Taaltaalkundige

Taaltaalkundige is a term used to describe a person who studies language in a scientific and systematic way. In standard Dutch, the more common label is taalkundige, or linguist, and taaltaalkundige may be encountered as a compound form emphasizing both language as a system and language in use.

A taaltaalkundige typically researches the structure of language—such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics—and how language is employed in real communication through pragmatics, discourse, and sociolinguistics. The field often overlaps with psycholinguistics, historical linguistics, and computational linguistics, covering both theoretical questions about language and practical questions about language variation, acquisition, and change. Methods range from empirical data collection and analysis of language corpora to fieldwork, experiments, and computational modeling.

Professional work and settings commonly include universities, research institutes, and linguistic consultancies. Taaltaalkundigen design studies, analyze language data, teach and supervise students, and publish findings in scholarly journals. They may contribute to language technology projects, educate about language variation and dialects, or advise on language policy and language education.

Usage notes: the term taaltaalkundige is not as standard as taalkundige, and its meaning can be ambiguous without context. It is more likely to appear in informal or stylistic writing than in formal dictionaries. When precision is required, it is advisable to use taalkundige or specify the exact subfield of linguistics.

See also: linguistics, taalkunde, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, phonetics, phonology, historical linguistics.