Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The study of the nature, structure, and variation of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The science of languages, or of the origin and history of words; the general and comparative study of human languages and of their elements. Also called
comparative philology .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun The science of languages, or of the origin, signification, and application of words; glossology.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun The scientific study of
language .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the humanistic study of language and literature
- noun the scientific study of language
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Hell, you probably think Chomsky's work in linguistics is rubbish just because he's a frothing loon on any other subject.
Medpundit 2006
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As a monolingual American, any chance to strengthen my linguistics is a plus.
Terry Gardner: Previewing The CW's Fly Girls at 35,000 Feet Terry Gardner 2010
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As a journalist with two degrees in linguistics, I enjoy combining my two fields whenever possible and writing about language for the general reader.
A discussion with Margalit Fox about Talking Hands: What Sign Language Reveals About the Mind 2010
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I understand this view to be more or less orthodox in linguistics these days.
Economics and Evolution, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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Henninger: I think you'd need a Ph.D. in linguistics to figure out what exactly he's saying there.
Reporting for Duty 2010
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Sorry about another personal example, but sometimes purely intellectual discourse becomes merely an exercise in linguistics and thereby, a souless detachment from reality.
Think Progress » Steele: ‘Trust Me, After Taxes, A Million Dollars Is Not A Lot Of Money’ 2010
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‘I’ and ‘we’ are apparently one of the oldest words found in linguistics, so changing these is a hard thing to do.
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Because linguistics is only indirectly applicable to language teaching, changes in linguistic theory or arguments amongst linguists should not disturb language teachers.
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‘I’ and ‘we’ are apparently one of the oldest words found in linguistics, so changing these is a hard thing to do.
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Sorry about another personal example, but sometimes purely intellectual discourse becomes merely an exercise in linguistics and thereby, a souless detachment from reality.
Think Progress » Steele: ‘Trust Me, After Taxes, A Million Dollars Is Not A Lot Of Money’ 2010
thebighenry commented on the word linguistics
sticky segments of linguini
April 28, 2008