Linguistic structures are pairings of meaning and sound or other forms of externalization.
A Linguists may specialize in some subpart of the following linguistic structure:
Phonetics, the study of the physical aspects of sounds of human language
Phonology, the study of patterns of a language’s sounds
Morphology, the study of the internal structure of words
Syntax, the study of how words combine to form grammatical sentences
Semantics, the study of the meaning of words (lexical semantics) and fixed word combinations (phraseology), and how these combine to form the meanings of sentences
Pragmatics, the study of how utterances are used (literally, figuratively, or otherwise) in communicative acts
Discourse analysis, the analysis of language use in texts (spoken, written or signed)
Alternative Classification of the Linguistic Structure
Developmental linguistics, the study of the development of linguistic ability in an individual, particularly the acquisition of language in childhood.
Historical linguistics or Diachronic linguistics, the study of language change
Evolutionary linguistics, the study of the origin and subsequent development of language
Psycholinguistics, the study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language use
Sociolinguistics, the study of social patterns of linguistic variability
Clinical linguistics, the application of linguistic theory to the area of Speech-Language Pathology
Neurolinguistics, the study of the brain networks that underlie grammar and communication
Biolinguistics, the study of natural as well as human taught communication systems in animals compared to human language
Computational linguistics, the study of computational implementations of linguistic structures
Applied linguistics, the study of language related issues applied in every day life, notably language policies and language education
