CZ:Featured article/Current

Linguistics

by John Stephenson (and Gareth Leng and Stephen Ewen)

(CC) Photo: Nick Thompson
Language is arguably what most obviously distinguishes humans from all other species. Linguistics involves the study of that system of communication underlying everyday scenes like this.

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Its primary goal is to learn about the 'natural' language that humans use every day and how it works. Linguists ask such fundamental questions as: What aspects of language are universal for all humans? How can we account for the remarkable grammatical similarities between languages as apparently diverse as English, Japanese and Arabic? What are the rules of grammar that we language users employ, and how do we come to 'know' them? To what extent is the structure of language related to how we think about the world around us? A linguist, then, here refers to a linguistics expert who seeks to answer such questions, rather than someone who is multilingual.

Theoretical linguists are concerned with questions about the apparent human 'instinct' to communicate,^[1] rather than authorising 'rules' of style or 'correctness' as found in grammar textbooks or popular guides.^[2] For example, *dog the^[3] is unacceptable in English, but children recognise as much long before they receive any formal grammatical instruction. It is such recognitions, and the implicit rules they imply, that are of primary concern in linguistics, as opposed to rules as prescribed by an authority.

Although interesting in its own right as one of the directions we follow to learn more about ourselves and the world around us, the study of linguistics is also highly relevant to solving real-life problems. Applied linguists may bring their insights to such fields as foreign language teaching, speech therapy and translation.^[4] While in universities and research institutions worldwide, scholars are studying the facts of individual languages or the system of language itself to find evidence for theories or test hypotheses, applied linguists are at work in classrooms, clinics, courts and the highest levels of government. They use their knowledge to bridge linguistic divides, coax speech from the mouths of the disabled or abused, supply forensic evidence in courtroom trials, find out how language comes to children - in fact, they are everywhere people in need or in conflict over language are to be found.

In virtue of the fact stated in the first paragraph, that the primary goal of linguistics "is to learn about the 'natural' language that humans use every day and how it works", we recognize that core areas of linguistics qualify as biological science, a recognition reinforced by the kinds of questions studiers of linguistics ask and seek answers to, detailed in that first and the succeeding two paragraphs.^[5]

.... (read more)

notes
↑ The view that language is an 'instinct' comparable to walking or bird song is most famously articulated in Pinker (1994). ↑ A popular recent example is Truss (2003). ↑ An asterisk () indicates that what follows is unacceptable to speakers of that language. ↑ Increasingly, however, applied linguists have been developing their own views of language, which often focus on the language learner rather than the system itself: see for example Cook (2002) and the same author's website. ↑ Di Sciullo AM, Boeckx C. (editors) (2011) The Biolinguistic Enterprise: New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty*. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199553270. \| Google Books preview.

[1] The view that language is an 'instinct' comparable to walking or bird song is most famously articulated in Pinker (1994).

[2] A popular recent example is Truss (2003).

[3] An asterisk (*) indicates that what follows is unacceptable to speakers of that language.

[4] Increasingly, however, applied linguists have been developing their own views of language, which often focus on the language learner rather than the system itself: see for example Cook (2002) and the same author's website.

[bioling-5] Di Sciullo AM, Boeckx C. (editors) (2011) The Biolinguistic Enterprise: New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty. Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0199553270. | Google Books preview.

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CZ:Featured article/Current

Linguistics

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