A Message From the East:Understanding language reflects commonality

"What do you study at Ball State?"

I have been asked this question many times. My answer has always been "linguistics." Having answered this question, I immediately prepare myself for the second question, which is always, "What language(s) do you study?"

For those of us who study linguistics, this question reflects a widespread misconception about our field. People think students of linguistics study language(s). That is not true. Linguistics has nothing to do with studying languages.

Then, what is the difference?

Almost all students around the world use computers to type their assignments, send e-mails and browse the Web. Does this mean all of them know how computers work? Of course not.

Being able to use a computer to serve your purposes does not mean you have a conscious knowledge of the way it works. Studying a language does not provide you with enough understanding of how that language works.

When you study a language you aim at gaining enough knowledge to speak that language or communicate with its speakers who may not know your native language. In this situation you learn as much vocabulary of that language as you can, practice how words are pronounced, and study the grammar of that language. However, we linguistics students do not do that.

Then, what do we do? We have fun with language.

Linguistics is the study of the inner structures, different processes, and various organizations of language in order to figure out how language works. Students of linguistics, or linguists, use the scientific method to achieve their goals. They compare and contrast structures of different languages in order to identify the elements that languages share, which is an important step to reach the most efficient way to describe language in general.

Contrary to what many people assume, a linguist is not someone who speaks more than one language. A linguist in this sense is an individual who studies language as a human phenomenon and can understand the internal structure of a language without actually speaking it.

The person who speaks two languages is 'bilingual.' The person who speaks three languages is 'trilingual.' If it happens that a person can speak more than that he is called 'polyglot' or 'multilingual.'

Linguistics, just like any other complex field, includes several major divisions. Here are some of them:

Phonetics: it is the study of the sounds of languages, their physical properties, how they are articulated, and how they are perceived.

Phonology: It is concerned with analyzing how the sounds in a given language get to interact with each other. Native speakers of English pronounce the "p" in different ways depending on its position in a word. For example, if you observe yourself carefully when you pronounce the words "pin'"and "spin" you will find a difference. If not, hold a sheet of paper close to your mouth and pronounce the two words again. What did you find?

Morphology: It involves the study of the structure of words. Any word must have a root. In addition to the root a word can have other components that precede the root (prefixes) or follow the root (suffixes). A word like "international" consists of three components (or morphemes): a prefix "inter" + a root "nation" + a suffix "al." Morphology is concerned also with classifying words into different groups such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions, etc.

Syntax: It is the study of how words are structured into phrases, clauses, and sentences. It studies also the types of sentences: declarative, interrogative, exclamatory, or imperative.

Finally, knowing something about how language works is vital to improve our understanding of the thing that all human beings share, and that reflects our commonality.