Linguistics is the scientific study of language; how it is put together and how it functions.
The different sub-areas explain the theory of how each one of them influences the language. The sounds made, the arrangement of words, the sentence structures, the meaning and everything combined to create an understanding for the listener, are discussed in linguistics. It also includes the understanding of:
- the unconscious knowledge that humans have about language
- the structure of language
- how children acquire language
- how languages vary
- how language affects the way we interact with each other and think about the world