且不能完全用实验方法来解决，所以，虽然某些学者对语言学评价很高，不少人还是感到，语言学本身仍在成长中，并没有成为精密的科学。
? 语言学有广义狭义之分。狭义的语言学专指19世纪以来的语言研究和语言理论，广义的语言学包括语文学(philology)。语文学以研究古代文献和书面语为主，而现代语言学以研究近代、现代语言和口语为主，兼顾其他方面。我们所说的语言学主要是指这种现代语言学。
? 研究语言在某一时期的情况，叫做共时(synchronic)语言学；研究语言在不同时期所经历的变化，叫做历时(diachronic)语言学或历史语言学。共时语言学也叫描写(descriptive)语言学，这是与历史语言学相对的；但是因为描写语言学要对语言习惯如实描写，不加任何褒贬，所以有时又被当作是与传统语法或规定语法(prescriptive grammar)对立的学科名称。
? 除研究个别语言外，人们还对多种语言作综合研究，试图找出其中的共同规律，这叫做普通语言学。由于普通语言学是讲一般性理论的，所以又称为理论语言学。如果想要把语言学知识运用于实际工作，那就是应用(applied)语言学。应用语言学本来多指把语言原理应用于教学方面，但是随着社会科学、自然科学和工程技术的发展，应用语言学的领域越来越广，已经包括文字创制、语言政策制订、语言疾病医疗、通信技本研究乃至人工智能研究等等。
? 人们对多种语言进行比较，所抱目的可能不同。19世纪的欧洲学者想通过语音和词形的比较追溯某些语言的亲属关系，这叫做历史比较(historical comparative)语言学。后来有人想要用比较
方法发现人类各种语言的某些共同现象，这叫做类型(typological)语言学。近来还有人为了解决教学或翻译问题而对比两种语言不同之处，这叫做对比(contrastive)语言学。 ? 从古到今，语言学者们视线逐步转移，视野逐步扩大，探索逐步深入，雄心也越来越大：从古代语言转向当代语言；从书面语转向口语；从个别语言项目转向整个语言系统；从一种语言的某些配置转向多种语言的共同特征；从语言的表面形式转向语言的深层意义；从语言的结构转向语言的功能；从语言作为一个孤立的对象转向语言与社会、语言与人脑的关系；从人们如何说出和听懂语言到如何利用机器来分析、辨识、模拟和翻译语言。如果过去的语言学只是一家小商店，现在它已经发展成为百货公司，千门万户，五光十色，令人眼花缭乱。 语言学的起源和发展：
? 公元前600～前300年，语言学（说“语文学”可能更恰当）有3个中心：中国、印度和希腊。8世纪以后，阿拉伯语言学兴起，它主要受到了希腊和印度语言学的影响。19世纪以来的西方语言学，主要是希腊语言学的继承和发展，在某些方面也是古代印度语言学乃至阿拉伯语言学的继承和发展。中国语言学在周秦时代独树一帜，汉代以后音韵学受到外来影响，近代和现代的中国语言学者又从国外摄取了更多的营养。对于西方语言学，中国学者所产生的影响不多，但是中国语法学家提出的“虚字”、“实字”的区别，也曾引起欧洲学者(如G．von der加布伦兹和O．叶斯泊森等)的注意和讨论。 中国语言学史
大致可分为3个时期：古代期（公元前3世纪～公元17世纪初，
约为先秦至明末），近代期（17世纪初～1898年），现代期（1898年至现在）。
中国语言学的现代期
第1阶段由1898～1949年，第2阶段由I949年至现在。在第1阶段，中国语言学有了很可观的发展。由于考古资料的发现，古文字研究达到了新的高峰。由于西方语言学的启发，语音研究的成绩超过了乾嘉以来的学者。在语法方面，也试图摆脱印欧语系的羁绊，探索汉语自身特有的规律。
在第2阶段，最重要的成就是在实用方面，如制订正确的语言政策，推广汉语普通话，公布汉语拼音方案，合理地简化汉字，广泛进行少数民族语言调查，并为某些民族制订或改进文字。以上工作，有一部分仍在进行中。在音韵学、语法学、汉语史、汉语教材编写方面，已有显著的成就。关于现代和古代汉语，已出了几部有分量的词典，并正在编印其他词典。汉语方言研究、少数民族语言研究正在逐步深入。利用计算机进行语言研究虽仍在试验阶段，也取得了初步成绩。
1.7 Main branches of linguistics
It is generally accepted that linguistics could be divided into several branches both at the microscopic level and macroscopic level. At the microscopic level:
1.PHONETICS(语音学):studies speech sounds, including the production of speech, that is how speech sounds are actually made, transmitted and received, the sounds of speech, the description and classification of speech sounds, words and connected speech, etc
2.PHONOLOGY(音系学): studies the rules governing the structure, distribution, and sequencing of speech sounds and the shape of syllables. It deals with the sound system of a language by treating phoneme as the point of departure. A phoneme is the smallest linguistic unit of sound that can signal a difference in meaning.
Comparison: Phonetics is the study of speech sounds that the human voice is capable of creating whereas phonology is the study of a subset of those sounds that constitute language and meaning. The first focuses on chaos while the second focuses on order.
3.MORPHOLOGY(形态学) is concerned with the internal organization of words. It studies the minimal units of meaning—morphemes and word-formation processes. Although many people think of words as the basic meaningful elements of a language, many words can be broken down into still smaller units, called morphemes.
4.SYNTAX(句法学) is about principles of forming and understanding correct English sentences.
The form or structure of sentence is governed by the rules of syntax. These specify word order, sentence organization, and the relationships between words, word classes and other sentence elements.
We know that words are organized into structures more than just word order. For example:
The children watched [the firework from the hill].
The children watched [the firework] [from the hill].
Here is a single string of words that without any change of order can have two quite different meanings, each corresponding to possible structure.
5.SEMANTICS(语义学) examines how meaning is encoded in a language. It is not only concerned with meanings of words as lexical items, but also with levels of language below the word and above it, e.g. meaning of morphemes and sentences.
The following are what the key concepts look like: semantic components, denotation of words, sense relations between words such as antonymy and synonymy, sense relations between sentences such as entailment and presupposition.
6.PRAGMATICS(语用学) is the study of meaning in context. It deals with particular utterances in particular situations and is especially concerned with the various ways in which the many social contexts of language performance can influence interpretation.
In other words, pragmatics is concerned with the way language is used to communicate rather than with the way language is structured.
1.8 Macro linguistics
? Linguistics is not the only field concerned with Language. Other disciplines such as psychology, sociology, ethnography, the science of law and artificial intelligence etc. are also preoccupied with Language.