Linguistics

Linguistics is the study of language.

Some topics in theoretical linguistics

  • Phonetics - human sounds
  • Phonology - sounds of a particular language
  • Morphology - words and word structure
  • Syntax - combinations of words; grammar
  • Semantics - meaning of words and combinations of words
  • Pragmatics - context and meaning
  • Linguistic typology - classification of languages by features
  • Historical linguistics/comparative linguistics - language changes

Related and cross-discipline topics

  • Philology - study of ancient texts
  • Sociolinguistics - effect of society on language
  • Linguistic anthropology - study of humans through their language
  • Neurolinguistics - underlying brain mechanisms that enable learning/use of language
  • Psycholinguistics - mental/behavioural factors that enable human learning/use of language
  • Computational linguistics