Information about History Of Computer Science
The history of computer science began long before the modern discipline of computer science that emerged in the twentieth century. The progression, from mechanical inventions and mathematical theories towards the modern concepts and machines, formed a major academic field and the basis of a massive world-wide industry.
The earliest known tool for use in computation was the abacus, and it was thought to have been invented in Babylon circa 2400 BCE. Its original style of usage was by lines drawn in sand with pebbles. Abaci, of a more modern design, are still used as calculation tools today.
In 1115 BCE, the South Pointing Chariot was invented in ancient China. It was the first known geared mechanism to use a differential gear, which was later used in analog computers. The Chinese also invented a more sophisticated abacus from around the 2nd century BCE known as the Chinese abacus).
In the 5th century BCE in ancient India, the grammarian Pāṇini formulated the grammar of Sanskrit in 3959 rules known as the Ashtadhyayi which was highly systematized and technical. Panini used metarules, transformations and recursions with such sophistication that his grammar had the computing power equivalent to a Turing machine.
Between 200 BCE and 400 CE, Jaina mathematicians in India invented the logarithm. From the 13th century, logarithmic tables were produced by Muslim mathematicians.
When John Napier discovered logarithms for computational purposes in the early 16th century, there followed a period of considerable progress by inventors and scientists in making calculating tools.
None of the early computational devices were really computers in the modern sense, and it took considerable advancement in mathematics and theory before the first modern computers could be designed.
Approximately around the year 825, Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi wrote a book, On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, that was principally responsible for the diffusion of the Indian system of numeration in the Middle East and then Europe. Around the 12th century, there was translation of this book written into Latin: Algoritmi de numero Indorum. These books presented newer concepts to perform a series of steps in order to accomplish a task such as the systematic application of arithmetic to algebra. By derivation from his name, we have the term algorithm.
In 1703, Gottfried Leibniz developed logic in a formal, mathematical sense with his writings on the binary numeral system. In his system, the ones and zeros also represent true and false values or on and off states. But it took more than a century before George Boole published his Boolean algebra in 1854 with a complete system that allowed computational processes to be mathematically modeled.
By this time, the first mechanical devices driven by a binary pattern had been invented. The industrial revolution had driven forward the mechanization of many tasks, and this included weaving. Punch cards controlled Joseph Marie Jacquard's loom in 1801, where a hole punched in the card indicated a binary one and an unpunched spot indicated a binary zero. Jacquard's loom was far from being a computer, but it did illustrate that machines could be driven by binary systems.
During their collaboration, mathematician Ada Lovelace published the first ever computer programs in a comprehensive set of notes on the analytical engine. Because of this, Lovelace is popularly considered the first computer programmer, but some scholars contend that the programs published under her name were originally created by Babbage.
After the 1920s, the expression computing machine referred to any machine that performed the work of a human computer, especially those in accordance with effective methods of the Church-Turing thesis. The thesis states that a mathematical method is effective if it could be set out as a list of instructions able to be followed by a human clerk with paper and pencil, for as long as necessary, and without ingenuity or insight.
Machines that computed with continuous values became known as the analog kind. They used machinery that represented continuous numeric quantities, like the angle of a shaft rotation or difference in electrical potential.
Digital machinery, in contrast to analog, were able to render a state of a numeric value and store each individual digit. Digital machinery used difference engines or relays before the invention of faster memory devices.
The phrase computing machine gradually gave away, after the late 1940s, to just computer as the onset of electronic digital machinery became common. These computers were able to perform the calculations that were performed by the previous human clerks.
Since the values stored by digital machines were not bound to physical properties like analog devices, a logical computer, based on digital equipment, was able to do anything that could be described "purely mechanical." Alan Turing, known as the Father of Computer Science, invented such a logical computer known as the Turing Machine, which later evolved into the modern computer. These new computers were also able to perform non-numeric computations, like music.
From the time when computational processes were performed by human clerks, the study of computability began a science by being able to make evident which was not explicit into ordinary sense more immediate.
1936 was a key year for computer science. Alan Turing and Alonzo Church independently, and also together, introduced the formalization of an algorithm, with limits on what can be computed, and a "purely mechanical" model for computing.
