Findings in linguistic studies can often be applied to the settlement of some practical problems. The study of such applications is generally known as a（）linguistics.

The study of the ways in which morphemes can be combined to form words is called morphology.

Pragmatics

The distinction between competence and performance was proposed by F. de Saussure.

General linguistics is generally the study of language as a whole.

Linguistics

Syntax is different from morphology in that the former not only studies the morphemes, but also the combination of morphemes into words and words into sentences.

Semantics

Modern linguistics is mostly prescriptive, but sometimes descriptive.

In the study of linguistics, hypotheses formed should be based on language facts and checked against the observed facts.