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linguistics

UK/lɪŋˈɡwɪstɪks/US/liŋˈɡwɪstɪks/
nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,652 of 15,258mostly written

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Study linguistics, a linguistics degree, historical linguistics.

It is descriptive rather than prescriptive — its job is to describe what speakers actually do, not to rule on what is correct, which is the point most often misunderstood about it. Its branches cover sound, structure, meaning and change. Note linguist, which confusingly means both a linguistics researcher and somebody who speaks many languages.

Definitions of linguistics

  1. 1nounlinguisticsThe scientific study of language.B2+

    “She studied linguistics at university and now researches how children learn to speak.”

linguistics is a field of study.

Where it comes from

Linguist plus -ics, from Latin lingua, tongue or language. Language, bilingual and tongue come from the same root.

  1. German

    Linguistik

  2. English, today

    linguistics

From linguist + -ics. From linguist + -ics, akin to linguistic and Latin linguisticus, coined by Q333922 in 1847 from German Linguistik.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in School Subjects

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linguistics in the wild

  • The basic fields of linguistics broadly focus on language structure at different "scales".

    Morphology (linguistics)

  • Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a major figure in analytic philosophy and one of the founders of the field of cognitive science.

    Noam Chomsky

  • Among the most cited living authors, Chomsky has written more than 150 books on topics such as linguistics, war, and politics.

    Noam Chomsky

  • In older usage, especially British, philology is conflated with comparative and historical linguistics, to which it is closely related.

    Philology

  • Philology is itself often considered a subfield of linguistics or a distinct, closely related discipline.

    Philology

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • linguist