Why Study Language?

Why study language?

For many people, the question "why bother to study language" would be as pointless, irrational and insulting as asking a philatelist "Why bother to collect stamps?". The ultimate answer in both cases is that it is a question of personal taste, and no amount of reasoning about applications can get round this.

David Crystal, who is an honorary and part-time lecturer of linguistics at Bangor University in Wales, has been conducting research in language studies since the early 1960s.He gives several reasons in order to provide an answer to this question.
1. Because it is fascinating.
Some people find language a fascinating aspect of human behaviour, and they take a great delight in prodding it from various points of view - where does language come from? why do people speak differently? how do words change their meaning? could we think without language? how many languages are there? which is the oldest language? could an artificial language work? are the different languages of the world basically the same? Topics such as these are regularly discussed - with varying degrees of informedness - in everyday conversation. Some of these questions are naive, some are complex (and there are of course many more that could be added to the list); but all are interesting, and require careful answers. The answers, however, will do no more than satisfy a curiosity, settle an argument, or add to someone’s ‘store of knowledge about the world’. There is no serious intention to apply the knowledge in further work, and why should there be?
2. Because it is important.
3. Because it is a means of communication.
4. Because it is useful.
5. Because it is a means of understanding the literature.