Linguist or linguistician?

Hello,

One of my teachers told me not to call a person specialising in linguistics
(as an academic discipline) a "linguist". She thinks the word "linguistician" should be used instead because "linguist" means "someone who is good at learning languages".

I looked it up in some dictionaries (including Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Oxford Dictionary etc.) and couldn't find "linguistician". I've only found "linguist" which has the aforementioned two meanings.

The word "linguistician" sounds a bit artificial and weird to me. Besides, I hear many "linguisticians" calling themselves a "linguist".

What do you think?

Teachers can be wrong. If you go spouting the word (or non-word) "linguistician" about, you'll be getting a few puzzled looks. Who knows, p'haps they should be called "linguisticians" but the fact is that they are called "linguists".

<<Teachers can be wrong. If you go spouting the word (or non-word) "linguistician" about, you'll be getting a few puzzled looks. Who knows, p'haps they should be called "linguisticians" but the fact is that they are called "linguists".>>

Agreed. I've never heard of "linguistician" and I just completed a four-year degree in linguistics. I'm not against coining "linguistician" per se but since no one else uses it you'd risk misunderstanding or confusion.

I don't think "istician" is a real suffix. "Linguistician" wouldn't be a good word to coin.

Thanks a lot.

By the way, she teaches literature not linguistics.

I'm completing a degree in linguistics, too, and I've never heard my professors uttering the word "linguistician".

<<I don't think "istician" is a real suffix. "Linguistician" wouldn't be a good word to coin.>>
Yes, there is no such thing. Maybe it's coined by analogy with:

phonetics - phonetician
syntax - syntactician
politics - politician

But "linguistician" sounds weird.

I didn't ask if "ician" was a suffix. I asked if "istician" was. "istician" makes no sense because "ist" and "ician" have the same meaning.

linguist
noun
1. Someone who has an excellent knowledge of languages.
2. Someone who studies linguistics, especially professionally.
Thesaurus: philologist, grammarian, etymologist, lexicologist, verbalist, vocabularian, structuralist.
(W Afr)
3. Someone who acts as an intermediary between the chief or priest of a tribe and the people.


linguistician
noun
1. Someone who studies linguistics.

When I searched for the two words on the google ,I got 12,000,000 items with linguist,but only 779 with linguistician.


maybe the word linguistician is only used by linguisticians.

Guest,
I'm afraid you've missed my point or rather I wasn't clear enough.

I know you mean the suffix "istician", and, of course, you are right - it doesn't make make sense. As you say, "ist" and "ician" have the same meaning. But maybe the case of linguistician is somewhat special, since the word "linguistics" itself contains the suffix "ist". It seems to be a very strange word, being different from other names of sciences or academic disciplines, like:

physics, and NOT physicistics.

The word "linguistics" thus emphasises the profession and not the object of study. Some people may not see it and hence the word "linguistician". I mean the word "linguistician" may have been coined this way:

linguistics -> linguistician, as I wrote above, was coined by analogy with the names of other sciences/disciplines.

But "linguistician" seems to be completely tautological (since ist + ician have the same function and meaning), and therefore "linguist" would suffice.

Sorry for being pseudo-linguistic. I don't say I'm right, it's just a hypothesis. This word has always made me wonder...

<<make make sense>>
Make only once. I'm not dysgraphic at all... :-))