These topics are covered by what is now called the Church–Turing thesis, a hypothesis about the nature of mechanical calculation devices, such as electronic computers. The thesis claims that any calculation that is possible can be performed by an algorithm running on a computer, provided that sufficient time and storage space are available.
Turing also included with the thesis a description of the Turing machine. A Turing machine has an infinitely long tape and a read/write head that can move along the tape, changing the values along the way. Clearly such a machine could never be built, but nonetheless, the model can simulate the computation of any algorithm which can be performed on a modern computer.
Turing is so important to computer science that his name is also featured on the Turing Award and the Turing test. He contributed greatly to British code-breaking successes in the Second World War, and continued to design computers and software through the 1940s, but committed suicide in 1954.
At a symposium on large-scale digital machinery in Cambridge, Turing said, "We are trying to build a machine to do all kinds of different things simply by programming rather than by the addition of extra apparatus".
In 1948, the first practical computer that could run stored programs, based on the Turing machine model, had been built - the Manchester Baby.
In 1950, Britain's National Physical Laboratory completed Pilot ACE, a small scale programmable computer, based on Turing's philosophy.
Shannon went on to found the field of information theory with his 1948 paper entitled A Mathematical Theory of Communication, which applied probability theory to the problem of how to best encode the information a sender wants to transmit. This work is one of the theoretical foundations for many areas of study, including data compression and cryptography.
The first actual computer bug was a moth. It was stuck in between the relays on the Harvard Mark II.[1] While the invention of the term 'bug' is often but erroneously attributed to Grace Hopper, a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, who supposedly logged the "bug" on September 9 1945, most other accounts conflict at least with these details. According to these accounts, the actual date was September 9 1947 when operators filed this 'incident' — along with the insect and the notation "First actual case of bug being found" (see software bug for details).
An abacus (plurals abacuses or abaci), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool for performing arithmetical processes, often constructed as a wooden frame with beads
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| History of computing |
|---|
| Hardware before 1960 |
| Hardware 1960s to present |
| Hardware in Soviet Bloc countries |
| Operating systems |
| Software engineering |
| Programming languages |
| Artificial intelligence |
| Graphical user interface |
| Internet |
| World Wide Web |
| Computer and video games |
Timeline of computing
|
Early history
Early computation
The earliest known tool for use in computation was the abacus, and it was thought to have been invented in Babylon circa 2400 BCE. Its original style of usage was by lines drawn in sand with pebbles. Abaci, of a more modern design, are still used as calculation tools today.
In 1115 BCE, the South Pointing Chariot was invented in ancient China. It was the first known geared mechanism to use a differential gear, which was later used in analog computers. The Chinese also invented a more sophisticated abacus from around the 2nd century BCE known as the Chinese abacus).
In the 5th century BCE in ancient India, the grammarian Pāṇini formulated the grammar of Sanskrit in 3959 rules known as the Ashtadhyayi which was highly systematized and technical. Panini used metarules, transformations and recursions with such sophistication that his grammar had the computing power equivalent to a Turing machine.
Between 200 BCE and 400 CE, Jaina mathematicians in India invented the logarithm. From the 13th century, logarithmic tables were produced by Muslim mathematicians.
When John Napier discovered logarithms for computational purposes in the early 16th century, there followed a period of considerable progress by inventors and scientists in making calculating tools.
None of the early computational devices were really computers in the modern sense, and it took considerable advancement in mathematics and theory before the first modern computers could be designed.
Algorithms
In the 7th century, Indian mathematician Brahmagupta gave the first explanation of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system and the use of zero as both a placeholder and a decimal digit.Approximately around the year 825, Persian mathematician Al-Khwarizmi wrote a book, On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals, that was principally responsible for the diffusion of the Indian system of numeration in the Middle East and then Europe. Around the 12th century, there was translation of this book written into Latin: Algoritmi de numero Indorum. These books presented newer concepts to perform a series of steps in order to accomplish a task such as the systematic application of arithmetic to algebra. By derivation from his name, we have the term algorithm.
Binary logic
Around the 3rd century BC, Indian mathematician Pingala invented the binary numeral system. In this system, still used today to process all modern computers, a sequence of ones and zeros can represent any number.In 1703, Gottfried Leibniz developed logic in a formal, mathematical sense with his writings on the binary numeral system. In his system, the ones and zeros also represent true and false values or on and off states. But it took more than a century before George Boole published his Boolean algebra in 1854 with a complete system that allowed computational processes to be mathematically modeled.
