Modern Linguisitics: Aims and Attitudes

Linguistics is commonly defined as a science of language. A scientific description is carried out systematically based on objectively  verifying observations and within the framework of some general theory  appropriate to the data. It is often said that linguistics properly  so-called is of relatively recent origin and that the investigation of  language as practised In Europe and America before the 19th century was  subjective, speculative and unsystematic.