M. A. I english P. C3 & C6 Modern Linguistics title pmd

Subject Matter I 
1.3. What is Linguistics?
Linguistics has been an area of interest among philosophers and 
logicians since antiquity. The nature of language and variety of its uses by 
individuals has always attracted experts from different fields such as 
education, sociology, anthropology, language teaching, psychology and 
philosophy. It is probably because all these have language as their base. 
This fascination led some of the interested souls to undertake the study of 
language which ultimately became ‘Linguistics’.
Let’s begin with some definitions of linguistics.
a) 
‘Linguistics observes language in action as a means for determining 
how language has developed, how it functions today, and how it is 
currently evolving'. (G. Duffy) 
b) 
Linguistics is concerned with the nature of human language, how it is 
learned and what role it plays in the life of the individual and the 
community.’ (S. Pit Corder) 

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c) 
‘Linguistics tries to answer two basic questions: What is Language? 
How does language work?’ (Jean Aitchison) 
d) 
‘The scientific study of human language is called linguistics’. (Victoria 
A. Fromkin) 
Most of the definitions here focus on two issues: the first is language 
and the second is scientific study. There are two words used ‘scientific’ and 
‘language’. Both the words have different contextual connotations. Any study 
has to be ‘scientific’ i.e. it should have certain methodology for collection and 
analysis of data apart from following certain procedures. Secondly, the object 
of study in linguistics is ‘language’. If language is the object of study, it is 
necessary to know some basics of language. (The word ‘language’ here is 
used without any article as there are many languages in the world but the 
science that studies them remains the same though languages changes.) 
Let’s try to understand the nature of language.
The study of linguistics must begin with the understanding of language 
and its characteristics. Let’s try to understand the nature of human language.