By this time, the first mechanical devices driven by a binary pattern had been invented. The industrial revolution had driven forward the mechanization of many tasks, and this included weaving. Punch cards controlled Joseph Marie Jacquard's loom in 1801, where a hole punched in the card indicated a binary one and an unpunched spot indicated a binary zero. Jacquard's loom was far from being a computer, but it did illustrate that machines could be driven by binary systems.
The Analytical Engine
It wasn't until Charles Babbage, considered the "father of computing," that the modern computer began to take shape with his work on the Analytical Engine. The device, though never successfully built, had all of the functionality in its design of a modern computer. He first described it in 1837 -- more than 100 years before any similar device was successfully constructed. The difference between Babbage's Engine and preceding devices is simple - he designed his to be programmed.During their collaboration, mathematician Ada Lovelace published the first ever computer programs in a comprehensive set of notes on the analytical engine. Because of this, Lovelace is popularly considered the first computer programmer, but some scholars contend that the programs published under her name were originally created by Babbage.
Birth of computer science
Before the 1920s, computers were human clerks that performed computations. They were usually under the lead of a physicist. Many thousands of computers were employed in commerce, government, and research establishments. Most of these computers were women, and they were known to have a degree in calculus. Some performed astronomical calculations for calendars.After the 1920s, the expression computing machine referred to any machine that performed the work of a human computer, especially those in accordance with effective methods of the Church-Turing thesis. The thesis states that a mathematical method is effective if it could be set out as a list of instructions able to be followed by a human clerk with paper and pencil, for as long as necessary, and without ingenuity or insight.
Machines that computed with continuous values became known as the analog kind. They used machinery that represented continuous numeric quantities, like the angle of a shaft rotation or difference in electrical potential.
Digital machinery, in contrast to analog, were able to render a state of a numeric value and store each individual digit. Digital machinery used difference engines or relays before the invention of faster memory devices.
The phrase computing machine gradually gave away, after the late 1940s, to just computer as the onset of electronic digital machinery became common. These computers were able to perform the calculations that were performed by the previous human clerks.
Since the values stored by digital machines were not bound to physical properties like analog devices, a logical computer, based on digital equipment, was able to do anything that could be described "purely mechanical." Alan Turing, known as the Father of Computer Science, invented such a logical computer known as the Turing Machine, which later evolved into the modern computer. These new computers were also able to perform non-numeric computations, like music.
From the time when computational processes were performed by human clerks, the study of computability began a science by being able to make evident which was not explicit into ordinary sense more immediate.
Emergence of a discipline
The theoretical groundwork
The mathematical foundations of modern computer science began to be laid by Kurt Gödel with his incompleteness theorem (1931). In this theorem, he showed that there were limits to what could be proved and disproved within a formal system. This led to work by Gödel and others to define and describe these formal systems, including concepts such as mu-recursive functions and lambda-definable functions.1936 was a key year for computer science. Alan Turing and Alonzo Church independently, and also together, introduced the formalization of an algorithm, with limits on what can be computed, and a "purely mechanical" model for computing.
These topics are covered by what is now called the Church–Turing thesis, a hypothesis about the nature of mechanical calculation devices, such as electronic computers. The thesis claims that any calculation that is possible can be performed by an algorithm running on a computer, provided that sufficient time and storage space are available.
Turing also included with the thesis a description of the Turing machine. A Turing machine has an infinitely long tape and a read/write head that can move along the tape, changing the values along the way. Clearly such a machine could never be built, but nonetheless, the model can simulate the computation of any algorithm which can be performed on a modern computer.
Turing is so important to computer science that his name is also featured on the Turing Award and the Turing test. He contributed greatly to British code-breaking successes in the Second World War, and continued to design computers and software through the 1940s, but committed suicide in 1954.
At a symposium on large-scale digital machinery in Cambridge, Turing said, "We are trying to build a machine to do all kinds of different things simply by programming rather than by the addition of extra apparatus".
In 1948, the first practical computer that could run stored programs, based on the Turing machine model, had been built - the Manchester Baby.
In 1950, Britain's National Physical Laboratory completed Pilot ACE, a small scale programmable computer, based on Turing's philosophy.
