general (adj.)

A commonly used characterization of LINGUISTICS, when one wants to emphasize the UNIVERSAL applicability of linguistic theory and method in the study of LANGUAGES. General linguistics thus includes the theoretical, DESCRIPTIVE and COMPARATIVE biases of the subject. It is sometimes seen in contrast with those branches of linguistics where there is an interdisciplinary or applied orientation (as in SOCIOLINGUISTICS, APPLIED LINGUISTICS). A similar use of the term is in the phrase general grammar found in several early language studies (e.g. the PORT ROYAL GRAMMAR), and often used in GENERATIVE linguistic contexts in the sense of ‘UNIVERSAL grammar’. General phonetics emphasizes the applicability of phonetic methods of analysis to all human speech sounds. General semantics, by contrast, has nothing to do with linguistics in its modern sense, referring to a philosophical movement developed in the 1930s by the American scholar Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950), which aimed to make people aware of the conventional relationship between words and things, as a means of improving systems of communication and clear thinking.

A property of those linguistic analyses and descriptive statements which are applicable to a relatively wide range of DATA in a language, and which are expressed in relatively abstract terms. A statement which can be made only with reference to individual UNITS (e.g. LEXICAL ITEMS, sounds, CONSTRUCTIONS), or to small CLASSES of units, is said to ‘lack generality’. The aim of the linguist is to make generalizations about data which need as few qualifications as possible (e.g. about exceptions, or restricted CONTEXTS of use), and which are MEANINGFUL to NATIVE-SPEAKERS (i.e. they are LINGUISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT GENERALIZATIONS). Likewise, linguistic theories should be as general as possible, i.e. aiming to establish the universal characteristics of human language. Within this broad approach, the term has been given several specific applications, e.g. in GENERALIZED PHRASE-STRUCTURE GRAMMAR, or in the ‘true generalization condition’ of natural generative PHONOLOGY – a constraint which insists that all rules should express generalizations about the relationship between all SURFACE-STRUCTURE FORMS in the most direct and TRANSPARENT manner possible. Phonological rules should relate surface forms to each other, rather than to a set of abstract, UNDERLYING forms, as is required in traditional GENERATIVE phonology. (3) In language ACQUISITION, generalization refers to the process whereby children extend their initial use of a linguistic feature to a class of items, as when, having learned to use an -ing ending on a VERB, the feature is ‘generally’ applied to the class of verbs. Overgeneralization takes place when the feature is extended beyond its limits in the adult grammar – as when the regular plural ending is applied to irregular FORMS, e.g. *mouses, *sheeps.