Linguistics is the scientific study oflanguage. The areas of linguistic analysis aresyntax (rules governing the structure of sentences),semantics (meaning),morphology (structure of words),phonetics (speech sounds and equivalent gestures insign languages),phonology (the abstract sound system of a particular language, and analogous systems of sign languages), andpragmatics (how the context of use contributes to meaning). Subdisciplines such asbiolinguistics (the study of the biological variables and evolution of language) andpsycholinguistics (the study of psychological factors in human language) bridge many of these divisions.

Linguistics encompassesmany branches and subfields that span both theoretical and practical applications.Theoretical linguistics is concerned with understanding theuniversal andfundamental nature of language and developing a general theoretical framework for describing it.Applied linguistics seeks to utilize the scientific findings of the study of language for practical purposes, such as developing methods of improving language education and literacy.Mathematical linguistics is the application ofmathematics to model phenomena and solve problems in general linguistics andtheoretical linguistics.Computational linguistics is aninterdisciplinary field concerned with thecomputational modelling ofnatural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions.

Linguistic features may be studied through a variety of perspectives:synchronically (by describing the structure of a language at a specific point in time) ordiachronically (through the historical development of a language over a period of time), inmonolinguals or inmultilinguals, among children or among adults, in terms of how it is being learnt or how it was acquired, as abstract objects or as cognitive structures, through written texts or through oral elicitation, and finally through mechanical data collection or practical fieldwork.

Linguistics emerged from the field ofphilology, of which some branches are more qualitative andholistic in approach. Today, philology and linguistics are variably described as related fields, subdisciplines, or separate fields of language study, but, by and large, linguistics can be seen as an umbrella term. Linguistics is also related to thephilosophy of language,stylistics,rhetoric,semiotics,lexicography, andtranslation. (Full article...)

The followingWikiProjects work to improve topics concerned with linguistics:

Linguistics	Dyslexia & Alexia	Languages	Writing systems	Anthropology

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