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  2. Etymology - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymology

    Etymology (/ ˌ ɛ t ɪ ˈ m ɒ l ə dʒ i /, ET-im-OL-ə-jee [1]) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. [2] In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. [1]

  3. Historical linguistics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_linguistics

    In the context of historical linguistics, formal means of expression change over time. Words as units in the lexicon are the subject matter of lexicology. Along with clitics, words are generally accepted to be the smallest units of syntax; however, it is clear in most languages that words may be related to one another by rules. These rules are ...

  4. Origin of language - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language

    The origin of language, its relationship with human evolution, and its consequences have been subjects of study for centuries.Scholars wishing to study the origins of language draw inferences from evidence such as the fossil record, archaeological evidence, contemporary language diversity, studies of language acquisition, and comparisons between human language and systems of animal ...

  5. Morphology (linguistics) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morphology_(linguistics)

    In linguistics, morphology is the study of words, including the principles by which they are formed, and how they relate to one another within a language. [1] [2] Most approaches to morphology investigate the structure of words in terms of morphemes, which are the smallest units in a language with some independent meaning.

  6. History of linguistics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_linguistics

    Linguistics is the scientific study of language, [1] involving analysis of language form, language meaning, and language in context. [2]Language use was first systematically documented in Mesopotamia, with extant lexical lists of the 3rd to the 2nd Millennia BCE, offering glossaries on Sumerian cuneiform usage and meaning, and phonetical vocabularies of foreign languages.

  7. Comparative linguistics - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_linguistics

    Comparative linguistics is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness.. Genetic relatedness implies a common origin or proto-language and comparative linguistics aims to construct language families, to reconstruct proto-languages and specify the changes that have resulted in the documented languages.

  8. Lexicology - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexicology

    Since lexicology studies the meaning of words and their semantic relations, it often explores the history and development of a word. Etymologists analyze related languages using the comparative method , which is a set of techniques that allow linguists to recover the ancestral phonological, morphological, syntactic, etc., components of modern ...

  9. Word - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Word

    A morphology tree of the English word "independently" Morphology is the study of word formation and structure. Words may undergo different morphological processes which are traditionally classified into two broad groups: derivation and inflection. Derivation is a process in which a new word is created from existing ones, with an adjustment to ...