Shannon and information theory
Up to and during the 1930s, electrical engineers were able to build electronic circuits to solve mathematical and logic problems, but most did so in an ad hoc manner, lacking any theoretical rigor. This changed with Claude E. Shannon's publication of his 1937 master's thesis, A Symbolic Analysis of Relay and Switching Circuits. While taking an undergraduate philosophy class, Shannon had been exposed to Boole's work, and recognized that it could be used to arrange electromechanical relays (then used in telephone routing switches) to solve logic problems. This concept, of utilizing the properties of electrical switches to do logic, is the basic concept that underlies all electronic digital computers, and his thesis became the foundation of practical digital circuit design when it became widely known among the electrical engineering community during and after World War II.Shannon went on to found the field of information theory with his 1948 paper entitled A Mathematical Theory of Communication, which applied probability theory to the problem of how to best encode the information a sender wants to transmit. This work is one of the theoretical foundations for many areas of study, including data compression and cryptography.
Wiener and Cybernetics
From experiments with anti-aircraft systems that interpreted radar images to detect enemy planes, Norbert Wiener coined the term cybernetics from the Greek word for "steersman." He published "Cybernetics" in 1948, which influenced artificial intelligence. Wiener also compared computation, computing machinery, memory devices, and other cognitive similarities with his analysis of brain waves.The first computer bug
- Main article: Software bug
The first actual computer bug was a moth. It was stuck in between the relays on the Harvard Mark II.[1] While the invention of the term 'bug' is often but erroneously attributed to Grace Hopper, a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, who supposedly logged the "bug" on September 9 1945, most other accounts conflict at least with these details. According to these accounts, the actual date was September 9 1947 when operators filed this 'incident' — along with the insect and the notation "First actual case of bug being found" (see software bug for details).
See also
- Computer science
- History of computing
- History of computing hardware
- Timeline of algorithms
- List of prominent pioneers in computer science
- List of computer term etymologies, the origins of computer science words
References
- A Very Brief History of Computer Science
- Computer History Museum
- Computers: From the Past to the Present
- The First "Computer Bug" at the Online Library of the Naval Historical Center, retrieved February 28 2006
- Bitsavers, an effort to capture, salvage, and archive historical computer software and manuals from minicomputers and mainframes of the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s
Computer science, or computing science, is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems.
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history of computing is longer than the history of computing hardware and modern computing technology and includes the history of methods intended for pen and paper or for chalk and slate, with or without the aid of tables.
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Computing hardware has been an important component of the process of calculation and computer data storage since it became useful for numerical values to be processed and shared.
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history of computing hardware in former Soviet Bloc is somewhat different from that of Western countries. Since Communist party propaganda maintained that western construction was next to useless, and the West had strict export restrictions on this technology, everything had to be
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history of computer operating systems recapitulates to a degree, the recent history of computing.
Operating systems (OS) provide a set of functions needed and used by most application-programs on a computer, and the necessary linkages for the control and sychronization of
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Operating systems (OS) provide a set of functions needed and used by most application-programs on a computer, and the necessary linkages for the control and sychronization of
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Cost and Budget Overruns: The OS/360 operating system was a classic example. This decade-long project from the 1960s and 1970s eventually produced one of the most complex software systems ever created. OS/360 was one of the first large (1000 programmer) software projects.
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programming languages. For a detailed timeline of events, see the timeline of programming languages.
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Prehistory
The first programming languages predate the modern computer. From the first, the languages were codes...... Click the link for more information.
Limited computer power: There was not enough memory or processing speed to accomplish anything truly useful. For example, Ross Quillian's successful work on natural language was demonstrated with a vocabulary of only twenty
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The graphical user interface, or "GUI" (IPA: /ˈɡuːiː/), is a computer interface that uses graphic icons and controls in addition to text.
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first multiprotocol wide area network called the NASA Science Internet, or NSI. NSI was established to provide a total integrated communications infrastructure to the NASA scientific community for the advancement of earth, space and life sciences.
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World Wide Web ("WWW" or simply the "Web") is a global information medium which users can read and write via computers connected to the Internet. The term is often mistakenly used as a synonym for the Internet itself, but the Web is a service that operates over the
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Video games were introduced as a commercial entertainment medium in 1971, becoming the basis for an important entertainment industry in the late 1970s/early 1980s in the United States, Japan, and Europe.
