Linguistics

The science of secret writing. There are many devices by which a message can be concealed from the casual reader, e.g., invisible writing, but the term cryptography strictly applies to translating messages into cipher or code.

Scientific study of language, covering the structure (morphology and syntax; see grammar), sounds (phonology), and meaning (semantics).

From Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics
The branch of grammar which studies the structure or forms of words, primarily through the use of the morpheme construct. It is traditionally distinguished from syntax, which deals with the rules governing the combination of words in sentences.

The identification, description, and classification of sounds used in articulate speech.

In linguistics, the study of the sound systems of languages. Its main activity is the discovery of the distinctive sounds of language.

From A Dictionary of Sociolinguistics
Pragmatics is the study of language in use: how language is produced and interpreted in context. Pragmatics shares with semantics a concern with meaning, but whereas semantics is concerned with linguistic meaning, pragmatics also takes into account commonsense (non-linguistic) understandings that may be brought to bear on the interpretation of an utterance.

[Gr.,=significant] in general, the study of the relationship between words and meanings. The empirical study of word meanings and sentence structure.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Or semiology, discipline deriving from the American logician C. S. Peirce and the French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure. It has come to mean generally the study of any cultural product (e.g., a text) as a formal system of signs. Saussure's key notion of the arbitrary nature of the sign means that the relation of words to things is not natural but conventional.

The study of language as it affects and is affected by social relations. Sociolinguistics encompasses a broad range of concerns.

From Bloomsbury Guide to Human Thought
Syntactic theory, in linguistics, deals with the constraints which govern how words are put together to create grammatical sentences.

U.S. linguist and political critic. His theory of language structure, transformational generative grammar, superseded the behaviourist view of Bloomfield.

Swiss linguist. The founder of structural linguistics, he declared that there is only an arbitrary relationship between a linguistic sign and that which it signifies.

Italian semiologist and writer. His novels include The Name of the Rose (1981) and Foucault's Pendulum (1988).

U.S. linguist, born in Russia. His publications include Children's Speech (1941) and Fundamentals of Language (1956).

From Concise Encyclopedia of Sociolinguistics
Robin Lakoff is widely recognized as one of the first linguists to acknowledge gender as a powerful, complex, and nuanced influence on the relation between linguistic form and social practice.

American philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who cofounded pragmatism, made many contributions to logic, and was one of the original developers of semiotics.

From Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language
Investigator of North American indigenous languages, grammarian, phonologist and an especially influential theorist on the relation between culture, language and thought.

American linguist who developed what came to be known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in collaboration with his teacher Edward Sapir.

1889-1951, British philosopher born in Austria; explored language and meaning; influenced logical positivism.