How the study of language impacts us everyday

Linguistics, the scientific study of language, is a field that often goes unnoticed, yet language underpins everyone’s lives. In order to raise awareness of the science of language, last year 26^th November was declared National Linguistics Day in the UK and this year it is going global as World Linguistics Day.

Why do we need to raise awareness of linguistics in this way? As the research and teaching carried out in the Department of Linguistics and Communication here at the University of Birmingham show, the study of language offers essential insights into how people communicate, learn, form communities, and construct a view of the world. Linguistics has a huge range of applications across education, technology, health, the law, and social justice.

One of the most important examples of the impact of this research was the recognition of sign languages, still so widely-misunderstood, as bona fide languages – a recognition that has empowered deaf communities all over the world. Deaf and hearing researchers in the European Research Council SignMorph project at the University of Birmingham are continuing this important work.

Producing and understanding language is one of the most complex cognitive abilities we possess, and another area of research focus at the University of Birmingham. Studying the structure and use of language also reveals much about how we think: how people categorise speech sounds, create meaning, and navigate social norms of communication. Language is shared by all humans, yet the world’s over 8,000 language varieties also differ from each other. This means that linguistics is uniquely positioned to teach us both about what all humans share and what makes cultures and individuals distinct.

Linguistics also matters for understanding variation and change in language use. Sociolinguists show how variation in speech—differences in accent, vocabulary, or grammar—is patterned and meaningful. Non-standard ways of speaking English are not ‘incorrect’ or ‘deficient’, as stereotypes often suggest; they reflect different linguistic rules grounded in community norms and signal a range of regional and ethnic identities. Acknowledging this helps us to challenge linguistic discrimination, a pervasive, but often overlooked, form of inequality. Whether it concerns the stigmatisation of Birmingham and Black Country accents, the undervaluing of immigrant languages, or the misguided policing of grammar, linguistics offers evidence to challenge harmful assumptions and promote linguistic human rights.

Another essential contribution of linguistics is its role in documenting and preserving linguistic diversity. Thousands of the world’s languages—spoken and signed—are endangered due to globalisation, political marginalisation, and shifting cultural priorities. When a language disappears, the world also loses unique knowledge systems and cultural perspectives. Linguists work with communities to record, analyse, and revitalise languages at risk, helping ensure that future generations can access their linguistic heritage. Researchers at the University of Birmingham and Leiden University have begun to work together with the Purépecha indigenous community in Mexico, for example, to document their unique language.

In education, linguistics plays a central role in understanding how children and adults learn languages. Research on first-language development helps educators recognise typical developmental pathways. Deaf children not exposed to sign languages, for example, are at risk of language deprivation, which can have lifelong negative impacts. Meanwhile, second-language acquisition research informs effective teaching methods for multilingual classrooms. At the University of Birmingham, many students come to learn how to become more effective teachers of English.

Natural language processing, speech recognition, machine translation, and other language-based technologies use linguistic principles to build more accurate and human-like systems. While these fields are driven by computational methods, they depend on insights from the study of grammar, semantics, and discourse. As digital technologies continue to evolve, linguistics remains essential for ensuring that computers interact with humans in ways that are intelligible and inclusive. Recently, researchers at the University of Birmingham have played an important role in identifying biases encoded in language technologies—a growing concern as AI systems increasingly shape communication and decision-making.

Linguistics matters, too, for the legal system. Forensic linguistics applies analytical methods to issues such as authorship identification and the evaluation of language evidence in court. Understanding how meaning is constructed, how narratives are shaped, or how power dynamics play out in police interviews, for example, can influence the fairness of judicial processes. Clear communication is essential to justice, and linguists help ensure that legal outcomes do not hinge on misunderstandings or linguistic disadvantage.

Linguistics tries to teach us critical thinking about language, something everyone uses but few can examine objectively. Many widely held beliefs about language—that some ways of speaking are inherently inferior, that children learn languages through explicit instruction, or that languages must conform to prescriptive rules—have no scientific basis. Linguistics empowers us to question these assumptions, to value the diversity of the world’s languages and cultures and better understand how we communicate with each other in everyday life.

Finally, linguistics matters because language is deeply human. It is tied to identity, culture and community. Understanding language means understanding ourselves. In a world where communication is increasingly mediated by technology, where multilingualism is the norm, and where misunderstandings about language can lead to discrimination, the insights offered by linguistics are not optional - they are essential.