synchronic study

Pragmatics first engaged only in synchronic study, as opposed to examining the historical development of language.

A diachronic, as opposed to a synchronic study of language is concerned with the way language evolves from one period of history to another.

The distinction between syntagmatic and associative relationships relates to this concept of the synchronic study of language as a system.

The field of linguistics at the time was strongly concerned with synchronic studies of language change, which marginalized historical approaches such as grammaticalization.

Second, while the majority of anthropologists of the time were doing synchronic studies of societies, Codere's work focused on culture change".

Synchronic study, on the other hand, considers how a language functions as a system at a given moment in time, analyzing the simultaneous relationships between its constituent parts; it examines how a language works, not how it develops.