The Discipline and the Professionals
The Discipline
According to the Linguistic Society of America, "Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists apply the scientific method to conduct formal studies of speech sounds, grammatical structures, and meaning across the world’s 6,000+ languages" (What is Linguistics?, 2020). Linguists also "investigate the history of and changes within language families and how language is acquired when we are infants. Linguists examine the relationship between written and spoken language as well as the underlying neural structures that enable us to use language" (The Science of Linguistics, 2020). It is a multidisciplinary field: studies cross with psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, and even computer science. The Linguistic Society of America also specifies that there is a difference between a linguist and a polyglot, someone who knows multiple languages; a person can be both, but they are not the same.
Linguistic Society of America. (2020). The Science of Linguistics. Retrieved from https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/science-linguistics
Linguistic Society of America. (2020). What is Linguistics? Retrieved from https://www.linguisticsociety.org/what-linguistics
The Professionals
Linguists often go into academia: they conduct research and become professors at universities. They may also be professionals in language education, such as teaching a foreign language or English as a Second Language (ESL). This could also include linguistic librarians, as they often work with linguistics faculty at universities. There is a path in science and technology for linguists: speech pathologists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, historical linguists, and even computer language coders all use different aspects of linguistics to different ends. If a linguist wants to work with the public, they might become a diplomat, a cryptanalyst for an intelligence agency, or a forensic linguist. In the business sector, linguistics can be multicultural marketers or advertisers, text-to-speech developers, or even AI developers--computers have a language all their own that linguists can specialize in. The possibilities are endless because this field is so interdisciplinary (Linguistics as a Profession, 2020).
As there are many professions that stem from linguistics, students can tailor their education to combine the fields of their interests. However, the study of linguistics starts with understanding language structure at all levels before moving on to theoretical and practical applications--where the interdisciplinary aspect comes in. The levels are as follows: phonology, the study of individual spoken sounds; morphology, the study of the internal structure of words; syntax, or sentence structure; and semantics, the meaning of words or combinations of words (Studying Linguistics, 2020).
Hobbyists of this area could be a person simply researching the basic history of a language, someone becoming fascinated with perfect grammar, or someone teaching themselves computer coding. Language and communication is one of the fundamentals of this society, so everyone has some experience with linguistics.
One of the major associations involved in linguistics is the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), from which I have cited thoroughly already. According to their website, "The mission of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is to advance the scientific study of language. The LSA aspires to a world in which the essential nature of language and its central role in human life is well understood" (What We Do, 2020). They have many publications and meetings about current linguistic research. They promote human rights where it relates to language and communication. The members are professionals in the field, scholars and instructors, students of linguistics, and just those with a passion for linguistic issues.
Librarians can help information seekers by pointing them to LSA publications, the What is Linguistics section, and the Issues in Linguistics section, which features policies and other ways the LSA is advocating for human rights, education rights, and more.
Linguistic Society of America. (2020). Linguistics as a Profession. Retrieved from https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/linguistics-profession
Linguistic Society of America. (2020). Studying Linguistics. Retrieved from https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/studying-linguistics
Linguistic Society of America. (2020). What We Do. Retrieved from https://www.linguisticsociety.org/about/what-we-do
Some of the top universities that have prolific linguistics programs and execute research include:
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Harvard University
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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University of Washington
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Ohio State University
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University of Michigan
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University of Pennsylvania
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Indiana University Bloomington
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University of Cambridge
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University of Edinburgh
Topics
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Endangered languages is one of the main issues in linguistics research today. As more people learn English and other widespread languages and as small minority cultures shrink, their native languages often fall out of use. This is a common problem for native and indigenous peoples. The Linguistic Society of America formed the Committee on Endangered Languages and Their Preservation to promote the cause. 2019 was declared the International Year of Indigenous Languages by the UN.
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Human rights is a big topic of discussion in the linguistic field. This comes in the form of communicating rights to non-native speakers of English and developing inclusive language to avoid stereotypes and promote equal opportunities to marginalized groups. There are even a few UN declarations that pertain to linguistics: the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (right to an education in one's own language), and the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (Human Rights and Linguistics, 2020).
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Women's rights is also an issue in the linguistic workforce and in the use of language. This ties back to the LSA's guidelines on inclusive language and also to their guidelines against sexual harassment. They have a Committee on the Status of Women in Linguistics.
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How and when did language originate? Linguists are still researching to try and form a concrete answer. This is important to the study of human evolution and language evolution, which have implications for our future.
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How do we learn language? Psycholinguists and those who work in neuroscience are preoccupied with how humans learn language in the early stages on life. This has implications in human functionality and could potentially inform optimization of AI.
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How have different languages and dialects formed? Historical linguists and sociolinguists study how languages have developed away from each other, how they have changed over time based on many social factors, etc. How human forms of communication differ from animal communication is also a topic thoroughly researched by anthropologists, biologists, and other professionals.
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A more recent issue is computer translation: can it ever match or even supersede human translation? This ties in more complicated questions about the nature of AI and computer consciousness.
Linguistic Society of America. (2020). Human Rights and Linguistics. Retrieved from https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/human-rights-and-linguistics