A Historical Overview of the Emergence of the Descriptive Method in Modern Western Linguistic Studies

Abstract

Description is considered one of the earliest mechanisms of human knowledge through which people come to recognize the things around them. Through description, human beings are able to transmit a great deal of knowledge to others.

The tools of description are the senses. God Almighty has endowed human beings with a set of senses that distinguish them from other living beings. Through these senses, human beings are able to differentiate between the things around them and describe them accurately, first to themselves, so that the image of the thing becomes imprinted in the mind and can be recalled whenever needed, or described to others. In this way, knowledge is transferred from one mind to another, allowing both to share a form of knowledge with its own dimensions and characteristics.

This study seeks to shed light on the emergence of the descriptive method in modern linguistic studies, while also reviewing the methods that preceded it, namely the historical method and the comparative method. It also mentions some of the terms used by proponents of the descriptive method in analyzing and identifying certain linguistic phenomena.