Linguistics

Abstract

Abstract Linguistics is generally agreed to be the scientific study of language. There is nevertheless debate about what constitutes proper scientific study (the methods and theories underpinning linguistic analysis) and what is encompassed by the term language (the object of linguistic analysis). However, while there is still heavy emphasis placed in much of present‐day linguistics on the analysis of language form and structures that are abstracted or idealized away from the particulars of communication, there is increasingly a range of linguistic theories that readily engage with linguistic form and structure as key resources that influence the ways in which we communicate with others. Understanding the diverse range of offerings in linguistics is thus of critical importance for scholars of communication who wish to draw from it in theorizing or analyzing communication.