What do historical linguists study

Politeness Theory. Speech Act Theory. Leech and Wilson Find Out More. What is psycholinguistics? How is psycholinguistics studied? Why is psycholinguistics studied? The Stroop Effect. Talking Chimps. What is Semantics? How is Semantics studied? Who does Semantics? When is Semantics studied? Where is Semantics studied?

Why is Semantics studied? Key terms in Semantics. The Semantics of Winning and Losing. Applied Semantics and Internet Ads. What is Sociolinguistics? How is Sociolinguistics studied? Who does Sociolinguistics? When is Sociolinguistics studied? Where is sociolinguistics studied? Why is Sociolinguistics studied? The Sociolinguistic Variable. Jenny Cheshire. William Labov, New York City. Penelope Eckert, high school ethnography.

William Labov, Martha's Vineyard. What Is Syntax? How Is Syntax Studied? Who Does Syntax? When Is Syntax Studied? Where Is Syntax Studied? Why Is Syntax Studied? Dixon Bruening What is Varieties of English?

How is Varieties of English studied? Who does Varieties of English? When is Varieties of English studied? Where is Varieties of English studied? Why is Varieties of English studied? Dialect levelling in Milton Keynes. London Jamaican. VoE Language attitudes and opinions. Standardisation and RP. The North South divide. Varieties of English in the Media. Tracing as far as possible the history of language. Describing and analysing changes of any type which have occurred cross-linguistically and within a language itself.

Languages can change in any area of language; phonology, syntax, morphology and orthography are only a few of the areas which could be considered. The construction of a framework of theories which can account for how and why languages change. Sub-fields As is evident, the study of Historical Linguistics concerns many different topics.

Comparative Philology or Comparative Linguistics concerns the comparison of cross-linguistic features in order to establish the relatedness of languages. Etymology concerns the study of word histories. Courses in these areas regularly draw students from other Harvard departments, especially Psychology, Philosophy, and other departments associated with the Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative.

The secondary field in Linguistic Theory allows such students to receive official recognition for their linguistics coursework. The contact person for Ph. Historical Linguistics.

Historical Linguistics Historical linguistics, the study of how languages change over time, subsumes both the general study of language change and the history of specific languages and language families.