Linguistics

Languages are one of the most fascinating and core aspects of human culture and understanding. The scientific look at one's own language, a lot of other languages and forms of communication other living beings as well, is an interesting area to study.

Where did languages come from? Why are they so different? Do they have much in common? What is the relationship between our languages and our ways of thinking, feeling, and living? How do languages impact the society around us?

Linguistics studies these questions in depth

Many people think that a linguist is someone who speaks many languages and works as a language teacher or as an interpreter at the United Nations. In fact, these people are more accurately called "Polyglots".
While many linguists are polyglots, the focus of linguistics is about languages in general and not how many. To put it simply, linguistics is the scientific study of language. It aims to understand how the language gets processed in the mind and how language itself works. Linguists observe patterns within and across languages to try to understand how and why they are different and what makes them alike.
It comprises of sub-fields that cover: phonetics, phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, writing systems, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, pragmatics, applied linguistics, dialectology, comparative linguistics etc. check out what each of these are by ‘googling’ them up!
Ok, we are done with the (dry?) universally present definitions of Linguistics.
Let’s see if you can solve this problem of defining Linguistics by visiting these links , take a break and surf through, try to get an idea of what Linguistics is:
Web Links

upenn.edu - Language Log

arizona.edu - What's Linguistics and why study it?

cambridgecoaching.com - Intro to branches of Linguistics

thoughtco.com - What is a Linguist?

linguisticsociety.org - What is Linguistics?

sil.org - What is Linguistics?

slate.com - Popular present ideas as a metaphor for linguistics
There are many more resources if you want to explore more about Linguistics in general, to explore that (not required for the Olympiad itself), go below the graded-past-problems-table phew! And find those resources! (P.S. there is a huge area of Linguistic(s) Humour, be sure to have lols, rofls while on the way to enlightenment)