Essential Linguistics Tips for Language Learners
Phonetics: Learn how individual sounds (phonemes) are produced in different languages. Pay attention to where sounds are made in the mouth (e.g., tongue placement) and how they differ from your native language.
Phonology: Understand the sound patterns of the language you're studying. This will help you with pronunciation and comprehension
Break Down Words: Learn how words are formed by breaking them into their smallest units of meaning (morphemes). For example, “unhappiness” can be broken into “un-,” “happy,” and “-ness.”
Prefixes & Suffixes: Learn common prefixes, suffixes, and root words. This can help with understanding new vocabulary.
Sentence Structure: Study how sentences are structured in your target language (e.g., Subject-Verb-Object for English vs. Subject-Object-Verb for Japanese). Understanding basic sentence structure helps with both writing and speaking.
Word Order: Recognize how word order affects meaning and function (e.g., questions, commands, statements).
Semantics: Focus on the meaning of words and sentences. For example, some words might have different meanings depending on context (polysemy).
Pragmatics: Study how context affects meaning. For instance, saying "It’s cold in here" might imply a request to close the window rather than just stating a fact.
Language Variation: Understand how language varies by region, social class, or group. This includes dialects, slang, and register (formal vs. informal speech).
Code-Switching: Learn how and why people switch between languages or dialects in different social situations.
Language Change: Languages evolve over time. Understanding language history can help you see connections between different languages, especially if you're studying related ones (e.g., Romance languages like Spanish, French, and Italian).
Cognates: These are words that look and mean the same in two languages because they share a common origin (e.g., “information” in English and “información” in Spanish).
False Friends: Be aware of words that look similar but have different meanings in different languages (e.g., “actual” in English vs. “actual” in Spanish, which means "current").
Learn to read the IPA to better understand pronunciation across languages. It's a great tool for learning how different sounds are made and distinguishing between similar ones.
Understand how children acquire language naturally, and apply some of those principles to your own language learning process, such as immersion and repetition.
Learn how the structure of a language can influence the way its speakers think and perceive the world. This is known as the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, and it can deepen your understanding of the link between language and thought.