The Study of Linguistics is the study of ‘natural language’. It typically covers the study of language structure (grammar), the study of meaning (semantics) and the social functions of language (sociolinguistics). In recent years it has become a popular subject for study.
With a Certificate in Linguistics at Princeton University you will typically in your first year have studied such modules as Exploring the English Language with an Introduction to Language and Linguistics. Further study will have engaged you with, for example, Child Language Acquisition, Phonetics, Semantics, Sociolinguistics, Language, Gender and Sexuality, Pragmatics and Psycholinguistics.