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Subfield · Social Sciences

Linguistics and Language research

Linguistics and Language is a subfield of Social Sciences. Science Explorer counts 126k research works in it since 1950. 10.3% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: book by Julia S. Falk.

Research works
126k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
13k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.3%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
6
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
0%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
Poland
23% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Linguistics and Language

What is Linguistics and Language research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Multilingualism, Sociolinguistics, Language Policy, Bilingual Education, Translanguaging, Language Change. Gaining share since 2011-15: Bilingual Education, Translanguaging, Language Policy, Sociolinguistics. Losing share: Discourse Analysis, Ideology, Language Change, Sociolinguistic Variation.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2021-25 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2011-15. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 16 words, with their numbers
  1. Multilingualism23k◆ 1.09×4 topics
  2. Sociolinguistics19k◆ 1.15×3 topics
  3. Language Policy14k▲ 1.25×2 topics
  4. Bilingual Education11k▲ 1.29×1 topic
  5. Translanguaging11k▲ 1.29×1 topic
  6. Language Change5,992▼ 0.84×1 topic
  7. Sociolinguistic Variation5,992▼ 0.84×1 topic
  8. Culture5,532◆ 0.94×1 topic
  9. Language5,532◆ 0.94×1 topic
  10. Political Discourse4,663◆ 0.89×2 topics
  11. Intercultural Communication3,991◆ 0.87×1 topic
  12. Language Education3,991◆ 0.87×1 topic
  13. Language Diversity2,471◆ 1.09×1 topic
  14. Youth Language2,471◆ 1.09×1 topic
  15. Discourse Analysis2,191▼ 0.74×1 topic
  16. Ideology2,191▼ 0.74×1 topic

Which countries lead Linguistics and Language research?

On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, France and the United Kingdom rank highest in Linguistics and Language. By volume, Poland and the United States publish the most (3.8k and 3.4k works in 2022-now).

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States #1 all time 1.03× citation excellence · 1.53× journals · 100% breadth 13.0% top 10% · 3k works
  2. 2 France #2 all time 0.76× citation excellence · 1.25× journals · 100% breadth 7.4% top 10% · 3k works
  3. 3 United Kingdom #3 all time 1.26× citation excellence · 1.44× journals · 100% breadth 15.7% top 10% · 931 works
  4. 4 Germany #4 all time 1.31× citation excellence · 1.39× journals · 100% breadth 11.6% top 10% · 690 works
  5. 5 China #10 all time 1.17× citation excellence · 1.04× journals · 100% breadth 16.1% top 10% · 1k works
  6. 6 Spain #6 all time 1.19× citation excellence · 0.99× journals · 100% breadth 12.6% top 10% · 985 works
  7. 7 Switzerland #8 all time 1.22× citation excellence · 1.87× journals · 100% breadth 14.2% top 10% · 314 works
  8. 8 Canada #5 all time 1.09× citation excellence · 1.20× journals · 100% breadth 16.6% top 10% · 774 works
  9. 9 Australia #7 all time 1.42× citation excellence · 1.19× journals · 100% breadth 17.6% top 10% · 464 works
  10. 10 Poland #9 all time 0.89× citation excellence · 0.52× journals · 100% breadth 9.4% top 10% · 3.7k works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 24 countries ranked in Linguistics and Language. Ranked on the quality score for 2022-now; the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Linguistics and Language

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Poland 3.8k works
  2. 2 United States 3.4k works
  3. 3 France 3.2k works
  4. 4 China 1.2k works
  5. 5 Spain 1.1k works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 1.1k works
  7. 7 Canada 880 works
  8. 8 Indonesia 852 works
  9. 9 Germany 778 works
  10. 10 Brazil 570 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

Poland: 22.7%United States: 20.3%France: 18.9%China: 7.1%6 others listed: 31.1%23%largest
Poland3,837 · 22.7%United States3,438 · 20.3%France3,205 · 18.9%China1,195 · 7.1%6 others listed5,262 · 31.1%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Linguistics and Language research?

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) ranks first in Linguistics and Language on research quality in 2022-now, followed by University of Cambridge and Polish Academy of Sciences.

