UPDATED: The über-condensed version of Linguistics

@ChristopherLane over on Twitter asks:

but I am intrigued, what do linguistics entail?

(note to self: write WP plugin to automatically link @ tags to Twitter. Or find one. Or get Matt to write it. Done: Got Matt to write it.)

This is going to be a butchery vague summary job of an explanation of what linguistics is, but if you want detail, go to Wikipedia and spend the next 3 months reading!

The field of linguistics

To start with, linguistics isn’t one thing. Boiled down to its most simple definition, linguistics can be considered ‘the science of language’.

Like most sciences, there’s lots of different types of linguistics which look at completely different areas. Some examples are:

  • Historical linguistics – Looks at language of the past and compares it to languages of today, or tries to reconstruct languages which are no longer spoken based on their descendants still spoken today. In this way, links between languages which previously weren’t known to be linked can be found (eg. linking Sanskrit and English by way of the Indo-European family of languages, which is probably the most famous language family and eventually reconstructing a ‘proto’ language which we call ‘Proto-Indo-European’ which is a model of what the original language which split into the hundreds of other languages looked and sounded like).

    Historical linguistics is also fun for grammar nazi types, because you get to see how unstable grammar, pronunciation and spelling actually are. It puts into context the grammar Nazi in us all, since what we consider to be correct would historically have been considered barbarous to the language. That said, I’m not totally against some kind of order, just not necessarily the stubborn retention of ridiculous archaic weirdness that makes English a nightmare (and other languages for that matter.)

  • Syntax – Looking at the so called universals of language grammar, how sentences are constructed in various languages and the relationships between them. Gets pretty heavy mathsy at times. A positive for some, but not for me unfortunately.

    Update: The basis of syntax is the basic building blocks of language – verbs, nouns, sometimes adjectives/adverbs and the various grammatical morphemes (for the sake of simplicity, words). There’s a surprising consistency between languages on the use of them, and most syntax is based on Noam Chomsky’s work on the so called ‘Generative Grammar’ (referring to the fact that languages, in theory, have no limit to what can be constructed. Sentences or phrases can always be packed onto one another to create an endless sentence.) Once you get to the phrase level, the breakdown of phrases into their individual parts is an important part of Syntax.

    It’s also good to remember that syntax doesn’t care what the meaning of words are – it has no material effect on the structure of the language. Many of the sentences you work with in syntax will mean nothing to you, and often in the classroom, nonsense sentences are used specifically to bring this point home. All you need to know is parts of speech – nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions etc. and a whole lot of data (although the data often comes before the parts of speech, as the assignments we did showed) and you can figure out the syntax. Doesn’t mean you know any better what’s being said though.

  • Phonetics and phonology - Looking at the physical and auditory aspects of the way language is spoken, and the processes which make the sounds we hear in language relate to the way we perceive and understand words.  Phonology specifically deals with the variation which occurs in speech, and what these groupings tell us about the way we perceive and speak languages.
  • Sociolinguistics – Looking at the social aspects of language use – how social circles affect the language we use, what is considered ‘proper’ language use (grammar nazis beware) and other things relating directly to the social influences on language use.

There’s plenty more of those different fields to look at. Personally, at the moment, I’m focusing on language endangerment. Language endangerment is a relatively new field of linguistics which looks at the declining languages of the world, both to document them and to maintain and in some cases revitalize or reconstruct an almost-extinct language. Australia has one of the greatest number of endangered languages, most of which will probably die out in 50 or so years without major intervention.

Anyway, like I said, that was a very VERY short introduction to linguistics. Probably a completely inadequate introduction to linguistics, but I didn’t want to bore you all with too much detail!

Update: Careers in Linguistics

@ChristopherLane asks:

Last question (for an argument sake) what jobs can you get out of linguistics?

Careers in linguistics is a confusing one. There’s not necessarily a clear cut path for linguists to walk towards a place in a job, and where they can go depends heavily on what they specialize in. For example, someone with a background in something like sociolinguistics and phonology (this is a real example) might work and create those horrible horrible Telstra/Optus/everyone-else things that make you talk to a computer when you call a company. That would involve working with them to define what the computer needs to recognize and the questions asked based on the target audience.

Other fields of linguistics funnel you back into the academia, in the form of a researcher, teacher, lecturer at a university. These roles will quite often involve working with various international bodies to assist with research work and/or pursuing your own interests provided they match up with the university’s interests on some level (ie. you can get paid to do it by the university.) Syntax is probably one of them. Not that that’s a bad thing, but it’s certainly not for everyone.

In my case, endangered languages can lead in either direction. It’s not so big on the corporate level, but there’s various government funded and some self-funding language centres around Australia working to either document, support or revitalize languages in remote and city indigenous communities. There’s also massive efforts around the world to document the dying languages of other regions (SE-Asia, the pacific and the US come to mind). At the same time, there’s university posts which work on much the same things, but usually offer the opportunity to get stuck into one thing for a greater period of time and really become an expert in a language or language family, and have a very active role in that language’s future.

In summary, there’s no easy answer to that question other than to say that it depends on what you get into. There are careers in linguistics though, but they’re perhaps just not as clear-cut as they are in some other areas.