'''Linguistics''' is a discipline that looks at the cognitive and social aspects of human language. The field is traditionally divided into areas that focus on particular aspects of the linguistic signal, such as [[syntax]] (the study of the rules that govern the structure of sentences), [[semantics]] (the study of meaning), [[phonetics]] (the study of speech sounds) and [[phonology]] (the study of the abstract sound system of a particular language); however, work in areas like [[evolutionary linguistics]] (the study of the origins and evolution of language) and [[psycholinguistics]] (the study of psychological factors in human language) cut across these divisions. | '''Linguistics''' is a discipline that looks at the cognitive and social aspects of human language. The field is traditionally divided into areas that focus on particular aspects of the linguistic signal, such as [[syntax]] (the study of the rules that govern the structure of sentences), [[semantics]] (the study of meaning), [[phonetics]] (the study of speech sounds) and [[phonology]] (the study of the abstract sound system of a particular language); however, work in areas like [[evolutionary linguistics]] (the study of the origins and evolution of language) and [[psycholinguistics]] (the study of psychological factors in human language) cut across these divisions. |