So, what is Linguistics??

lin·​guis·​tics | \ liŋ-ˈgwi-stiks \ "ling-gwis-tiks"

A few months ago, I posted on Facebook that I was going to start a Linguistics blog and for some suggestions on what to write about. The main feedback was: what is Linguistics? That is definitely a question I get asked a lot.
To put it simply, Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The Linguistic Society of America explain Linguistics as "apply[ing] the scientific method to conduct formal studies of speech sounds and gestures, grammatical structures, and meaning across the world’s 6,000+ languages. According to them, "Linguistics, the study of language, concerns itself with all aspects of how people use language and what they must know in order to do so".

Merrrium-Webster define Linguistics as  "the study of human speech including the units, nature, structure, and modification of language".

As you can see, it is very much about the structure and function of language.

The term linguistics came about in the mid-19th Century in order to differentiate a new form of study, with more of a focus on spoken language in a more real-time context, from the more traditional study of Philology. 

Languages are made up of various building blocks that are combined to form words, that are then strung together in predetermined orders (depending on the language) to form different meanings. Any meaning conveyed to a recipient is aided by paralinguistic features such as tone, intonation, gesture, expression and in more recent times, emoji (although some will argue whether they are considered a paralinguistic feature or not. I want to write a bit more on this).

Britannica divides Linguistics up into three lots of mutually exclusive areas: synchronic (real time) versus diachronic (historical), theoretical (structural and descriptive frameworks) versus applied (applying findings of study to practical tasks), and microlinguistics (broader view: kind of language in a vacuum; without the effects of social influence, etc.) versus macrolinguistics (all the language aspects, all together! yay!).

Language is universal among humans and is a phenomenon unique to humankind. Linguistics aims to study language and all its components, finding answers to questions relating to (but definitely not limited to):

• The origins of language
• Discourse (communication) analysis
• Inter- and intra-cultural communication
• Variations in languages
• Gesture
• Accents
• Bi- or multilingualism
• Sign language
• Learning/acquiring language
• Digital communication and technology
• Speech and language disorders
• Language shift and death
• Articulation
• Emoji
• Social media language use and trends
• Global issues surrounding language.
• Language throughout history

No, you don't have to speak another language to be a Linguist which, regretfully, is me. I did learn Indonesian but wasn't ever very good at it and have forgotten most of it now. Again, use it or lose it. I do wonder if I would find it easier to learn now that I have a much better understanding of the structure of language.

There are so many different specialties in the field of Linguistics. Here are a handful:

• Computational Linguistics
• Contact Linguistics
• Descriptive Linguistics
• Typology
• Syntax
• Sociolinguistics
• Semantics
• Psycholinguistics
• Prosody
• Pragmatics
• Phonology
• Phonetics 
• Morphology
• Language Acquisition
• Historical Linguistics
• Corpus Linguistics
• Lexicography
• Etymology 

I could keep going on and on about Linguistics but I don't want to make my posts too long and arduous to read! If you have any questions about anything in this post, or anything not in this post but related, please leave me comment and I'll endeavour to answer as best as I can.

Thank you for reading 😀

References for this post. Check these out if you'd like to learn more!

Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/science/linguistics

The Domain of Linguistics: https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/articles-domain-linguistics

Linguistics Society of America: https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/articles-domain-linguistics

SIL: https://www.sil.org/linguistics/what-linguistics

Come for the language, stay for the coffee ☕

Well hi!

I am going to make an attempt at starting a language and linguistics blog. 

Sure, there are already LOADS of linguistics blogs, websites, Facebook pages and podcasts out there, so why bother creating another one?

Well that's what they say about cafes in Geelong and Melbourne and yet, they still keep cropping up. So I shall be like the cafe industry and further saturate a most likely already-saturated area. 

I have my reasons though. I have just completed my Master of Applied Linguistics and would really like to retain as much of what I have learnt as possible, which is difficult when you do not work in the field and you don't have regular contact with anyone who shares your interests. If I'm not applying my learning it can easily slip out the old ear without my realising it and all of a sudden I am finding myself thinking "now, what was a relative clause again?". Yikes. As the old saying goes, "use it or lose it".

So here I am, and here is my blog. I hope you enjoy. 

I hope I can post on here regularly enough too....