Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists (experts in linguistics) work on specific languages, but their primary goal is to understand the nature of language, and how all aspects of language function. Language science in all aspects is the domain of a linguist.
Linguists dig in to:
The science of language. It’s not just about speaking a language but all the things that make up all languages.
- Features common to languages.
- How human communication differs from animal communication.
- How language is put together, and what makes up the rules of a language.
- How humans learn languages and speech.
- How language evolves and changes over time.
We can all use linguistics to better understand the world. Similar to psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Think of linguistics as one of many windows to see and evaluate our world and the speech and language that makes up our cultures.
A linguist is far more than a polyglot (someone who speaks multiple languages.)
Linguistics (the scientific study of language and its structure) includes: Phonetics, morphology, syntax, phonology, and semantics and includes several disciplines.
A few disciplines that makeup linguistics:
Psycholinguistics
Historical linguistics
Sociolinguistics
Neurolinguistics
Computational linguistics
These are just some of the disciplines that linguistics is made of. Since communication reaches into all aspects of life so does linguistics. In this blog, I will share all aspects of linguistics-related topics.