Modern linguistics is mostly prescriptive, but sometimes descriptive.

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

Morphology

Phonology

Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society.

Morphology studies how words can be formed to produce meaningful sentences.

The study of meaning in language is known as semantics.

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.

A scientific study of language is based on what the linguist thinks.

Pragmatics is different from semantics in that pragmatics studies meaning not in isolation, but in context.