How Children Learn Language

• A person can learn a language in two ways. First, there is her first language, which is learned by immersion in a language community from early childhood. The child learns by hearing the language spoken by adults, by identifying the symbolic connections between words and objects, and by gradually intuiting the grammatical structure that governs the arrangement of words. Also, it is widely believed by linguists that children have a special capacity for language-learning that helps them to put these pieces together.
  
  

Adult Language Learning

• The other way to learn a language is to study it as an adult, once this childhood capacity has disappeared. Adult language-learning typically involves memorizing vocabulary, studying grammatical rules and carefully listening to the language and repeating its sounds. Eventually, with much practice, communicating in the new language can become more or less automatic -- although even fluent speakers are seldom perfect and usually have some difficulty compared to those who grew up with it as their native tongue.
  
  

The Basics Of Linguistics

• Linguistics, by contrast, is a scientific field that examines the whole phenomenon of language. Though linguists do study the vocabulary and grammar of languages, they do this not so they can communicate, but to work out the structure, relationships and common characteristics of languages.
  
  For example, a fundamental characteristic of language is word order. English typically uses "subject-verb-object," as in: "I threw the ball." The related languages Spanish, French and Italian also use this order, as does the unrelated language Chinese. However, many languages use "subject-object-verb": "I the ball threw." Japanese and Korean use this order, as do many Indian languages. Other systems exist but are less common, and a few languages have no preferred word order at all. These and other characteristics are useful to linguists in finding possible relationships between languages.
  
  

A Window Into The Mind

• In addition to comparing and contrasting different characteristics of languages, however, linguists also use them as a way of examining the workings of the human mind. Vocabulary and grammar reflect the ways in which we organize and categorize ideas and concepts, and so the study of language allows us to compare the ways that different people think.
  
  For instance, one important field of study is the words that different languages use for colors. Not all languages discriminate between colors to the same extent; for instance, many use the same word for blue and purple. Some languages use only three or four words for the entire range of colors, and a few have no words for color at all. These categories are important for examining how different people develop their concepts of color.
  
  Another important area of study is the process by which children learn language. Children from all parts of the world learn their first language in similar ways and go through the same stages. Studying this process can provide important insights into child development.
  
  

Connections To Other Sciences

• Since the focus of linguistics is more on the mind than on individual languages, linguists work closely with other scientists who look at the mind in different ways. Psychologists consider how the ways that people talk about subjects affects the way they think about them. Cognitive scientists use language to investigate the processes of thought and conceptualization. And since language often reflects the physical workings of the brain, it is useful to neuroscientists in assessing various types of brain injuries.