Among the humanities, linguistics occupies a special place, since many of the moments studied by it lead to areas of knowledge that seem to lie beyond it, and yet linguistic discoveries cannot be dispensed with.
Language science
In the most general sense of the word, linguistics is a science that studies language (the second name of this science is linguistics). At school, this usually means that they study such areas of the language as sounds, words, sentence structure, parts of speech and text, most often referring to the native language. These areas of knowledge are really interesting and necessary, but if everything ended only with the structure of the native language, its structure, linguistics would be very crowded. After all, the language contains a huge number of interesting secrets.
Linguistics and computers
It will seem strange to many, but without linguistic discoveries, mankind would not have created computers and computer programs. In this field of knowledge, linguistics is very close to mathematics and is called computer. Computer linguistics is a science that studies issues such as artificial intelligence, machine translation, programming languages, speech recognition, etc., and it is precisely the data of applied linguistics that can improve computer programs and communication methods so quickly.
Linguistics and History
For historians, linguistics is a field of knowledge that has data on the origin of man. Any historical discoveries concerning antiquity are largely based on linguistic data. The kinship and origin of languages, the prevalence of a particular language in a particular region, the etymology (origin) of words are those questions for which historians turn into serious arguments. Often, it is new data about the language of one or another people that put an end to a historical dispute or destroy ideas about history.
Literary historians, when deciding on the authorship of a work, also rely primarily on linguistic data.
Linguistics and medicine
For a doctor, linguistics is a science that studies the mechanisms of speech. At first glance, mild disorders can make it clear to a qualified neurologist that the patient has serious damage to the nervous system. By the nature of speech impairment, an experienced specialist can often determine how serious the impairment of a person’s brain activity is and how deep the patient’s examination should be. The converse is also true: often the restoration of speech indicates that the treatment strategy was chosen by the doctor correctly, and the healing process (for example, rehabilitation after a stroke) is successful.
For a speech therapist, linguistics is also the science of the mechanisms of speech, but most often it solves the problems of articulating (pronouncing, pronouncing) sounds. Knowing how a person speaks, how he pronounces sounds, what movements he does for this, how he breathes, helps speech therapists not only improve the diction of healthy children, but also work with people with serious pronunciation disorders, with babies who were brought up in poor conditions , and in time did not learn to speak correctly.
Linguistics and the study of foreign languages
Learning a foreign language in an “artificial” way, anyone is somehow faced with linguistic knowledge. The study of foreign sounds, conjugations of verbs, the meanings of foreign words, the structure of sentences - all this is the field of linguistics. However, this is only a small part of linguistic knowledge that relates to the study of a foreign language. The most interesting, of course, is beyond the boundaries of the school textbook or tutorial.
Linguistics as a science of language raises questions about how in general a person learns to speak, first of all, in his native language. How is it that each person masters such vast knowledge, being very small? How does this happen? Perhaps a certain “program” is embedded in his brain from birth, such as a “program” walking on two legs? What are the features of the children's brain that allow the child to master the most complex system of knowledge - the language in a short time? A separate area deals with such issues. For an ontolinguist, linguistics is a science that studies the miracle of comprehension of a language by a small child. And it is precisely the knowledge obtained as a result of ontolinguistic research that sheds light on how it is more productive to study foreign languages.
Although it’s impossible to repeat the child’s path at school or adulthood, knowledge of the many mechanisms of mastering the language, the steps and techniques allows competent professionals to quickly teach foreigners another language, adapt them to life in their new country, and teach them not to feel like strangers in it, give their children a chance to find a second homeland.
Linguistics and poetry
Another of the areas without which linguistics is unimaginable as a deep and subtle science is the study of the language of literary works. Subtle observations of linguists reveal the secrets of the birth of a masterpiece, the secrets of talent, help to realize the full depth of the work, understand not only their own, but also foreign culture, and therefore expand the horizons of human knowledge.
Probably, every professional linguist who loves his job will think deeply about the question of what linguistics is. The definition of this science can be given only the most general, since in each of its fields it ultimately deals with the fact that it is still not clear, it is not known that it is only slightly open to a person.