Linguists study language by analyzing:
- Word meanings and the meaning of phrases and sentences
- The structure of words, phrases, and sentences
- Sound systems, sounds, and their properties and structure
- The production and perception of speech
- How speech is processed and produced in the brain
- How children and adults learn language
- Language development, use, and change
- Speech errors
- Discourse structure
- The forms and functions of language
- Language preservation
- Elements shared by human languages
- The ways in which languages differ around the world
- The function and role of language in various cultures
- The ways in which languages change over time and how this helps us understand our human history
Linguists apply their knowledge in various areas.
In the health sciences, linguists study:
- Language disorders
- The relationship between language and brain function
In the cultural field, linguists:
- Develop language preservation material for First Nations people
- Teach language instructors
- Develop guidelines, technical methodologies, and instructional materials for language instructors
- Do translation and word processing
- Develop dictionaries
- Write speeches and edit text
In law enforcement or security services, they identify speakers or writers for forensic purposes.
In finance or insurance, they identify patterns in fraud such as false insurance claims.
In computational linguistics, they model natural languages. They also study linguistics using computational methods. They develop software and databases for:
- Document retrieval
- Grammar checking
- Information extraction from written text
- Machine language simulation
- Machine translation
- Natural language interfaces
