What is Linguistics?

This is perhaps the question which I hear most frequently upon telling people that I'm getting a degree in linguistics. Of course some people have ideas already, that it's the study of foreign languages, or that it has a lot to do with English grammar or whatever else. While there is often certain truth in what people assume about linguistics, it isn't usually the entire picture.

Simply put, linguistics is the scientific study of language. Granted, while that might be a neat, concise sounding description of linguistics, I also understand that it leaves one with a lot of questions still. What is it that's being studied scientifically about the languages, is it a scientific way to learn other languages or something else entirely? These are certainly great questions and deserve some sort of answer.

Linguistics is a very broad field focusing on all areas of language. This means that the scientific study involved in it is rather all encompassing at times. Some linguist study how languages are put together and how they differ from each other, while others might be studying how language is acquired, both of these things might indeed be very helpful in learning foreign languages, but that isn't really what linguistics is about. Besides this a linguist may also study the sounds in languages and how they affect meaning, the historical changes seen in languages, the construction of individual words and sentences, and what is actually meant as opposed to what might be said. This is still a very vast description of the field. There are a lot more specific areas which I would like to cover in time, but I hope this helps a bit in narrowing down what a linguist does.

Another thing I'd like to convey is while linguist are certainly fascinated by languages in general, and most have studied numerous languages beyond their native tongue, linguistics is not really about learning to speak or read other languages. It's about understanding, on a scientific level, what makes them different, and similar and so the many other factors involved. It's about understanding at its base, the fundamental element that we know of as human communication.

-Lynx