1. (n.) The study of language with respect to literature, culture and historical context\; the investigation of the laws of human speech, the relation of different tongues to one another, and historical development of languages; linguistic science.

2. (n.) A treatise on the science of language.

bowwow theory comparative linguistics derivation descriptive linguistics dialectology dingdong theory etymology glossematics glossology glottochronology glottology grammar graphemics historical linguistics language study lexicology lexicostatistics linguistic geography linguistic science linguistics mathematical linguistics morphology morphophonemics paleography phonetics phonology psycholinguistics semantics sociolinguistics structuralism syntactics transformational linguistics