linguist

/ˈlɪŋgwɪst/

/ˈlɪŋgwɪst/

Other forms: linguists

A linguist is someone who studies language. Linguists study every aspect of language, including vocabulary, grammar, the sound of language, and how words evolve over time.

The study of language is called linguistics, and people who study linguistics are linguists. Being a linguist isn't easy; you usually have to go to graduate school and conduct research about a specific aspect of language. There are computational linguists, forensic linguists, comparative linguists, and many other specialties. If you love language, you'd probably enjoy a career as a linguist.

Definitions of linguist

1. noun

   a specialist in linguistics
   synonyms: linguistic scientist

   examples:

   Leonard Bloomfield

   United States linguist who adopted a behavioristic approach to linguistics (1887-1949)

   A. Noam Chomsky

   United States linguist whose theory of generative grammar redefined the field of linguistics (born 1928)

   Ferdinand de Saussure

   Swiss linguist and expert in historical linguistics whose lectures laid the foundations for synchronic linguistics (1857-1913)

   John Rupert Firth

   English linguist who contributed to linguistic semantics and to prosodic phonology and who was noted for his insistence on studying both sound and meaning in context (1890-1960)

   Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm

   the older of the two Grimm brothers remembered best for their fairy stories; also author of Grimm's law describing consonant changes in Germanic languages (1785-1863)

   Roman Osipovich Jakobson

   United States linguist (born in Russia) noted for his description of the universals of phonology (1896-1982)

   Jens Otto Harry Jespersen

   Danish linguist (1860-1943)

   Edward Sapir

   anthropologist and linguist; studied languages of North American Indians (1884-1939)

   types:

   computational linguist

   someone trained in computer science and linguistics who uses computers for natural language processing

   grammarian, syntactician

   a linguist who specializes in the study of grammar and syntax

   Hebraist

   linguist specializing in the Hebrew language

   lexicographer, lexicologist

   a compiler or writer of a dictionary; a student of the lexical component of language

   neurolinguist

   someone trained in neuroscience and linguistics who studies brain processes during language production and reception

   phonetician

   a specialist in phonetics

   phonologist

   a specialist in phonology

   psycholinguist

   a person (usually a psychologist but sometimes a linguist) who studies the psychological basis of human language

   semanticist, semiotician

   a specialist in the study of meaning

   sociolinguist

   a linguist who studies the social and cultural factors that influence linguistic communication

   etymologist

   a lexicographer who specializes in etymology

   neologist

   a lexicographer of new words and expressions

   orthoepist

   a practitioner of orthoepy (especially one of the 17th or 18th century scholars who proposed to reform English spelling so it would reflect pronunciation more closely)

   synonymist

   a student of synonyms

   transcriber

   someone who represents the sounds of speech in phonetic notation

   type of:

   scientist

   a person with advanced knowledge of one or more sciences
2. noun

   a person who speaks more than one language
   synonyms: polyglot

   examples:

   Joseph Greenberg

   United States linguist who studied the historical relations among 5,000 languages (1916-2001)

   Zellig Sabbatai Harris

   United States linguist (born in Ukraine) who developed mathematical linguistics and interpreted speech and writing in a social context (1909-1992)

   types:

   bilingual, bilingualist

   a person who speaks two languages fluently

   transcriber, translator

   a person who translates written messages from one language to another

   type of:

   individual, mortal, person, somebody, someone, soul

   a human being