We explain what linguistics is, its objective, fields of study, and the areas of work of a linguist. We also cover historical linguistics.
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Linguistics studies everything related to languages, both current and ancient.

What is linguistics?
Linguistics is the science that studies language. This involves studying its origins, evolution, foundations, and structure in order to understand the dynamics of living (contemporary) and dead languages ​​(the ancient languages ​​from which they originate).

Of all the systems created by humankind, none is as complex, vast, and powerful as language. Among the many sciences that study language, the following stand out:

Philology. It focuses on the historical study of language and its manifestation in written texts, primarily philosophical and literary, since its emergence in the 19th century.

Linguistics. It is more focused on spoken language and how it operates at a given moment in history (although it also studies written texts).
Both philology (older) and linguistics (more modern) are descendants of ancient grammar, cultivated by classical cultures, such as the Greco-Roman.

However, linguistics was born at the beginning of the 19th century, when linguistic change and the possibility of studying it scientifically became evident. Even so, the most significant foundational milestone of linguistics appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, with the publication of the famous Course in General Linguistics by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) in 1916.

You may find this helpful: Functions of Language

Objective of Linguistics
Linguistics is both a social science discipline and a branch of psychology. This is because its object of study, language, involves two types of processes: a series of mental processes (language acquisition, its use, its link to thought) and social processes (language evolution, pragmatics, its role in identity formation).

Therefore, the main objective of linguistics involves the formulation of a general theory of natural languages ​​and the cognitive system that makes them possible. Of course, each branch of linguistics has its own specific objective, framed within this general goal of the discipline.