Linguistics as a Scientific Study of Language

Linguistics is a scientific subject because a linguist, similar to a scientist, does the following:

·         Collects data of natural languages

·         Observes trends and patterns

·         Explains the observations by postulating theories and laws

·         Makes predictions on what hasn’t been observed as yet

Consider, for example, very new Italian verbs, such as chattare (meaning: To chat, in the Internet sense), which have been borrowed from the English language. These verbs will observe the following rules:

·         They are regular verbs (verbi regolari)

·         They belong to the first group (primo gruppo)

Therefore, the infinitive form of the verb will always terminate with –are and the verb conjugation will always be predictable. Armed with this data, we can safely predict that the present indicative conjugations for chattare would be as follows:

Person	Singular			Plural
	First	Second	Third	First	Second	Third
Indicative	Io	Tu	Lui/Lei	Noi	Voi	Loro
Conjugation	Chatto	Chatti	Chatta	Chattiamo	Chattate	Chattano

Linguistics refers to the scientific study of language. Let us contrast the word study here with the word learn, in the context of languages. Learning a language refers to learning how to use the language. For example, I have learnt the Italian language in the hopes that it will help me in my travels to Italy.

However, studying a language refers to studying the mechanisms and processes of a given language; to seeking a scientific, unbiased understanding of a language and the way it is organized and spoken. Therefore, while I have learnt the Italian language to a certain extent, I am certainly no linguist in that language. For example, I can’t explain why Italian irregular verbs (verbi irregolari) are the way they are!