Linguistics

Broadly conceived, linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and a linguist is someone who engages in this study. (Lay people sometimes use the term linguistician, but as Aitchison 2003 points out, this is "too much of a tongue-twister to become generally accepted.")

Contextual linguistics

Contextual linguistics is where the discipline of linguistics interacts with other academic disciplines. Whereas in core theoretical linguistics language is studied for its own sake, the interdisciplinary areas of linguistics consider how language interacts with the rest of the world.

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Sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, and linguistic anthropology are social sciences that consider the interactions between linguistics and society as a whole.

Related Topics:
Sociolinguistics - Anthropological linguistics - Linguistic anthropology

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Critical discourse analysis is where rhetoric and philosophy interact with linguistics.

Related Topics:
Critical discourse analysis - Rhetoric - Philosophy

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Psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics combine medical science and linguistics.

Related Topics:
Psycholinguistics - Neurolinguistics - Medical science

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Other cross-disciplinary areas of linguistics include language acquisition, evolutionary linguistics, computational linguistics and cognitive science.

Related Topics:
Language acquisition - Evolutionary linguistics - Computational linguistics - Cognitive science

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