What is Linguistics?

By David Crystal

How many languages are there? Where do modern languages come from? When did human beings first
learn to speak? What's going on when somebody speaks with a stammer? Why do people have different
accents? How do children learn their mother-tongue so quickly? Which language has the most speakers?

If questions like these intrigue you, you could be a born linguist. That's 'linguist' meaning 'someone who
practices linguistics', of course, not 'someone who speaks a lot of languages fluently'. Linguistics is the
science of language. It is the subject whose practitioners devote their energy to understanding why human
language is the way it is. They study the history, acquisition, structure, and use of as many languages as
possible - It would be nice to study them all, but life's too short. There are currently about 6,000 languages
to choose from.

You can specialise in any language, or group of languages, when you study linguistics. I have friends
working on Celtic languages, the Romance languages, American Indian languages, Australian aboriginal
languages, or on just one language, such as Russian, Arabic, Welsh, Japanese - or English. Exactly which
ones you encounter in a course will vary greatly; but in principle, the whole of the linguistic world is your
oyster.

Linguists start with the study of individual languages, but they don't stop there. Their long-term goal is to
find out what all languages have in common, and what makes them different. They want to establish the
defining characteristics of human languages? Do all languages have nouns? (yes) future tenses?
(no) vowels? (yes) nasal consonants? (no) Are there any languages with just a few hundred words? (no) Do
all languages have words for 'yellow'? (no) Actually, a 'yes' answer should really be 'as far as we know' - for
only about two-thirds of the world's languages have so far had some study. There 's plenty to be done - but
not all that much time to do it in, for languages are dying all over the world as small communities become
endangered by the steamroller of modern global civilization. A language is dying, on average, every few
weeks. Why this is happening, and whether anything can be done about it, is something else linguistics
courses deal with. There's a real sense of urgency about the subject these days.

But there's plenty to discover, even if you concentrate just on English - English has over a thousand years of
recorded history, a vast literature, and a huge number of varieties of spoken and written expression, from
airspeak (the language used by air traffic control) to zoological nomenclature. Spoken as a first, second, or
foreign language by a quarter of the world's population, it is also developing an unprecedented range of new
dialects, as it spreads around the world. All of this needs study. And courses on the English language probe,
with different selections and emphases, its sounds, spellings, grammar, vocabulary, and pattens of discourse;
its stylistic and social range, as seen in literature and other special contexts, such as science and law; its
accents and dialects, both nationally and internationally; the stages through which it emerges in children;
and the way it has developed from Anglo-Saxon times through the periods of Chaucer and Shakespeare to
the present day.

The study of English language and linguistics is not only of value for its own sake. There are several real-
life problem areas which it can help to illuminate. Many children have serious difficulties in learning to
listen, speak, read or write. Many adults lose their command of language after a stroke. How can they be
helped? Foreign language teaching and learning is now a major global industry. Translating and interpreting
are major international demands . How can standards in these areas be improved? Several industries are
beginning to use computers to recognize and produce speech. How can quality be improved? Progress in any
of these situations presupposes a detailed analysis and awareness of language, which is what courses on
linguistics and the English language can provide. Meanwhile, the questions roll on. What's the meaning of
place-names? Who wrote the first dictionaries and grammars? Where do irregularities in spelling come
from? How many words are there in English? ...
David Crystal,
Honorary Professor of Linguistics at Bangor