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{{Linguistics| }}
The following [[Wikipedia:Outlines|outline]] is provided as an overview and topical guide to linguistics:

'''[[Linguistics]]''' is the [[scientific]] study of [[language]]. Someone who engages in this study is called a '''[[linguist]]'''. Linguistics has two subdivisions, [[Theoretical linguistics|general]] and [[Applied linguistics|applied]].

{{TOC limit|limit=2}}

==Branches of linguistics==

=== Subfields of linguistics ===
* General linguistics
** [[Phonetics]] – the study of the speech faculty
** [[Phonology]] – the usage of vocalized sounds and systems of sounds to form language
** [[Morphology (linguistics)|Morphology]] – the property of sound and meaning dynamics in language
** [[Syntax]] – the property of grammar that governs sentence structure 
** [[Semantics]] – the study of meaning as encoded in grammar
** [[Pragmatics]] – the study of how context contributes to meaning 
** [[Graphemics]] – the study of writing systems
*** [[Graphetics]] – the study of writing shapes as assigned to sounds or ideas
* [[Theoretical linguistics]] – the study of language as an abstract object
** [[Generative linguistics]] – an approach which seeks to ground grammar in a specialized language module
** [[Formalism (linguistics)]] – the theory of language as a formal system with mathematical-logical rules and a formal grammar
** [[Functional linguistics]] – language as used and coming from use
** [[Quantitative linguistics]] – the study of quantitative language laws and corresponding general theories
** [[Formal semantics (natural language)|Formal semantics]] – the study of semantics through formal logic-based models
* [[Linguistic description|Descriptive linguistics]] – describing how a particular language is used
** [[Anthropological linguistics]] – ''the place of language in its wider social and cultural context, and its role in making and maintaining cultural practices and societal structures''
** [[Historical linguistics]] – the study of historical language change over time 
*** [[Comparative linguistics]] – comparing languages to find similarities and historical connections
** [[Etymology]] – the study of word histories and origins
** [[Lexicology]] – the study of vocabularies and the structural relationships between many different words
** [[Sociolinguistics]] – the study of society's effects on language
** [[Discourse analysis]] – analysis of language use in [[Text (literary theory)|texts]] (spoken, written, or signed)
** [[Linguistic typology]] – comparative study of the similarities and differences between language structures in the world's languages.
* [[Applied linguistics]] – finding solutions to real-life problems related to language
** [[Computational linguistics]] – the use of computation applied to language databasing, analysis, translation, and synthesis
** [[Forensic linguistics]] – language science applied to the processes of law and justice
** [[Internet linguistics]] – the study of language usage on the Internet 
** [[Language assessment]] – assessing first or second language faculty in individuals 
** [[Language documentation]] – comprehensive description of the grammar and use practices of languages of a particular group
** [[Language revitalization]] – ''an attempt to halt or reverse the decline of a language or to revive an extinct one''
** [[Language education]] – teaching specific language and language science
** [[Linguistic anthropology]] – ''the study of how language influences social life''
* [[Psycholinguistics]] – ''the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, comprehend and produce language''
** [[Cognitive linguistics]] – an approach which seeks to ground grammar in general cognition
** [[Language acquisition]] – the study of how children and adults acquire language knowledge and ability
** [[Language development]] – the study of early language formation
** [[Second-language acquisition]] – the study of how a second language is learned

==== Subfields, by linguistic structures studied ====
Sub-fields of structure-focused linguistics include:

* [[Phonetics]] – the study of the physical properties of speech (or signed) production and perception
* [[Phonology]] – the study of sounds (or signs) as discrete, abstract elements in the speaker's mind that distinguish meaning
* [[Morphology (linguistics)|Morphology]] – the study of internal structures of words and how they can be modified
* [[Syntax]] – study of how words combine to form grammatical [[Sentence (linguistics)|sentence]]s
* [[Semantics]] – the study of the meaning of words ([[lexical semantics]]) and fixed word combinations ([[phraseology]]), and how these [[compositionality|compose]] to form the [[meaning (linguistics)|meaning]]s of sentences
* [[Pragmatics]] – the study of how [[utterance]]s are used in [[speech acts|communicative acts]] – and the role played by context and nonlinguistic knowledge in the transmission of meaning

