The scientific study of language structure, either the structure of a particular language or the similarities and differences across diverse languages. Linguistics encompasses syntax, morphology, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics, and may focus on either the current state of one or more languages (synchronic linguistics) or on how languages change over time (diachronic linguistics).
See Child development, Cognitive-functional approach, Cognitive science, Comparative method, Competence (linguistics), Deep and surface structure (linguistics), Diachronic emergence, Generative grammar approach, Geocentric perspective, Paradigm, Performance (linguistics), Phonology, Pragmatics, Predicates (grammar), Psycholinguistics, Quantifier, Semantics, Syntax, Transformational grammar approach