Also issued online

Introduces students to the scientific study of language, using the basic principles of complexity theory.

First published in Great Britain in 1973, Main Trends in the Science of Language was part of a series of books that resulted from a study carried out by UNESCO in collaboration with national and international research centres in the social sciences, as well as with groups of individual scholars. The book examines the position of linguistics in the years surrounding the publication of the book before considering the subject’s potential, future development. It looks at linguistic vistas, the place of linguistics among the sciences of man and linguistics and natural sciences. This book will be of interest to the educated reader, research workers, and professional associations as well as to national and international institutions that organize, plan and finance scientific research.

The book entitled, "Linguistic Science Theories Complexity, Applications, and Interactions" introduces students to the complexity of linguistic science and applies it to the scientific research of language. It demonstrates that there is evidence of language as a complex system at every level of linguistic study. This crucial volume, written for researchers and students of language and linguistics, employs cutting-edge ideas on topics like morphology, grammar, and phonetics that are typically covered in the general introduction to language research. Interaction and emergence are two key terminologies from complex system studies, a novel science that is presently useful in topics such as evolutionary biology, but also perfectly suited to the humanities. The author discusses this theme throughout the book. Since language is a by-product of human behaviour that is constantly emerging, evolving, changing, and sometimes, endangering itself due to the lack of social and cultural interactions, the level of complexity applied to it also varies across time and societies. Considering the prevalent pedagogical policies and practices, this volume also provides a critical review of the current state of language, its flux, its applications, and its social and cultural interactions. The contents of the book also focus on second language teaching and learning and the flux in its use of dialects in society and schools. The variety of syllabi, curriculum, materials development, and related quality issues, as well as various types of schools, systems, and typologies of teaching situations, are all methodologically analyzed. Several pedagogically significant implications have been investigated, and suggestions have been made to raise the quality and standards of language education in schools on the grounds of the critical perspectives and insights of the linguistic science theories presented herein. The book, therefore, may help students, teachers, and scholars of linguistics because of its novel scholastic content.