The Relationship between Linguistics and Natural Science

【Abstract】： This paper focuses on discussing the relationship between linguistics and natural science. And this paper briefly introduce the definition of the linguistics and natural science， then discuss about the relationship.

【 Key words】： linguistics， natural science

Chapter 1 Introduction

The origin of the language study is from the interpretation of the ancient documentaries. Its purpose is to study the language and philosophy， literature or history. At that time， the study was the study of the ontology. Although it makes a little contribution to the grammatical category， it just analyses the surface of the perceived language unit. So the research methods of philosophy and logic can satisfy the people for the interpretation of the language at that time.

With the understanding deepening， people now tend to know the study of linguistics should be the language itself as the object. And then the modern linguistics came into being and became stronger in the scientific world. Its main task is to study the roles of the development of language. And during the discussion of the language development， the evolution theory caught great attention. Although the historical comparative linguistics’ contribution is huge and great， it still doesn't go into the language to explore the internal structure. Saussure， therefore， once came up with the idea that the only and the true object of the linguistics is language and the language for the study of languages and the structural linguistics is created.

Chapter 2 The Relationship between Linguistics and Natural Science

Linguistics is a science of language， or we can say the scientific study of language. And natural science is a branch of science concerned with the description， prediction， and understanding of natural phenomena， based on observational and empirical evidence.Validity， accuracy， and social mechanisms ensuring quality control are among the criteria and methods used for this purpose.

2.1 The function of natural science in the modernization of linguistics

At this time， we will wonder the question “what is the language exactly？ ”.Hu Zhuang lin’s book tells us that language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used for human communication. Webster’s New World Dictionary offers several most frequently used senses of the word “l(fā)anguage”， namely， （a） human speech；（b） the ability to communicate by this means；（c）a system if vocal sound to which meaning is attributed， used for the expression or communication of thoughts and feelings；（d） the written representation of such a system. It has two levels， sound and meaning. In addition， it is a system about the vocabulary and grammar.As to the sound， how to distinguish and describe the the tiny difference of the sound.As for the meaning， we may ask how to understand the meaning clearly. Moreover，the question “how to analyze the sentence structure ” confuse the people.

We have to admit that the biggest problem which we are facing is the abstractness of the language.It is very difficult to use language to explain language clearly，which forces linguists to seek other ways to describe and explain the language vividly and visually. The natural science satisfies the requirement. Linguistics absorbs lots of nourishment from the natural science. Though the conception， like “field”， “elementary particles” and “the periodic law”， also has certain abstractness， it can bring us a basic framework and image which offers us the pictorial clarity. The linguists applied these into the study of the linguistics， then the study of the linguistics is down to the earth.With the development of the theory and the practice ，there is the need to have an accurate and qualitative analysis the language and discourse. The methods of mathematics have become very important in the study of the linguistics. And the linguistics also learn a lot from the chemistry， biology and many other subjects of natural science. These activities help us have a better understanding of the linguistics and the language. This trend is inevitable. And the development of modern information science also asks linguistics to move towards a more formal direction. As we study deeper of the ontology， the relationship between the natural science and the linguistics will be closer and closer.

2.2 The modern natural science provides the linguistics positivism thoughts

The French philosopher Comete once pointed out， the rapid development of natural science would make people aware that the scientific method would go deep into all areas. He was the pioneer of positivism. Positivism is based on the fact of observation and the proof of the facts， rather than just inference. Experiment is an important tradition of natural science. In western linguistics， positivism has been widely applied， thus it promotes the rapid development of the western linguistics. The most famous example is the famous social linguist Labov use investigation to confirm this assumption： people of different social status will have different pronunciation in New York. He went to three large malls to research and have conversations with different groups of people. Western linguists pay more and more attention to the experiment. They go to the library to surf the Internet to collect data to draw ICONS， rather than behind closed doors， or change other people's articles.

Chapter 3 Conclusion

From above analysis， we know the relationship between the linguistics and the natural science is becoming closer and closer. Linguistics absorbs lots of nourishment from the natural science. In other words， it has the characteristics of natural science.

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