Sparks Commentary: What is “linguistics,” and why is it important?

“If you are considering becoming a linguistics major, you probably know something about the field of linguistics already. However, you may find it hard to answer people who ask you, ‘What exactly is linguistics, and what does a linguist do?’ They might assume that it means you speak a lot of languages. And they may be right: you may, in fact, be a polyglot! But while many linguists do speak multiple languages—or at least know a fair bit about multiple languages—the study of linguistics means much more than this.”

– Website of the Linguistic Society of America

Linguistics is the scientific study of language

I am an amateur “linguist,” in both of the popular senses of that word. In everyday speech, the word usually means someone who knows a lot of languages (I have some basic knowledge of about four myself). But the word also has the meaning of someone who studies linguistics, a different but related discipline. In the words of the Linguistic Society of America, “Linguistics is the scientific study of language, and many topics are studied under this umbrella.” (Source: LSA website) They further state that “while linguists may be better informed if they know multiple languages, the work of a linguist actually involves learning about Language, rather than learning different languages.” (Source: LSA website)

Phonetics and phonology: The sounds of language

So what kinds of classes does a linguistics major take? They might take classes in the linguistics of a particular language – for example, Spanish linguistics or Japanese linguistics. But they would also have to take classes in some core theoretical areas, such as phonetics. Phonetics is just the study of the different sounds of language, which are the basic building blocks for forming larger words and sentences. This is different from phonology, which is the study of how languages allow certain sounds to be substituted for other sounds without changing the meaning involved. For example, you might pronounce the “t” in “tree” the same as you pronounce the “t” in “table.” But you might also pronounce it the same as the “ch” in “child,” pronouncing it like “chree.” You might find this hard to believe, but there is a simple way to test it. Chances are that if you pronounce it both ways to a fellow speaker of American English, they will be hard-pressed (at least at first) to hear any difference between them at all. They might notice if they paid extra-close attention to it, but would pay more attention to the accepted meaning than the actual acoustic properties of the sounds involved. Phonetics is about the physical and acoustic realities of the sounds, while phonology is about how they are perceived by the speakers of the particular languages. Phonetics is objective, while phonology is subjective. What is the advantage of phonology, then? The answer is that while phonetics gives an outside view, phonology gives an inside view of the language and its culture.

Morphology and syntax: The grammar of language

The next level of linguistics studies the units of meaning within a word. The fancy word for this is “morphology.” If you look at the word “cats,” it is divided into two units of meaning, which linguists actually call “morphemes.” One is the word “cat” (which describes a particular kind of animal), while the other is the letter “s” that makes it plural (more than one “cat”). Some words have a lot more morphemes than this, particularly compound words. One area of morphology studies different kinds of words, and the origins of words. A related area is syntax, which is about the grammatical rules governing larger sentences. These are based on the rules governing individual words. For example, “Sarah admires the teacher” means something different from “The teacher admires Sarah,” even though the words are the exact same. The word order is quite different, though, and changes the meaning entirely. Both sentences are grammatical, while a sentence like “admires Sarah teacher the” is not. Rules like these are of interest to linguists. All three of these sentences use the same four words, but the way that they’re put together is very different. They can result in one meaning, a seemingly opposite meaning, and something that’s basically meaningless (an ungrammatical sentence like “admires Sarah teacher the”).

Semantics and pragmatics: The meaning of language

Another area of interest is semantics, the study of the meanings of words and sentences. For example, the word “brother” has at least two aspects of meaning – being male, and being a sibling. The word “sister” has the “sibling” part in common, but a different gender. Pretty basic, right? But semantics is about more than just the meanings of words – it is also about the meanings of larger sentences. It studies why “Sarah admires the teacher” means something different from “The teacher admires Sarah” (among other things). A related area is pragmatics, or the study of how sentences are interpreted in context. If your spouse asks you: “Are you really going to wear that?,” they don’t necessarily want an actual answer to that question. It might instead be the implied statement: “That would look really ugly on you,” or “Don’t wear that.” Likewise, questions like “How are you?” aren’t necessarily about asking someone how they really are. Often they’re just questions asked to make casual conversation.

Sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics: Dialects and language acquisition

Another area is sociolinguistics, or the study of dialects within languages. This isn’t just about geographic differences, such as the variation between American English and British English. It’s also about the way different dialects are perceived, such as how the Queen’s English is the prestige dialect of the English language. Cockney doesn’t have the same prestige in British English as the Queen’s English does, and the language of the American South has often been looked down upon in the United States (which is unfortunate, in my opinion). Another area is psycholinguistics, or the study of how languages are learned. You’ve probably noticed that it’s harder to learn a language as an adult than as a child. If you’ve learned a language as an adult, you’ll likely have a foreign-sounding accent for the rest of your life. If you learned a language as a child, though, you will be able to speak “without an accent” – or rather, with an accent that sounds native. These are interesting areas, which tell you a lot about human beings and the way they use language.

Historical linguistics: How languages change over time

But for me, the most fascinating area might be historical linguistics, the study of how languages change over time. This involves changes at all levels of language – from changes in the pronunciations of words, to changes in their meaning, to the introduction of entirely new words. It can even involve changes in word order, changes in how a word is pluralized, or changes in the prestige or acceptability of a word (or even the connotation). The most prominent kind of language change may be the introduction of new words, but it is not the only kind. Many kinds of language change are studied in historical linguistics. Only a few of them are visible to the public. “Thou knowest” and “you know” are differences in conjugation of the same verb, which is “to know.” It’s not that Modern English has an entirely different word for this – it’s that it conjugates that same word differently, and uses different pronouns to address someone (“thou” versus “you,” in this example).

The importance of linguistics in everyday life

Linguistics may not be well-known to the general public, but it is of vital importance to how we learn and use our own languages, as well as those of others. A university Spanish department may offer classes in Spanish linguistics, while a university Japanese department may offer classes in Japanese linguistics. Linguistics intersects the study of every language, both ancient and modern and everything in between. It intersects psychology, philosophy, literature, and many other areas. And its study is worth funding, both for the practical benefits gained (such as teaching computers how to understand human speech) and for the pleasure of learning it. It offers immense insights into everyday life, and should be respected as an important academic discipline in its own right.

“Linguistics is the scientific study of language, and many topics are studied under this umbrella. At the heart of linguistics is the search for the unconscious knowledge that humans have about language and how it is that children acquire it, an understanding of the structure of language in general and of particular languages, knowledge about how languages vary, and how language influences the way in which we interact with each other and think about the world.”

– Website of the Linguistic Society of America

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