==== Subfields, by nonlinguistic factors studied ====
* [[Applied linguistics]] – the study of language-related issues applied in everyday life, notably language policies, planning, and education. ([[Constructed language]] fits under Applied linguistics.)
* [[Biolinguistics]] – the study of the biological and evolutionary components of human language
* [[Clinical linguistics]] – application of linguistic theory to the field of [[Speech-Language Pathology]]
* [[Computational linguistics]] – the study of linguistic issues in a way that is 'computationally responsible', i.e., taking careful note of computational consideration of algorithmic specification and computational complexity, so that the linguistic theories devised can be shown to exhibit certain desirable computational properties implementations
* [[Developmental linguistics]] – the study of the development of linguistic ability in individuals, particularly [[Language acquisition|the acquisition of language]] in childhood
* [[Historical linguistics]] – the study of language change over time. Also called diachronic linguistics
* [[Language geography]] – the study of the geographical distribution of languages and linguistic features
* [[Neurolinguistics]] – the study of the structures in the human brain that underlie grammar and communication
* [[Psycholinguistics]] – the study of the cognitive processes and representations underlying language use
* [[Sociolinguistics]] – the study of variation in language and its relationship with social factors
* [[Stylistics (linguistics)|Stylistics]] – the study of linguistic factors that place a discourse in context

===Other subfields of linguistics===
* [[Contrastive linguistics]] – an approach which seeks to analyze a pair of languages via their similarities and differences
* [[Corpus linguistics]] – an empirical linguistic methodology that aims to study language by using large, searchable, annotated databases (corpora)
* [[Dialectology]] – the study of language dialects, i.e, subsets of a language
* [[Discourse analysis]]  – an approach that studies language as it is naturally used and constituted within discourses, with discourses considered generally as semiotic structures
* [[Grammar]] – the system of rules and principles governing the composition and usage of a language
* [[Interlinguistics]] – the study of auxiliary and planned languages for the facilitation of communication between speakers of different languages and their design
* [[Language acquisition]] – process by which an individual acquires their first language (L1)
* [[Language education]] – teaching specific language and language science
* [[Language for specific purposes]] – the study of language learning in context of highly specific goals and purposes for which the language is learnt, particularly in education and applied linguistcs
* [[Lexicology]] – the study of the lexicon of a given language and its structure
* [[Orthography]] – sets of conventions for writing a language, including spelling, punctuation, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and emphasis
* [[Rhetoric]] – the study of the techniques by which language can be used to persuade
* [[Text linguistics]] – an approach that views texts as communicative systems, particularly focusing on the study of texts as a whole

===Schools, movements, and approaches of linguistics===
* [[Cognitive linguistics]]
* [[Copenhagen School (linguistics)#Danish functional school|Danish functional linguistics]]
* [[Functionalism (linguistics)|Functionalism]]
* [[Generative grammar]]
* [[Geneva school (linguistics)|Geneva School]]
* [[Interactional linguistics]]
* [[Kazan School]]
* [[Neogrammarian]]
* [[Prague linguistic circle]]
* [[Prescription and description]]
* [[Soviet linguistics]]
* [[Stratificational linguistics]]
* [[Structural linguistics]]
* [[Systemic functional linguistics]]
* [[Tagmemics]]

== Related fields ==
* [[Semiotics]] – the study of the relationship between signs and what they signify more broadly. From the perspective of semiotics, language can be seen as a sign or symbol, with the world as its representation.
* [[Terminology]] – the study of terms and their use
** [[Terminology science]] – the study of special vocabulary
* [[Philosophy of language]] – takes a philosophical approach to language. Many formal semanticists are philosophers of language, differing from linguist semanticists only in their metaphysical assumptions (if at all).
** [[Philosophical logic]]
**[[Topic and comment|Topic / Theme]]
**[[Discourse]]

==History of linguistics==
{{see also|History of linguistics}}

===Timeline of discovery of basic linguistics concepts===
''When were the basic concepts first described and by whom?''
* [[:Category:Sanskrit grammarians|Ancient Sanskrit grammarians]]
* Ancient Greek study of language
* Roman elaborations of Greek study
* Medieval philosophical work in Latin
* Beginnings of modern linguistics in the 19th century
* [[Behaviorism]] and mental ''[[tabula rasa]]'' hypothesis
* [[Noam Chomsky|Chomsky]] and the [[cognitive revolution]]
* The [[Linguistics Wars]]
* Compositional [[formal semantics (natural language)|formal semantics]] arises from the work of [[Richard Montague]] and [[Barbara Partee]]
* Alternate syntactic systems develop in the 1980s
* [[Computational linguistics]] becomes feasible in the late 1980s
* [[Neurolinguistics]] and the biological basis of [[cognition]]
* [[Deep learning]] in the 2010s

== Questions in linguistics==

# What is language?
# How did it/does it evolve?
# How does language serve as a medium of communication?
# How does language serve as a medium of thinking?
# What is [[linguistic universal|common to all languages]]?
# How do languages differ?

