Linguistics and Psychology

Linguistics and Psychology

We humans consider ourselves as the highest-ranking animal ever to walk the earth. We think of ourselves as possessing the highest intelligence of all creatures, big and small. But what does that mean? To put it in as few words as possible, we are special because we think, feel and behave differently. We have the most complex systems of processing information, behaviors, and making communication, and those are the aspects that make up the fundamentals of the intertwined worlds of the academic fields known as psychology, the study of the human mind, and linguistics, the study of language.
By definition, psychology is “the science studying the behaviors and mental processes of humans or organisms with traits and characteristics similar to humans.” While this may seem like a simple definition, the area it covers is extremely broad, and tremendously intricate. In every introductory psychology course or textbook, there are distinct categories that are universal aspects of knowledge of the human world. For example, learning, memory, personality, cognition, and emotion, just to name a few. Of all the complex things that are covered, though, one is never missing: language and thought.
Linguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Nearly everything we do, whatever it involves, is almost always related to language. Whether we read, watch television, talk, listen to songs, travel or work, language is essential. The use of language is also unique when it comes to humans; the complex and distinctive ways in which humans engage in communication is a clear example of why our species can function in so many ways in which nonhuman animals can’t. As the great linguist Noam Chomsky puts it, “When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the ‘human essence’, the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man.”(Chomsky, Language and Mind)
Psychology studies the human mind and human behavior; linguistics,...