ‘bear’ (an animal) and ‘bear’ (endure)
Thus general and particular studies
of a language are very useful in our study of a language.
No comments:
Post a Comment