Many people misunderstand the field of linguistics, which is the scientific study of language. It includes the study of language structure, the psychology of language and the social underpinnings of language use, among other things.
Yet, when I mention to someone that I'm a linguist, I'm usually asked the same two questions: "How many languages do you speak?" and "So … you want to be an interpreter someday?"
I don’t begrudge these questions. As a field, we clearly... Read more