1.6.1 Linguistics as a science

　“Linguistics may be defined as the scientific study of language” (Lyons 1968: 1). This definition is well accepted because it succinctly pinpoints the object and methods of linguistics as a discipline.

　 The object of study in linguistics is language. Notice that the word language is not preceded by an article (i.e. without a or the), nor in the plural form. This means that linguistics studies all languages. Linguists attempt to discover the universals of human languages. However, this does not exclude the possibility that a linguist studies a particular language only, or engages in contrastive studies of two or more languages.

　 While linguists all agree on their object of study, different schools of linguists may have different focuses, and historically, different aspects of language may be focused on. In modern linguistics, spoken language (speech) is given priority to written language (writing) for a number of reasons. Firstly, speech is historically prior to writing in any culture where writing exists. As mentioned above, many languages do not have written form. Secondly, spoken language is used for a much wider range of purposes in communication. Thirdly, spoken language is structurally more complex than written language. Fourthly, spoken language is acquired earlier than written language. Children are able to speak before they can read and write.

　 The expression scientific study in the foregoing definition covers the ways in which linguists get to know and accumulate knowledge about language. To understand linguistics as a science requires thinking about what science is and how scientists do research. Philosophers of science find that the ideas change in history about what science is. But scientists generally work through a process similar to the following:

　　This flow chart also accounts for linguistic studies. First, certain linguistic phenomena are observed and questions are raised about them. Then, hypotheses (which are generalizations based on observations) are formulated to explain the phenomena. The hypotheses are tested by further observations or experiments. If they are valid, the hypotheses become theories. If they are not, then the researcher must reformulate hypotheses and then verify them until no data collected contradict the hypotheses. Linguistic theories thus produced, just as other scientific theories, are open to challenge. For the validity of conclusion depends on the scope of observation. No scientist can claim that he/she has thoroughly observed everything concerned in his/her project. And, what is more, everything changes over time. In this sense, no theory tells us the absolute truth. Science is an endless quest for truth. Doing linguistic studies is seeking to know the nature of language, that is, to find out: what it is; how it is structured; and how it works.

　 What kind of science is linguistics? Its object of study, language, determines that it is a discipline among humanities, because language is mostly a social phenomenon, despite a biological aspect of it. Its method of study is close to that used in natural sciences. From these two perspectives linguistics is seen as a discipline closest, among humanities, to natural sciences.