Abstract
Yang’s (2016) Tolerance Principle describes with incredible precision how many exceptions the mechanisms of child language acquisition can tolerate to induce a productive rule, and is a notable advance in the long-standing controversy as to the amount of data necessary for the acquisition of language. The present contribution addresses a different but related issue, that of the amount of data on variation in languages needed by a linguist to develop a theory of language. Using as a model the perennial question of how many languages should be considered to formulate a general theory of language, I will show that discussions about the type and amount of data needed for linguistic theorising cannot be fruitful without taking into account the type of linguistic theory and its goals. Moreover, the type of linguistic theory itself depends on the way in which the object of study is conceived. I propose that the two main types of current linguistic theory (functionalism and formalism) correlate broadly to different scientific methods: the inductive one (which proceeds from languages to language) and the deductive one (which proceeds from language to languages), respectively. My aim is to show that the type of data that can falsify a certain linguistic theory is different depending on whether the theory is deductive or inductive. That is, the two types of theory have a different “tolerance threshold” regarding the sparseness of data. Hence, the expectation of progress that new sources of data on language variation can provide for linguistic theory should be modulated according to the objectives and assumptions of each language theory.
Highlights
TWO WAYS OF RELATING DATA AND THEORYIt is impossible to predict whether the rapid development of new sources of data on linguistic variation, as a result of the expanding breadth and scope of information technologies, will have a comparably large impact on linguistic theory
My goal is to show that the degree of the impact of these new sources of information will be different depending on the type of linguistic theory involved: the impact can be notable for linguistic traditions based on the inductive method, but will surely have a
It can be argued that a good part of the criticisms of Chomskyan linguistic theory, both past and present, are based on the conviction that the only way to construct a theory of language is through an inductive model
Summary
It is impossible to predict whether the rapid development of new sources of data on linguistic variation, as a result of the expanding breadth and scope of information technologies, will have a comparably large impact on linguistic theory (and especially on syntactic theory). It seems safe to say that obtaining new evidence can only be beneficial for any science. I do not intend in to question this general statement in any way, yet I would like to qualify it in the context of contemporary linguistic theory. My goal is to show that the degree of the impact of these new sources of information will be different depending on the type of linguistic theory involved: the impact can be notable for linguistic traditions based on the inductive method, but will surely have a
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