Guide to Linguistics: The Science of Language
From The Observatory
Editor: Danica Tomber
Associate Editor: Madeline VanArsdale
Source: The Observatory
We use language every day—from spoken and signed words to written communication and body gestures—but how often do we pause to consider what drives it beneath the surface? Linguistics, the scientific study of language, seeks to answer this question by examining how language is acquired, how it functions, how it changes over time, and how it connects to both human evolution and society. Its insights reach far beyond the classroom, shaping our understanding of education, politics, technology, identity, and culture.
This Guide to Linguistics: The Science of Language explores how language both shapes and is shaped by our experiences, values, and identities. Through a diverse collection of essays, it invites readers to rethink the language they use and the assumptions they make about others based on how they speak. It also examines the power dynamics embedded in language—how words can reflect, reinforce, or challenge social hierarchies.
As you move through the guide, consider the contexts in which language is used. Ask: Who is speaking? Where, when, and why? These questions open the door to a more nuanced understanding of what language is, how it functions, and how it continues to evolve. Whether you are a student, a lifelong learner, or simply curious about the forces shaping everyday communication, this guide offers a deeper look at the many dimensions of language.1
By Danica Tomber | From The Observatory
Have you ever corrected someone else’s language use before? Perhaps you fixed some typos during an essay peer review, disagreed with someone’s choice of “irregardless” (for “regardless”), or reworded language that wasn’t politically correct. Ask a linguist, and they will likely point you toward a conceptual framework that contrasts descriptivism and prescriptivism. Irregardless of our opinions, it is arguably more important to take comprehension and context into consideration when deciding whether correcting someone’s language use is necessary or helpful. As an ever-changing phenomenon that responds to its social environments, language and its so-called “rules” may not be as set in stone as you think they are.
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Our ability to conceptualize ourselves and the world around us is something we rarely stop to consider. Communicating through language, interpreting verbal and nonverbal cues, and making sense of our culture and environment can feel almost effortless. Yet these cognitive capacities have played a central role in human evolution and social development. In this essay, Josh Fisher explores the foundations of human consciousness as a driver of communication, learning, and society, arguing that our unique capacity for recursive teaching and learning has helped shape both individual development and collective progress.
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By Maryellen MacDonald | From The Observatory
While talking may seem fairly straightforward, our brains do a lot of work behind the scenes when it comes to producing and comprehending speech. Maryellen MacDonald breaks down why talking is hard and why talking while lying is even harder, ultimately diving into the substantial challenges of lie detection. The mundane lies of our day-to-day lives may seem fairly inconsequential, but in institutional domains such as government and the media, lying has serious and widespread consequences. If humans have such a hard time detecting lies, can technology do any better? And if so, what ethical considerations do we need to foreground in the age of artificial intelligence?
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By Marjorie Hecht | From Human Bridges Project
The capacity for abstract thinking begets cognitive abilities such as language and numerosity. While these two faculties share some similarities (they both use symbolism and are deeply tied to cultural representation), evidence suggests that they are independent of each other. Marjorie Hecht explores our innate capacity for abstract numerical thought beyond language through an interview with Frederick L. Coolidge, an expert in psychology and cognitive archaeology.
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By Madeline VanArsdale | From The Observatory
Everyone has an accent. The way we pronounce—or sign—words reflects aspects of our lived environments, from geography to social circles. But accents are never neutral: they carry judgments about the people who speak them. Linguist Madeline VanArsdale explores accent bias, focusing on one that has long faced social stigma: the American Southern accent. From the Civil War to modern trends, she traces the origins of this bias and how it continues to be reinforced. Recognizing accent discrimination is the first step toward appreciating linguistic diversity.
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More than half of the world's population lives in urban areas, far away from forests, fields, fens, and farms. As societies shift, so do their languages, but what happens when the words we use to talk about our natural environment start to disappear from our vocabulary? Reynard Loki and Danica Tomber unpack the forces behind this linguistic change and what we can do to preserve our relationship with nature. Efforts to restore the rich diversity of our natural world can be both big and small, top-down and bottom-up.
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By Alicia Graef, Carrie P. Freeman and Debra Merskin | From In Defense of Animals and Earth Food Life Project
Pronouns, the words we use to refer to a noun or a larger unit called a noun phrase, are small, but they carry a lot of weight. As with other language choices, the use of pronouns can have a powerful impact on those around us. Take the pronoun “it.” We might use this word to refer to an inanimate object, but never to a fellow human being. Along a similar rationale, Alicia Graef, Carrie P. Freeman, and Debra Merskin challenge us to rethink the language we use for nonhuman animals as well. Referring to a nonhuman animal using words like “it” or “something,” instead of “he/she/they” or “someone,” dismisses their place in our shared world as sentient beings with valuable lived experience, deserving of our respect. Activists and lawyers are among those working to ensure that nonhuman animals are treated justly.
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By Janet McIntosh | From The Observatory
We are all likely familiar with the commonplace practices of yelling and insulting in military culture, particularly boot camp, but the ramifications of military talk go much deeper than being merely abrasive. Beneath the surface, this language reinforces the larger system of necropolitics, a governmental mechanism that strips humans of their sovereignty by dictating who lives and who dies. Janet McIntosh uncovers the repercussions of military talk, explaining how this linguistic conditioning resocializes future soldiers by removing their individuality and neutralizing them to the brutalities of war.
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By Danica Tomber | From The Observatory
In today’s digital landscape, we are constantly inundated with information, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish fact from opinion. While misinformation is often shared unintentionally, conspiracy theorizing is more dangerous, as it can quickly escalate into information abuse. For this reason, developing strong digital literacy skills is essential. One important part of that skill set is learning how to recognize conspiracy talk. Language researchers are working to identify recurring patterns in conspiratorial discourse, helping us understand how it is constructed, what it looks like, and why it spreads.
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By Erika Schelby | From Earth Food Life Project
From melodious songs to mimicry of human speech, birds have complex vocal abilities with a wide range of communicative functions; as such, the connection between birdsong and human speech cannot be ignored. Erika Schelby explores both philosophical and scientific arguments to trace these links. For instance, just as human languages have different dialects (for example, American English and Indian English), songbirds also communicate in different dialects. Bird melodies have also been shown to inspire musical creativity and improve our mental health. To understand how we perceive and define human language, we must ask ourselves how nonhuman forms of communication intersect with it.
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By Arika Okrent | From Public Domain Review
Today, many people are introduced to constructed languages, colloquially known as conlangs, through TV shows, film, and books. Apart from pop culture media, conlangs have a long and diverse history, not least of which includes auxiliary languages: a subcategory of conlangs invented to bridge the communication gap between speakers of different languages. In Arika Okrent’s exploration of the auxlang Volapük, we get a glimpse into some of the questions that come with inventing a conlang: Why are they created? How do their creators decide what it will sound like? And what does it take for a conlang to survive past infancy?
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