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What is
Linguistics?
People often ask me… “You’re a
linguist…so, how many languages do you speak?”
This is issued like some sort of challenge, the inquisitor
expecting that I’ll respond with… “Well, I’m
fluent in all 7000 of the world’s languages”.
After severely disfiguring them, I patiently explain that a
linguist doesn’t necessarily speak many different languages.
So…what is linguistics about?
Linguistics is the scientific study of language.
People often ask me wild trivia questions about language, like
“What is Kazakh for fuck?” or “What language does Tom Cruise
speak?” Some of these questions require a bit of research, while
others are beyond the realm of understanding.
Expecting a Linguist to know everything about language is like
expecting a Cardiologist to be an Endocrinologist, Ophthalmologist,
Urologist and a Gynecologist.
Many Linguists have an excellent general knowledge of the field,
but it can also be highly specialised. I know
of Linguists whose dissertations examine just a single word!
There are many different branches of linguistics, including:
semantics (meaning), pragmatics (usage), syntax (grammar), morphology
(bits and pieces of words), phonology (sounds), historical linguistics
(language over time), sociolinguistics (language and society) and
psycholinguistics (language and the brain). These areas all interweave
and overlap.
Linguists do all sorts of stuff. Some write dictionary
definitions, or codify endangered languages and writing systems. Some
work in natural language processing. Some research language difficulties
and neurological disorders relating to stroke and brain tumours.
As you can see, Linguists do a lot more than speak a lot of
languages. And you know what? Some of them do that too…
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