Difference Between Synchronic and Diachronic Linguistics | Types of Linguistics | Ferdinand Saussure

 

Synchronic & Diachronic

Approaches in Linguistics

Linguistics is the science of studying any language. Now this language can be studied into different methods or in other words we can say that there are two different approaches in linguistics - Synchronic and Diachronic. These two terms were first explained by a Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure in his Course in General Linguistics (1916).

 

SYNCHRONIC APPROACH IN LINGUISTICS:

It means studying a language at one particular given point of time. It analyses how people use a language to share their ideas in a speech community at a given point in time.

·      For example when we study British English and American English in the modern time, and we study how the British people and how the Americans use English differently, it is called synchronic study of language.

·      When we examine different dialogues of one particular language and we study how different communities express their ideas using different dialogues within one language that is called synchronic study.

DIACHRONIC APPROACH IN LINGUISTICS:

It means studying a language during one period of time. It studies the whole evolution of language. It is also known as historical study of language. It studies the changes which have occurred in a language with the passage of time.

·      For example when we study English language during the Middle English period and during the modern English period and when we examine the changes which have occurred through the passage of time, it is called diachronic study.

·      When we examine the Great Vowel Shift (a series of changes in the pronunciation of the English language that took place primarily between 1400 and 1700), it is called a diachronic study of English.

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