Linguistics is the scientific study of language. It involves the analysis of language form, language meaning, and language in context. Linguists traditionally analyze human language by observing an interplay between sound and meaning. Linguistics also deals with the social, cultural, historical, and political factors that influence language, through which linguistics and language-based context is often determined. Research on language through the sub-branches of historical and evolutionary linguistics also focuses on how languages change and grow, particularly over an extended period of time.

The earliest activities in the documentation and description of language have been attributed to the 6th-century-BC Indian grammarian Panini who wrote a formal description of the Sanskrit language in his Aṣṭādhyāyī.

Related areas of study include the disciplines of semiotics (the study of direct and indirect language through signs and symbols), literary criticism (the historical and ideological analysis of literature, cinema, art, or published material), translation (the conversion and documentation of meaning in written/spoken text from one language or dialect onto another), and speech-language pathology (a corrective method to cure phonetic disabilities and dis-functions at the cognitive level).

Semiotics

is the study of sign process (semiosis), which is any form of activity, conduct, or any process that involves signs, including the production of meaning.

literary criticism

is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Though the two activities are closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been, theorists.

dialect

a particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group

--- This novel is written in the dialect of Trinidad.

phonetic

(of a system of writing) having a direct correspondence between symbols and sounds

--- a phonetic alphabet

relating to phonetics

--- the teacher should receive phonetic training