What is linguistics?

Linguistics is the study of language from a scientific point of view. Linguists observe language in use, form questions and hypotheses about aspects of language such as structure or social meaning, and investigate those questions.

Our colleagues at the Linguistics Society of America have a fantastic page with lots more information about what linguists do, how to become one, and where linguistics crops up in your day-to-day life: https://www.linguisticsociety.org/what-linguistics