By research quality, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique France · Paris · #1 all time 6.2% top 10% · 870 works
  2. 2 University of Cambridge United Kingdom · Cambridge · #9 all time 12.2% top 10% · 94 works
  3. 3 Polish Academy of Sciences Poland · Warsaw · #15 all time 10.9% top 10% · 317 works
  4. 4 Université Paris Cité France · Paris · #27 all time 8.7% top 10% · 86 works
  5. 5 University of Warsaw Poland · Warsaw · #4 all time 9.3% top 10% · 354 works
  6. 6 University of British Columbia Canada · Vancouver · #40 all time 19.9% top 10% · 70 works
  7. 7 Université de Lyon France · Lyon · #42 all time 11.2% top 10% · 103 works
  8. 8 University of Toronto Canada · Toronto · #6 all time 12.9% top 10% · 86 works
  9. 9 Jagiellonian University Poland · Krakow · #23 all time 10.6% top 10% · 362 works
  10. 10 University of the Basque Country Spain · Leioa · #33 all time 19.4% top 10% · 61 works

The track on each row is that row's top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the quality score, which compares the rate with what each place's own topics predict, adds its share of papers in the Nature Index journals, and counts output and breadth too.

Of 35 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Linguistics and Language.

Top 100 Linguistics and Language institutions

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 919 works
  2. 2 Jagiellonian UniversityPoland 372 works
  3. 3 University of WarsawPoland 370 works
  4. 4 Adam Mickiewicz University in PoznańPoland 356 works
  5. 5 Polish Academy of SciencesPoland 328 works
  6. 6 University of ŁódźPoland 207 works
  7. 7 Maria Curie-Skłodowska UniversityPoland 155 works
  8. 8 University of Silesia in KatowicePoland 150 works
  9. 9 University of WrocławPoland 141 works
  10. 10 Université Sorbonne NouvelleFrance 131 works

Who are the leading researchers in Linguistics and Language?

Counting only their work in Linguistics and Language, Suresh Canagarajah, Li Wei and Sali A. Tagliamonte have the most papers in the world top 10% for their subfield and year beyond the 10% expected.

  1. 1 Suresh Canagarajah United States · #1,893 worldwide overall 24.6 of 39 papers here in the top 10%
  2. 2 Li Wei United Kingdom · #47,255 worldwide overall 22.9 of 33 papers here in the top 10%
  3. 3 Sali A. Tagliamonte Canada · #22,836 worldwide overall 23.5 of 53 papers here in the top 10%
  4. 4 Alastair Pennycook Australia · #13,344 worldwide overall 21.1 of 36 papers here in the top 10%
  5. 5 Xuesong Andy Gao Australia · #5,689 worldwide overall 19.4 of 32 papers here in the top 10%
  6. 6 Howard Giles United States · #68,589 worldwide overall 20.8 of 48 papers here in the top 10%
  7. 7 Fan Fang China · #4,870 worldwide overall 17.7 of 26 papers here in the top 10%
  8. 8 William Labov United States · #26,234 worldwide overall 18.5 of 38 papers here in the top 10%
  9. 9 Sender Dovchin Australia · #4,937 worldwide overall 16.9 of 22 papers here in the top 10%
  10. 10 Ofelia Garcı́a United States · #34,937 worldwide overall 17.9 of 38 papers here in the top 10%

Ranked on their work in Linguistics and Language alone: how many more of their papers here reached the world top 10% for their subfield and year than the 10% expected, among 174,566 ranked researchers with a paper here. Each paper counts once, so many strong papers outrank one famous one, and a long record of ordinary papers does not climb. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Linguistics and Language researchers

What are the most cited papers in Linguistics and Language?

The most cited paper in Linguistics and Language is "Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English" (Kathleen M. Broussard, Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson et al., 2000), with 8,233 citations. Next come "Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms" (4,960) and "Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach" (3,778).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English Kathleen M. Broussard, Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson et al. · TESOL Quarterly 2000 8,233
2 Ways with Words: Language, Life and Work in Communities and Classrooms Michael Paffard, Shirley Brice Heath · British Journal of Educational Studies Jun 1984 4,960
3 Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach Mary Bucholtz, Kira Hall · Discourse Studies Open access Oct 2005 3,778
4 Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy Django Paris · Educational Researcher Open access 29 Mar 2012 3,282
5 Linguistic Interdependence and the Educational Development of Bilingual Children James Cummins · Review of Educational Research Open access Jun 1979 3,166
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Linguistics and Language research done?

