什么是语言学家 对（Linguist）语言学家存在最深的5大误解
当您告诉别人您是语言学家时，有时他们对您很有趣，就像他们不知道该怎么办。更糟糕的是，当人们知道你是语言学家的时候或者取得语言学的学位的时候，他们的反应通常是：哦，你知道的，我讨厌语法或会问您会说几种语言？人们对语言学有一些奇怪的想法，所以让我们来解开这些误解。
When you tell people you"re a linguist sometimes they look at you funny like they have no idea what to do. Even worse, you get your linguist. Oh, I hate grammar or how many languages do you speak. People have some strange ideas about linguistics so let"s clear out these misconceptions.
实际上，有趣的是，语言不是由某些语法学家制定的规则。相反，大多数语言学家遵循描述性的做法，他们试图描述和理解人们实际使用的语言。
Misconception number one： linguists love formal grammar ，actually what"s interesting in language it"s not the rules set by some panel of grammarians， that"s prescriptivism.Instead, most linguists follow the practice of descriptivism they try to describe and understand the language that people actually use.
判定说话者使用的语法是否正确其实并不重要的。我们知道语言是一种标准，例如，当我们撰写或进行演讲时，我们会遵循语法规则，在这种情况下，正式语法是合适的，但是要理解语言，我们希望了解人们在各种情况下如何实际使用它。因此，如果语言学家纠正了您的语法。这并不是因为他（她）是一名语言学家，也许他们只是，嗯，有点讨人厌，哈哈。
It doesn"t matter if the grammar a group of speakers uses is considered “incorrect”. We know there"s a standard language and we follow grammar rules for example when we write or give a lecture, formal grammar is appropriate in those situations, but to understand language, we want to understand how people actually use it in all contexts.
So if a linguist corrects your grammar. It"s not because he or she is a linguist, maybe they"re just being kind of obnoxious.
这点必须要澄清，首先举个例子，所有医生都研究过医学，但是他们专门研究特定领域。如果您有胃部疾病，请不要去找心脏病专家。
同理可证，语言学家学习语言的方式相同，但专门研究特定领域。您可以专门研究历史语言学，语言习得，语音学，语法，社会语言学等等。
语言对于人类而言也至关重要。语言学与许多其他学科重叠。这就是为什么您可能会学习一些语言学和教育社会学文献，计算机科学等等的原因。
Misconception number two, a linguist knows everything about language.
Okay, all medical doctors studied medicine but they specialized in a particular field, right? If you have stomach problems you don"t go to a cardiologist ，do you?
The same way, linguists study language, but specialize in a particular field. You can specialize in historical linguistics language ，acquisition phonetics syntax socio linguistics, and so on.
Also language is so central to being human. That linguistics overlaps with many other disciplines.
That"s why you might study some linguistics and education sociology literature, computer science and so on. So, if you ask your favorite linguistic question about language, don"t make them feel bad if they don"t know the answer.
当然，有一些语言学家可能会当翻译或口译员，但这只是两种可能的职业道路。并不是绝对的。
Misconception number three ：linguists are translators or interpreters .
we know a few linguists may go on to become translators or interpreters, but this is just two possible career paths.
是的，我们都可以想象一下，这名语言学家坐在一个黑暗的办公室里，那里杂乱的旧书散布着并且旧书在空气中散发出的气味。
确实现在许多语言学家在大学里进行研究，但请记住，语言学领域涉及很多领域，语言学家也可以从事行业，例如为公司从事语音识别或自然语言处理工作、从事教育设计扫盲计划或以英语为第二语言的教学工作。
一些语言学家在该领域工作，有时甚至在丛林中进行记录和分析以及使用本地语言，您可能会发现一两个语言学家在政府工作，也有在电影行业担任语音教练或专门研究言语病理学.
Speaking of careers misconception number four: linguists are academics who work in universities.
Yes, we can all imagine the loan some linguist sitting in a dark office cluttered with old books that old books smell in the air.
Now many linguists do research in universities, but remember, there are many fields in linguistics, a linguist can also have a career in industry, for example working on speech recognition or natural language processing for a company.
You could work in education designing literacy programs or teaching English as a second language.
Some linguists work in the field, sometimes even in the middle of a jungle documenting and analyzing and indigenous language, you may find a linguist or two working in the government, working as a voice coach in the film industry or specializing in speech pathology.
你如何称呼一个会说多种语言的人，其实是polyglot，而不是一个linguist。
实际上，许多语言学家的工作都是基于他们母语，因此他们根本不需要懂外语。当然，不可否认，语言学家中有很多外语爱好者。
我们热爱语言，但是学习或说外语并不是成为语言学家的必要条件。因此，语言学和语言学家对语言学的研究是对语言语言学家的研究，它研究语言如何工作以及它如何随着时间演变。语言学家如何看待它如何影响社会行为，实质上是语言学家研究了人类所做的令人称奇的事情的某些方面，我们称之为语言。
当然除了口语，有些语言学家还学习手语。例如，如果是语言，那么语言学家很可能会想要学习它。
这就是语言学的奇妙之处，请不要在对语言学家有什么误解了！哈哈。
Misconception number five :linguists speak many foreign languages.
What do you call someone who speaks several languages, a polyglot, not a linguist.
In fact, many linguists work and they"re all native language， so they don"t need to know a foreign language at all.
Of course there are many foreign language buffs among linguists. We can"t help it.
We love languages, but learning or speaking a foreign language is not a requirement to be a linguist.
So what is linguistics and what linguists do linguistics, is the study of language linguists study how language works how it evolves over time.
How is perceived how it affects social behavior, essentially linguists study some aspect of this amazing thing humans do that we call language.
It doesn"t even have to be spoken language, there are linguists who study sign language. For example, if it"s a language, chances are a linguist will want to study it.