Like other languages, phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics can all be observed in Vietnamese. For example, Vietnamese is a tonal language and there are sounds that exists in Vietnamese, but not in English. To learn the physical facts of pronunciation, I had to memorize the sounds of the letters and the tongue positions that go along with producing them—all part of the structures of phonetics and phonology. Syntax is another example of a structure that I've had to deal with. In Vietnamese to ask "where is the library," you would say "thư viện ở đâu," which translates directly to library at where. The subject in this case is first. Likewise, words indicating time (ex. Today, now, 5 o'clock, etc.) also comes first. Similar to English, you can put words indicating time in either the beginning or end of a sentence, but it sounds more fluid and correct at the beginning.
As to Aitchison's linguistics diagram, I think that combining different disciplinary perspectives, can help in recreating a more authentic speech and aid in comprehension of my target language. For example, the combination of historical linguistics (study of the history and development of a language) and sociolinguistics (study of a language in relation to social factors) can let me know what the most appropriate words in various situations are. After the Vietnam war when the country became communist, certain words weren't used anymore. You will still hear them used by people who immigrated to other countries after the war, but not in Vietnam itself. Additionally, the standard dialect changed from southern to northern. Resulting in a change of what is considered a standard term as well (soda vs. pop). Combining this knowledge with a knowledge of how different socioeconomic groups would speak will allow me to avoid using terms that would be considered wrong or even offensive. Furthermore, if I combine this with stylistics linguistics, I can then learn to write for a target audience, enhancing my writing skills in a more holistic way.
Personally, I think that sociolinguistics is more important for someone like me who isn't an absolute beginner in a language especially in terms of speaking. It can help me in refining both my speech and writing. Psycholinguistics on the other hand isn't as useful in my opinion as I feel like I already have a thorough understanding of what methods of learning work for me since I've already tried so many language learning approaches. Moving forward I think that I think I will try to learn more about the history and culture of Vietnam through my language partner. I will probably incorporate this into our daily "free-talk" sessions.
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