==Basic concepts==
''What basic concepts / terms do I have to know to talk about linguistics?''
* [[Morphology (linguistics)|Morphology]]
** [[morpheme]], [[inflection]], [[Inflectional paradigm|paradigm]], [[declension]], [[Morphological derivation|derivation]], [[Compound (linguistics)|compound]]
* [[Phonology]]
** [[phoneme]], [[allophone]], [[segment (linguistics)|segment]], [[mora (linguistics)|mora]], [[syllable]], [[foot (prosody)|foot]], [[stress (linguistics)|stress]], [[tone (linguistics)|tone]]
* [[Grammar]]
** [[Grammatical category|category]], [[Grammatical tense|tense]], [[aspect (linguistics)|aspect]], [[Grammatical mood|mood]] and [[Linguistic modality|modality]], [[grammatical number]], [[grammatical gender]], [[Grammatical case|case]]
* [[Syntax]]
** [[phrase]], [[clause]], [[grammatical function]], [[grammatical voice]]
* [[Lexicology]]
** [[word]], [[lexeme]], [[Lemma (morphology)|lemma]], [[lexicon]], [[vocabulary]], [[terminology]]
* [[Semantics]]
** [[Meaning (linguistics)|meaning]], [[word sense|sense]], [[entailment]], [[truth condition]], [[Principle of compositionality|compositionality]]
* [[Pragmatics]]
** [[presupposition]], [[implicature]], [[deixis]]

==Languages of the world==

===Languages by continent and country===
{{Africa in topic|Languages of}}
{{North America in topic|Languages of}}
{{South America in topic|Languages of}}
{{Asia in topic|Languages of}}
{{Languages of Europe}}
{{Oceania in topic|Languages of}}

==Linguistics scholars==
{{main|List of linguists}}

''People who had a significant influence on the development of the field''
* [[John Langshaw Austin|J.L. Austin]]
* [[Leonard Bloomfield]]
* [[Franz Bopp]]
* [[Noam Chomsky]]
* [[Jean Berko Gleason]]
* [[Joseph Greenberg]]
* [[Paul Grice]]
* [[M.A.K. Halliday]]
* [[Louis Hjelmslev]]
* [[Roman Jakobson]]
* [[William Jones (philologist)|Sir William Jones]]
* [[William Labov]]
* [[George Lakoff]]
* [[Ronald Langacker]]
* [[Richard Montague]]
* [[Pāṇini]]
* [[Barbara Partee]]
* [[Kenneth L. Pike]]
* [[Rasmus Rask]]
* [[Edward Sapir]]
* [[Ferdinand de Saussure]]
* [[August Schleicher]]
* [[Lucien Tesnière]]
* [[Nikolai Trubetzkoy]]
* [[Benjamin Lee Whorf]]

==Linguistics lists==
* [[List of languages|Languages]]
** [[Language families and languages]]
** [[ISO 639]]
** [[List of official languages|Official languages]]
** [[wiktionary:Wiktionary:By language|Definitions by language]]
* [[Alphabet]]s & [[Orthography]]
** [[List of writing systems]]
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
|  width="100"| [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic]]
|  width="100"| [[Aramaic alphabet|Aramaic]]
|  width="100"| [[Armenian alphabet|Armenian]]
|  width="100"| [[Braille]]
|  width="100"| [[Coptic alphabet|Coptic]]
|  width="100"| [[Cyrillic script|Cyrillic]]
|-
|  [[Georgian alphabet|Georgian]]
|  [[Gothic alphabet|Gothic]]
|  [[Hangul|Korean]]
|  [[Hebrew alphabet|Hebrew]]
|  [[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] 
|  [[IPA chart for English|English IPA]]
|-
|  [[Kannada language|Kannada]] 
|  [[Hiragana]]
|  [[Katakana]]
|  [[Morse code]]
|  [[ICAO spelling alphabet|ICAO spelling]]
|  [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]]
|-
|  [[Runic alphabet|Runic]]
|  [[SAMPA chart]]
|  [[SAMPA chart for English|English SAMPA]]
|  [[Shavian alphabet|Shavian]]
|  [[Thai alphabet|Thai]]
|
|}
* [[Ideogram]]s - [[Chinese language|Chinese]] and [[Japanese language|Japanese]]
* [[Syllabary|Syllabaries]] - [[Korean language|Korean]] 
* Mixed: [[Ancient Egyptian]] 
* [[Wikipedia:List of common misspellings|Common misspellings]]
* [[List of English words without rhymes|English words without rhymes]]
* [[List of acronyms|Acronym]]
** [[wiktionary:Wiktionary:List of acronyms and abbreviations|Wiktionary:Definitions of acronyms and abbreviations]]

==The placement of linguistics within broader frameworks==
{{See also|Outline of academic disciplines|Linguistics#Nomenclature}}

