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.")

Dichotomies and language

The study of linguistics can be thought of along three major axes, the endpoints of which are described below:

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• Synchronic vs Diachronic: Synchronic study of a language is concerned with its form at a given moment; Diachronic study covers the history of a language (group) and its structural changes over time.
• Theoretical vs applied: Theoretical (or general) linguistics is concerned with frameworks for describing individual languages and theories about universal aspects of language; applied linguistics applies these theories to other fields.
• Contextual vs Autonomous: Contextual linguistics is concerned with how language fits into the world: its social function, how it is acquired, how it is produced and perceived. Autonomous or Independent linguistics considers languages for their own sake, aside from the externalities related to a language. Sometimes the terms macrolinguistics and microlinguistics are used for the corresponding terms of this dichotomy.

Given these dichotomies, scholars who call themselves simply linguists or theoretical linguists, with no further qualification, tend to be concerned with autonomous, theoretical synchronic linguistics, which is acknowledged as the core of the discipline.

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Linguistic inquiry is pursued by a wide variety of specialists, who may not all be in harmonious agreement; as Russ Rymer flamboyantly puts it:

Related Topics:
Inquiry - Russ Rymer

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"Linguistics is arguably the most hotly contested property in the academic realm. It is soaked with the blood of poets, theologians, philosophers, philologists, psychologists, biologists, and neurologists, along with whatever blood can be got out of grammarians." 1

Related Topics:
Poet - Theologian - Philosopher - Philologist - Psychologist - Biologist - Neurologist - Grammarian - 1

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