This book is about the point of studying human language scientifically, and what importance that study has for broader concerns. The relevant scientific study is known as linguistics, but I construe the term very broadly, to include everything from practical applied concerns to abstract mathematical work on language structure, plus research specialities like phonetics and pragmatics, and hybrid disciplines like psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. Sometimes I speak in the plural, and refer to the linguistic sciences.

Linguistics is not at all the same as the study of particular languages or their literatures. Some linguists are extraordinarily talented at learning and speaking foreign languages (knowing linguistics actually helps with that), but linguistics is not about learning or using or translating languages. It’s about getting a general theoretical understanding of their nature, and developing techniques for analysing and describing them.

I’m not trying to give any sort of introduction to linguistics in this relatively short book; plenty of other books do that. What I’m trying to do is to survey just a few topics that I feel make a clear case for saying that linguistics is not just an intellectually intriguing academic subject but a practically important one. I have done what I could, but I’m sure the number of linguists who feel I have picked exactly the right topics will be approximately zero. You will be able to confirm by chatting to any linguists you might meet; I encourage you to do so – and ask them which topics they would have chosen.

Linguistics is a young subject. Its history as an established academic subject taught in universities doesn’t really go back much before World War II. The Linguistics Association of Great Britain was not founded until 1959, and the Linguistic Society of America is only thirty-five years older. The subject never figured in secondary schools until quite recent reforms in Britain, and before 1965 it wasn’t even available at undergraduate level in British universities. Lots of well-educated people know virtually nothing about the subject. If this book does a little bit to encourage someone to consider taking up the study of linguistics at university, or even just taking one class in it, I shall be well satisfied.

It was my good luck to discover in the late 1960s what linguistics was, and that it had become available as an undergraduate subject at the University of York. The BA course I did there was the start of a lifetime of academic enjoyment and satisfaction. I have never for a second regretted switching into linguistics after five years in my first career (for those years I worked as a professional rock musician). I still think the linguistic sciences have great and largely underappreciated significance for society.

My continuing study of linguistics has been much aided by the colleagues I am fortunate enough to have at the University of Edinburgh. Many have helped, but I should specifically thank Melinda Wood for information about Hawaiian, Jerry Sadock for Greenlandic Inuit material in Chapter 3, Rebecca Wheeler for insights and references regarding Chapter 4, and Mark Steedman for fruitful discussions and some nice examples in Chapter 5. In addition, I owe a debt to Justin Dyer for expert and enormously helpful editing work on the manuscript and to Jim Donaldson for help with the proofs.

In a book as short as this I cannot possibly give full background information and bibliographical references. I have noted sources for a few key points in the notes at the end, and details about other topics will often be easily found through a web search, but anyone who is unable to locate a primary source that they need should email me: linguistics@politybooks.com is the address to use.