Criticism

Chapter 3

Fields of Linguistics

Introduction

In this chapter I enumerate the various subfields of linguistics. Because language has so many aspects, linguistics is a rich and complex science. Given that language can be studied from different perspectives, linguistics can be seen as belonging to or overlapping with several other fields. Within the psychological perspective, linguistics overlaps with (cognitive) psychology. As an individual property language is part of the human mind and thus also encoded in the neural circuitry of the brain. This brings linguistics within the realm of biology, more specifically neuroscience where the biophysical and biochemical aspects the brain are studied. If, then, the claim is made that some of the circuitry for language is genetically determined, the study of language can be said to be even more firmly rooted in biology (genetics and developmental biology).

The sociological perspective places linguistics within the social sciences, firstly one might think within sociology where relationships between language variation and social stratification as well as the role of language in social institutions are studied. However, anthropology has always had an even bigger claim on linguistics, especially in the U.S. This is simply because the study of other cultures naturally starts out with not only learning the relevant language, but also studying its structure for what it may reveal about the way people think.

Another umbrella for linguistics is the new field of Cognitive Science, which is not really a unified field at this point but rather an interdisciplinary endeavor of all scientists that study the mind. This involves psychologists, philosophers, computer scientists, evolutionary psychologists, linguists, and more.

Finally, linguistics, as we have seen, can be thought of as being included in the broad science of semiotics.

Depending on what one take linguistics to be, one will group it in the social...