House of Translation LLC

House of Translation LLC

Linguistics

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Linguists study the nature and characteristics of human language. There are many different specializations under the umbrella of linguistics, including:

Theoretical linguistics

• Phonetics, the study of the physical sounds of languages, particularly the production and perception of those sounds.
• Phonology, the study of how sounds are organized and used in languages to encode meaning.
• Morphology, the study of the internal structure of words.
• Syntax, the study of the rules that govern the way the words in a sentence come together.
• Semantics, the study of meaning.
• Pragmatics, the study of the way language can communicate more than is explicitly stated.

Applied linguistics

• Language acquisition, the study how we acquire our native language (first language acquisition), and how we learn other languages (second language acquisition).
• Psycholinguistics, the study of the connection between thinking and the use of language.
• Neurolinguistics, the study of the neural mechanisms involved in the comprehension, production and abstract knowledge of language.
• Sociolinguistics, the study of the relationship between language and society.
• Historical linguistics, the study of the origin of words.
• Anthropological linguistics, the study of the relationship between language and culture.
• Discourse analysis, the study of language in the context of conversation.

Linguists work for a range of organizations, including universities and colleges, high tech companies, research institutions, consulting firms, government, and the military.