Modern linguistics regards the written language as primary, not the written language.

Linguistics is generally defined as the s（）study of language.

General linguistics is generally the study of language as a whole.

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 diachronic study of language is the description of language at some point in time.

D（）is one of the design features of human language which refers to the phenomenon that language consists of two levels: a lower level of meaningless individual sounds and a higher level of meaningful units.

In the study of linguistics, hypotheses formed should be based on language facts and checked against the observed facts.

Syntax is different from morphology in that the former not only studies the morphemes, but also the combination of morphemes into words and words into sentences.

Social changes can often bring about language changes.

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