Linguists

Linguists are researchers who study language. They analyze how languages are structured, how they change over time, and how people use them in social contexts. The field covers theoretical questions about the nature of language as a cognitive faculty and practical concerns such as documenting endangered languages and developing language technologies.

Linguistics employs a range of methods, from fieldwork collecting data from speakers to corpus linguistics and laboratory experiments. Descriptive analysis seeks to describe languages as they are spoken, while theoretical work develops models of phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Computational and experimental approaches enable hypotheses testing about language processing and acquisition.

Training typically involves degrees in linguistics or related disciplines, with advanced study at the master's or doctoral level. Careers span academia, research institutes, language documentation projects, tech companies and publishing, education, and public policy. Many linguists contribute to natural language processing, speech recognition, machine translation, and language education.

Linguistics has several subfields, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, historical linguistics, language acquisition, and computational linguistics. Some work focuses on endangered language documentation and revitalization, language policy, and literacy.

Professional organizations such as the Linguistic Society of America and international associations organize conferences, publish journals, and provide resources for researchers. Ethics, respect for speaker communities, and collaboration with field partners are common considerations in linguistic work.