I’m not the OP of that comment, but as a linguistics student I can corroborate. I think there are a couple of reasons that occasionally throwing a relevant piece of linguistic information into a conversation can produce the smartness impression. Firstly, conversations never fail to involve language, so opportunities to comment on language are practically constant if you’re attuned to noticing interesting bits and pieces. This means that even occasional relevant comments mean you’re saying something interesting and relevant quite frequently. This is an advantage that linguistics has over, say, marine biology. Secondly, I have the impression that most people are vaguely interested in language and under the equally vague impression that they know just how it works—after all, they use it all the time, right? So even imparting a mundane little piece of extremely basic linguistics can create the impression that you’re delivering serious cutting-edge expert-level stuff: after all, your listener didn’t know that, and yet they obviously know a pretty decent amount about language!
I’m not the OP of that comment, but as a linguistics student I can corroborate. I think there are a couple of reasons that occasionally throwing a relevant piece of linguistic information into a conversation can produce the smartness impression. Firstly, conversations never fail to involve language, so opportunities to comment on language are practically constant if you’re attuned to noticing interesting bits and pieces. This means that even occasional relevant comments mean you’re saying something interesting and relevant quite frequently. This is an advantage that linguistics has over, say, marine biology. Secondly, I have the impression that most people are vaguely interested in language and under the equally vague impression that they know just how it works—after all, they use it all the time, right? So even imparting a mundane little piece of extremely basic linguistics can create the impression that you’re delivering serious cutting-edge expert-level stuff: after all, your listener didn’t know that, and yet they obviously know a pretty decent amount about language!