Don’t get me wrong, i think linguistics is a lot of fun and i get that it’s an interesting field. I just don’t understand what practical applications it has beyond understanding languages better. What do we do with that understanding of languages? Is it purely about seeking knowledge?
It’s a foundational science for language learning, much like biology is to medicine.
Discourse analysis makes you understand better what other people say. That has implications everywhere: legal matters, political speech, literary criticism. It helps even when you’re dealing with that typical miscommunication between neurodivergent vs. neurotypical people.
It helps you to register and promote minority varieties. That isn’t just a theoretical matter, as language plays a huge role on the sense of belonging of the speaker.
Semiotics is directly tied to linguistics. And it has applications everywhere you need to communicate through design.
Just some examples, mind you.