Linguistics can be described as an [[academic discipline]] and, at least in its theoretical subfields, as a [[Fields of science|field of science]],<ref name="crystal"/> being a widely recognized category of specialized expertise, embodying its own terminology, nomenclature, and [[scientific journal]]s. Many linguists, such as David Crystal, conceptualize the field as being primarily scientific.<ref name="crystal">{{Cite book|title=Linguistics|last=Crystal|first=David|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1990|isbn=978-0-14-013531-2|author-link=David Crystal}}</ref>

Linguistics is a [[Interdisciplinarity|multi-disciplinary]] field of research that combines tools from [[natural science]]s, [[social science]]s, [[formal science]]s, and the [[humanities]].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8nc6nRRbMSQC&pg=PA13|title=The Handbook of Educational Linguistics|last1=Spolsky|first1=Bernard|last2=Hult|first2=Francis M.|date=February 2010|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-4443-3104-2|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EUMqGSbeEXAC&pg=PA23|title=Concise Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics|last=Berns|first=Margie|date=20 March 2010|publisher=Elsevier|isbn=978-0-08-096503-1|pages=23–25|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.linguisticsociety.org/resource/science-linguistics|title=The Science of Linguistics|website=Linguistic Society of America|access-date=17 April 2018|quote=Modern linguists approach their work with a scientific perspective, although they use methods that used to be thought of as solely an academic discipline of the humanities. Contrary to previous belief, linguistics is multidisciplinary. It overlaps each of the human sciences including psychology, neurology, anthropology, and sociology. Linguists conduct formal studies of sound structure, grammar and meaning, but they also investigate the history of language families, and research language acquisition.}}</ref><ref name="essays">Behme, Christina; Neef, Martin. ''[https://philarchive.org/rec/PITWKO Essays on Linguistic Realism]'' (2018). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 7–20</ref>

Historically, there has been some lack of consensus on the [[Outline of academic disciplines|disciplinary classification]] of linguistics, particularly [[theoretical linguistics]]. Linguistic [[Philosophical realism|realists]] viewed linguistics as a formal science; linguistic [[nominalists]] (the [[Structuralism (psychology)|American structuralists]]) viewed linguistics as an empirical or even physical science; linguistic [[conceptualist]]s viewed linguistics as a branch of psychology and therefore a social science; others yet have argued for viewing linguistics as a mixed science.<ref name="essays"/>

Linguistics is heterogeneous in its methods of research, so that each area of theoretical linguistics may resemble [[Methodology|methodologically]] either formal science or empirical science, to different degrees. For example, [[phonetics]] uses empirical approaches to study the physical [[acoustics]] of [[spoken language]]. On the other hand, [[Semantics|semantically]] and [[Grammar|grammatically]], the usability of a [[Formal language|formal]] or [[Natural language|natural]] language is dependent on a formal and arbitrary [[axiom]]atization of rules or norms. Furthermore, as studied in [[pragmatics]] and [[semiotics]], linguistic meaning is influenced by social context.<ref name="essays"/>

To enable communication by upholding a [[Lexical semantics|lexico-semantic]] norm, the speakers of a shared language need to agree on the meaning of a [[sequence]] of [[phoneme]]s; for instance, "aunt" ([[Help:IPA/English|/æ/, /n/, /t/]]) would be acknowledged to signify "parent's sister or parent's sister-in-law", instead of "drummer" or "guest". Likewise, grammatically, it may be necessary for the interlocutors to agree on the [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] and [[Syntax|syntactic]] properties of the sequence; say, that the sequence (/æ/, /n/, /t/) would be treated as a singular [[noun]] convertible morphologically to [[Grammatical number|plurality]] by the addition of the [[suffix]] [[Wiktionary:-s#English|-s]], or that as a noun it must not be [[Grammatical modifier|modified syntactically]] by an [[adverb]] (for instance, "Let's call our immediately aunt" would thus be recognized as a grammatically incoherent structure, in a manner similar to a [[Undefined (mathematics)|mathematically undefined]] expression).

==See also==
{{Portal|Linguistics}}
* [[English language#Vocabulary|Number of words in English]]
* [[Lexicography]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.glottopedia.org Glottopedia, MediaWiki-based encyclopedia of linguistics, under construction]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071126121113/http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-fields.cfm Subfields according to the Linguistic Society of America]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080906110954/http://www.unizar.es/departamentos/filologia_inglesa/garciala/bibliography.html "Linguistics" section] of A Bibliography of Literary Theory, Criticism and Philology, ed. J. A. García Landa (University of Zaragoza, Spain)
* Linguistics and language-related [[wiki]] articles on [http://www.scholarpedia.org/article/Language Scholarpedia] and [http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Linguistics Citizendium]

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