The largest centres of Linguistics and Language research in 2022-now are Warsaw (Poland), Paris (France), Krakow (Poland) and Poznań (Poland). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Gorzów Wielkopolski, Saint-Denis and Noumea.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 WarsawPoland 846 works
  2. 2 ParisFrance 810 works
  3. 3 KrakowPoland 687 works
  4. 4 PoznańPoland 382 works
  5. 5 LublinPoland 306 works
  6. 6 ŁódźPoland 240 works
  7. 7 KatowicePoland 237 works
  8. 8 MadridSpain 218 works
  9. 9 LondonUnited Kingdom 197 works
  10. 10 MontrealCanada 182 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. Gorzów WielkopolskiPL · 27.7 works48×
  2. Saint-DenisFR · 52.0 works36×
  3. NoumeaNC · 21.5 works35×
  4. Cergy-PontoiseFR · 68.8 works27×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Linguistics and Language than the world average.

See Linguistics and Language on the map

Linguistics and Language research by country

The best places for Linguistics and Language research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Linguistics and Language?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Warsaw, University of Cambridge and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 14.43%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Hong K…University of Cambri…University of WarsawUniversité Sorbonne …
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Standingthis field's institution ranking, three quarters all time and a quarter 2022-now
50%
Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
20%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
5%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
15%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
5%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
5%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreRank in field (all time)Top 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of WarsawPoland 77.1#5 (#4)9.3%30.9×370 -14.9%
2University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 74.0#2 (#9)12.4%3.7×104 +87.3%
3Université Sorbonne NouvelleFrance 68.5#11 (#5)7.3%46.6×131 +9.5%
4University of Hong KongChina 67.7- (#3)25.3%2.4×54 -25.2%
5University of TorontoCanada 67.2#8 (#6)13.0%2.0×94 -4.3%
6Stanford UniversityUnited States 63.5- (#2)12.7%0.8×27 -31.9%
7Education University of Hong KongChina 62.6- (#12)32.2%15.2×52 +44.0%
8Jagiellonian UniversityPoland 58.9#9 (#23)10.5%23.9×372 +5.7%
9Université Paris CitéFrance 57.2#4 (#27)8.5%5.1×91 +34.4%
10Nanyang Technological UniversitySingapore 54.8- (#8)13.1%2.5×46 -5.8%

Universities only. The score blends standing (50%), citation excellence (20%), size (15%), specialisation (5%), growth (5%), international reach (5%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise. Standing is the score in this field's institution ranking, three quarters over all time and a quarter 2022-now; excellence averages the two windows too. Four years alone undercount fields such as AI, where many conference and arXiv papers from 2022 on carry no affiliation in the data.

Every institution in Linguistics and Language, country by country

Is Linguistics and Language research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 0% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Multilingual Education and Policy and Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Linguistics and Language as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.12% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Linguistics and Language0.11% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Linguistics and Language over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Linguistics and Language10.0% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

  1. Multilingual Education and Policy+25%
  2. Linguistic and Sociocultural Studies+4%
  3. Linguistic Variation and Morphology-2%
  4. French Language Learning Methods-5%
  5. Language and Culture-22%
  6. Cultural and political discourse analysis-24%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2018-21 to 2022-25. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Linguistics and Language include?

Multilingual Education a…40kMultilingual Education and Policy: 40k fractional worksLinguistic Variation and…30kLinguistic Variation and Morphology: 30k fractional worksLanguage and Culture: 20k fractional worksFrench Language Learning Methods: 17k fractional worksCultural and political discourse analysis: 9,735 fractional worksLinguistic and Sociocultural Studies: 9,369 fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.

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Who leads Linguistics and Language, on Science Explorer

A card with the countries and institutions that lead Linguistics and Language, for a post or a slide.

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The leading institutions' badges6Each links to that institution's page and updates with every snapshot

Questions people ask

Who leads linguistics research?

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (France) ranks first in Linguistics and Language on research quality in 2022-now, followed by University of Cambridge and Polish Academy of Sciences. On research quality in 2022-now, the United States, France and the United Kingdom rank highest in Linguistics and Language. By volume, Poland and the United States publish the most (3.8k and 3.4k works in 2022-now).

What are the research topics in linguistics, and which are growing?

By the world's output in 2021-25, its most used keywords are Multilingualism, Sociolinguistics, Language Policy, Bilingual Education, Translanguaging, Language Change. Gaining share since 2011-15: Bilingual Education, Translanguaging, Language Policy, Sociolinguistics. Losing share: Discourse Analysis, Ideology, Language Change, Sociolinguistic Variation.

What is Linguistics and Language research about, and what is growing?

Where is the best place to study linguistics?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Warsaw, University of Cambridge and Université Sorbonne Nouvelle score highest, combining standing in the field's ranking, citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

Where is the best place to study Linguistics and Language?
All 1,273 questions in the Question Catalogue

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