Linguistics

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists try to answer questions about language, such as how languages change and why words mean what they mean. Linguists study both their own languages and languages they do not speak.

The role of a linguist when studying a modern language is to analyse the speech one or more native speakers of that language. They call such a person an informant. Since some languages have no written form, linguists must often use a set of symbols called a phonetic alphabet to write down the speech sounds of an informant. Linguists also study dead languages to trace the development of modern ones.

These experts believe they know extremely little about even the most familiar languages. They hope to record and study unfamiliar tongues before such languages become extinct by gathering data, forming theories and testing them, and finally establishing facts about language.

There are two chief fields of linguistics, descriptive linguistics and comparative and historical linguistics.

Descriptive linguistics

This is the study of the language of a single place and period. It is sometimes called synchronic linguistics. A linguist in this field tries to describe a language as it is acquired by the children of a community and used by the adults there. Such a study focuses on the ability of these people to speak and understand their language. Linguists use the term linguistic performance for any utterance people make.

Comparative and historical linguistics

Comparative linguistics is the study of language as it varies from place to place, from speaker to speaker, and from one period to another. This field is sometimes called diachronic linguistics.

There is also an area of study called linguistic typology in which some comparative linguists attempt to formulate universally valid statements about language structure and language change. Comparative linguists would like to be able to state how language first developed and to describe the conditions that led to its invention. But written records are relatively recent because human beings have had systems of word writing for only about 5,000 years (see history for more information). People have used spoken languages far longer. As far as linguists can tell, all cultures of today have equally complex languages. For these reasons, almost nothing is known about the origin of language.

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