Definition of Linguistics

Each human language is a complex of knowledge and abilities enabling speakers of

the language to communicate with each other, to express ideas, hypotheses, emotions,
desires, and all the other things that need expressing.
Linguistics is the study of these knowledge systems in all their aspects: how is such a
knowledge system structured, how is it acquired, how is it used in the production and
comprehension of messages, how does it change over time? Linguists consequently are
concerned with a number of particular questions about the nature of language. What
properties do all human languages have in common? How do languages differ, and to what
extent are the differences systematic, i.e. can we find patterns in the differences?
The part of linguistics that is concerned with the structure of language is divided into a
number of subfields:
Phonetics - the study of speech sounds in their physical aspects
Phonology - the study of speech sounds in their cognitive aspects
Morphology - the study of the formation of words
Syntax - the study of the formation of sentences
Semantics - the study of meaning
Pragmatics - the study of language use
The main purpose of the study of Linguistics in an academic environment is the advancement
of knowledge. However, because of the centrality of language in human interaction and
behavior, the knowledge gained through the study of linguistics has many practical
consequences and uses. Graduates of undergraduate and graduate programs in Linguistics
apply their training in many diverse areas, including language pedagogy, speech pathology,
speech synthesis, natural language interfaces, search engines, machine translation, forensics,
naming, and of course all forms of writing, editing, and publishing.

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Brach of Linguistics
Aside from language structure, other perspectives on language are represented in
specialized or interdisciplinary branches:
Historical Linguistics
The term "historical linguistics" refers to the study of languages as they have evolved
from past to present, which often includes periods of time that pre-date the art of writing -
- i.e., requiring "reconstruction" of forgotten languages lacking written records, but which
gave rise to languages in which texts were (and perhaps still are) written. It all began, as
legend has it, with Sir William Jones.
Sociolinguistics
is the study how to language serves and is shaped by the social nature of human beings. In
its broadest conception, sociolinguistics analyzes the many and diverse ways in which
language and society.
Psycholinguistics
is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to
acquire, use, comprehend and produce language. Iednitial forays into psycholinguistics
were largely philosophical or educational schools of thought, due mainly to their location
in departments other than applied sciences (e.g., cohesive data on how the human brain
function)
Ethnolinguistics
is a field of linguistics which studies the relationship between language and culture, and
the way different ethnic groups perceive the world. It is the combination
between ethnology and linguistics.
Dialectology
is the scientific study of linguistic dialect, a sub-field of sociolinguistics. It studies variations
inlanguage based primarily on geographic distribution and their associated features.
Dialectology treats such topics as divergence of two local dialects from a common ancestor
and synchronic variation.
Computational Linguistics
is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the statistical or rule-based modeling of natural
language from a computational perspective.
Psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics
is the study of the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension,
production, and acquisition oflanguage. As an interdisciplinary field, neurolinguistics draws
methods and theories from fields such as neuroscience, linguistics, cognitive
science, neurobiology, communication disorders, neuropsychology, and computer science.

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References
http://linguistics.ucsc.edu/about/what-is-linguistics.html
Heine, Bernd (1997) Cognitive Foundations of Grammar. Oxford/New York: Oxford University
Press
Wardhaugh, Ronald. An introduction to sociolinguistics. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell,
1992.
Levelt, W. J. M. (2013). A History of Psycholinguistics: the pre-Chomskyan era. Part
1. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-965366-9.
Packard, Jerome L (2000). "Chinese words and the lexicon." The Morphology of
Chinese: A Linguistic and Cognitive Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. pp. 284-309.
https://en.wikipedia.org
http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/sociolinguistics/sociolinguistics
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/general/histling.html