Question

Saussure believed that the primary goal of linguistics should be to:

• A. Trace the history of words.
• B. Examine the system of language as it exists.
• C. Focus on regional dialects.
• D. Study spoken and written language equally.

Answer 1

Answer:

B. Examine the system of language as it exists.

• Saussure defines linguistics as the study of language and as the study of the manifestation of human speech.

• He says that linguistics is also concerned with the history of languages and with the social or cultured influences that shape the development of language.

• It includes such fields as phonology, phonetics, morphology, semantics, and pragmatics and language acquisition