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timeline of events in the history of computing. For a narrative explaining the overall developments, see the related History of computing.
Computing timelines: 2400 BC-1949, 1950-1979, 1980-1989, 1990-present
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Computing timelines: 2400 BC-1949, 1950-1979, 1980-1989, 1990-present
Resources
- Stephen White:
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history of computing is longer than the history of computing hardware and modern computing technology and includes the history of methods intended for pen and paper or for chalk and slate, with or without the aid of tables.
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For the flat slab at the top of a column, see .
An abacus (plurals abacuses or abaci), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool for performing arithmetical processes, often constructed as a wooden frame with beads
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Ancient Mesopotamia
Euphrates Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Uruk ' Ur ' Eridu
Kish ' Lagash ' Nippur
Akkadian Empire: Akkad
Babylon ' Isin ' Susa
Assyria: Assur Nineveh
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Euphrates Tigris
Cities / Empires
Sumer: Uruk ' Ur ' Eridu
Kish ' Lagash ' Nippur
Akkadian Empire: Akkad
Babylon ' Isin ' Susa
Assyria: Assur Nineveh
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and
24th century
←← ↔ →→
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This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
←← ↔ →→
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12nd century BC - 11st century BC
1140s BC 1130s BC 1120s BC - 1110s BC - 1100s BC 1090s BC 1080s BC
1119 BC 1118 BC 1117 BC 1116 BC 1115 BC
1114 BC 1113 BC 1112 BC 1111 BC 1110 BC
- - State leaders - Sovereign states
-
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1140s BC 1130s BC 1120s BC - 1110s BC - 1100s BC 1090s BC 1080s BC
1119 BC 1118 BC 1117 BC 1116 BC 1115 BC
1114 BC 1113 BC 1112 BC 1111 BC 1110 BC
- - State leaders - Sovereign states
-
Events and trends
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The South Pointing Chariot (Zhi Nan Che 指南車) is widely regarded as the most complex geared mechanism of the ancient Chinese civilization, and was continually used throughout the medieval period as well.
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The history of China is told in traditional historical records that refer as far back as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors about 5,000 years ago, supplemented by archaeological records dating to the 16th century BC. China is one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations.
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A gear is a component within a transmission device that transmits rotational force to another gear or device. A gear is different from a pulley in that a gear is a round wheel which has linkages ("teeth" or "cogs") that mesh with other gear teeth, allowing force to be fully
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differential is a device, usually consisting of gears, that allows each of the driving wheels to rotate at different speeds, while supplying equal torque to each of them.
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Purpose
A vehicle's wheels rotate at different speeds, especially when turning corners...... Click the link for more information.
Norden bombsight was a highly sophisticated optical/mechanical analog computer used by the United States Army Air Force during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War to aid the pilot of a bomber aircraft in dropping bombs accurately.
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This page contains Chinese text.
Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.
China (Traditional Chinese: Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.
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The 2nd century BC started the first day of 200 BC and ended the last day of 101 BC. It is considered part of the Classical era, although depending on the region being studied, other terms may be more proper (for instance, if regarding only the Eastern Mediterranean, it would best
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suanpan (Simplified Chinese: 算盘; Traditional Chinese: 算盤; Pinyin: suànpán
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The 5th century BC started the first day of 500 BC and ended the last day of 401 BC.
This century sees the beginning of a period of philosophical brilliance among advanced civilizations, particularly the Greeks which would continue all the way through the
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Overview
This century sees the beginning of a period of philosophical brilliance among advanced civilizations, particularly the Greeks which would continue all the way through the
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History of India begins with the Indus Valley Civilization, which flourished in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent from 3300 to 1700 BCE. This Bronze Age civilization was followed by the Iron Age Vedic period, which witnessed the rise of major kingdoms known as the
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Grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of a given natural language, and as such a field of linguistics. Traditionally, grammar included morphology and syntax, in modern linguistics commonly expanded by the subfields of phonetics, phonology, orthography, semantics, and
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Grammar is the study of the rules governing the use of a given natural language, and as such a field of linguistics. Traditionally, grammar included morphology and syntax, in modern linguistics commonly expanded by the subfields of phonetics, phonology, orthography, semantics, and
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This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
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