What is Linguistics?

As all linguists know this is a very common question but one to which a simple answer is elusive. Linguistics was my undergraduate major, which doesn't quite qualify me to claim the prestigious title of 'linguist'. But below I attempt a simple introduction for those to whom it may be exotic...


The aim of linguistics is to describe the rules that apply to Language (that is, to all languages). The tedious rules of schoolbook English grammar and spelling are largely conventions that have been imposed on the language by dictionary-makers and Latin scholars centuries ago. They are often at odds with the natural systems of Language which linguists strive to understand. Hence, linguists are here to sympathize with and vindicate your frustrations – not to correct and harass you about what is ‘proper’.

The linguist’s descriptive approach is therefore in contrast with the study of the rules of style, or the prescriptive approach. Linguists rely on the way people actually speak for their data, rather than on the way they are taught they ‘should’ speak. Using these data, hypotheses are tested à la the scientific method to form a complete picture of how Language works. Just as physics uses abstract models to describe the properties governing the physical world, so does linguistics approach the description of Language.

Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

In 1957, Noam Chomsky famously used this sentence to illustrate that syntax is a system that could be investigated independently of meaning (compare the sentence inverted: Furiously sleep ideas green colorless. Each is meaningless, but only the first remains syntactically acceptable). This approach divorced language from its context to examine its core systems (syntax, semantics, morphology, phonetics and phonology) as if in a sterile lab. This is the basis for generative linguistics, the dominant school of modern linguistics.

In addition to the approach outlined above that aims to explain how language is mentally processed and produced by describing it as a system, there is also a social scientist’s approach to linguistics. Both share the fundamental interest in language as it is naturally acquired rather than as it is learned in the classroom. The difference lies in their respective goals. Theoretical linguistics aims to map the systems of language in the human mind and sometimes intersects with biology and psychology. On the other hand, social scientists take a broader, generally interdisciplinary approach to understanding the role of language in context. One approach need not contradict the other since each investigates a very different field of inquiry.