prelinguisticsn.
/ˌpriːlɪŋˈɡwɪstɪk/, U.S. /prilɪŋˈɡwɪstɪk/ Linguistics.
The branch of linguistics that deals with the biological and physiological aspects of speech.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > linguistics > other schools of linguistics > [noun] > other specific branches or schools
historical linguistics1871
functional grammar1894
applied linguistics1922
functionalism1935
prelinguistics1949
metalinguistics1951
mathematical linguistics1955
systemic linguistics1958
computational linguistics1961
emic1962
microsociolinguistics1968
stratificationalism1968
creolistics1970
macrolinguistics1972
1949 G. L. Trager in Stud. in Linguistics: Occas. Papers i. 2 The whole of the field concerned with language..we shall call Macrolinguistics. The three subdivisions we shall call Prelinguistics, Microlinguistics, Metalinguistics.
1959 M. Joos in J. A. Fishman Readings Sociol. of Lang. (1968) 186 This line, along which he [sc. the linguistic analyst] can shift items into the ‘past’ or the ‘future’ as he moves from pre-linguistics towards metalinguistics.
1964 D. Crystal & R. Quirk Syst. Prosodic & Paraling. Features Eng. ii. 27 Speech results from activities which create a background of voice set (‘the idiosyncratic, including the specific physiology of the speakers, and the total physical setting’). This is in the area of ‘prelinguistics’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2007; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1949