Min-Joo Kim

Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Department of English
Texas Tech University
Lubbock, TX 79409-3091

E-mail: min-joo.kim(at)ttu(dot)edu
Phone: 806-742-2500, ext 262
Fax: 806-742-0989

PhD. 2004, UMass-Amherst

I am a linguist. What is a linguist? A linguist is not someone who speaks many languages (although it is certainly true of many linguists). Rather, he or she is someone who does linguistics.

What is linguistics then? Linguistics is a scientific study of human language: it examines language using scientific methods.

Why study human language? It is because language is a human-specific phenomenon. No other species have language and, even though they may also have relatively intricate and highly developed communication systems of their own, they do not parallel human language in their complexity and scope. Besides, every normally-developing child can acquire the language(s) he or she has been exposed to in less than five years, when no other animals can, regardless of their intelligence.

Given the complexity of human language and the effortlessness with which children acquire languages, linguists believe that an in-depth study of human language will provide a tap into the human mind, eventually helping us to better understand what differentiates humans from other species.