What kinds of structures do you observe in your language of study?
In Mandarin, I've observed basic syntactic structure. It follows SVO word order. I've also noticed morphological/grammatical words that modify sentences. Ma at the end of a sentence turns statements into questions, and de in the middle of a sentence usually before a noun shows possession. These can be added to sentences to change their function without changing the word order.
How do you combine different disciplinary perspectives to formulate a more holistic understanding of your target language?
Honestly, I haven't been intentionally combining disciplinary perspectives. My approach has been 99% applied linguistics. I'm learning full phrases from my friends and memorizing them for practical communication. This is technically touching on pragmatics since I'm learning phrases in their actual usage rather than in isolation, but it's not really a systematic approach to the disciplinary frameworks shown in Aitchison's diagram.
Do you give preference to one disciplinary approach over the others?
Yes, I'm heavily prioritizing applied linguistics right now. I'm focused on immediate communication ability through phrase memorization instead of studying the structural levels (phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics). The other disciplinary perspectives in the outer ring of Aitchison's diagram aren't really part of my current learning approach either.
How will your knowledge of language structures and disciplinary methodologies influence the trajectory of your learning plan?
Now that I'm aware of Crystal's structural levels and Aitchison's disciplinary framework, I realize my current memorization approach is somewhat limited. Going forward, I should pay more attention to the phonological system (especially tones), study syntax more (how particles work, sentence patterns), and understand the structural principles behind the phrases I'm memorizing. This would give me the tools to generate new sentences on my own instead of just copying memorized phrases.
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