Second, our auditory system is special: our ears are sensitive to exactly the frequencies that are most common in human speech. No other species can do this in the way we can, not even our closest genetic relatives the chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans. It turns out that humans have some important differences to all other species that make our language unique.įirst, what we call the articulatory system: our lungs, larynx & vocal folds, and the shape of our tongue, teeth, lips, nose, all enable us to produce speech. There are plenty of species that communicate with each other in an impressive variety of ways, but in linguistics, our job is to focus on the unique system that humans use. In our simple definition of linguistics, there’s another important word we need to focus on: linguistics is the science of human language. In the following video, a professor of linguistics ponders the question, “Is linguistics a science?” In the same way, linguists observe what people say and how they say it, and come up with theories of why people say certain things or make certain sounds but not others. No - she observes what the beetle eats and tries to figure out why: she develops a theory of why the beetle eats this plant and not that one. She’s not going to judge that the beetles are eating wrong, and tell them that they’d be more successful in life if only they eat the same thing as ants. Imagine that scientist observes that a species of beetle eats leaves. Think about an entomologist who studies beetles. This descriptive approach is consistent with a scientific way of thinking. We describe what people do with their language, but we don’t prescribe how they should or shouldn’t do it. A short-hand way of saying this is that linguists have a descriptive approach to language, not a prescriptive approach. Lots of people in the world - like your high school English teacher, various newspaper columnists, maybe your grandparents, and maybe even some of your friends - make judgments about how people use language. Linguists observe how people use their language.Ī crucial thing to keep in mind is that the observations we make about language use are NOT value judgments. Chemists observe how substances interact with other. There’s another important word: empirical means that we observe data to find the evidence for our theories.Īll scientists make empirical observations: botanists observe how plants grow and reproduce.

The scientific way of thinking about language involves making systematic, empirical observations. Instead, what it means is that the way we ask questions to learn about language uses a scientific approach. First, when we say that linguistics is a science, that doesn’t mean you need a lab coat and safety goggles to do linguistics. This is a simple definition, but it contains some very important words. The simplest definition of Linguistics is that it’s the science of language. Linguistics is one of those subjects that not many people have heard of, so you might well be wondering exactly what it is.

the ways that language changes over time.

the connection between language and culture and how power and authority are connected to language.

the ways in which English is creative or generative.

the difference between descriptive and prescriptive approaches to language.

the definition of linguistics and what makes it a science.

2 Chapter 2: Introduction to Linguistics Learning OutcomesĪfter studying this chapter, you should be able to discuss:

Definition of language by linguists