Language and Linguistic Theory

Abstract

As we ruminate over the aspects of natural language, we wonder what constitutes a theory of language given an understanding, at a certain level of inquiry, of the properties and features of natural language. And this is not a trivial issue though it may appear to be so upon a cursory observation. Natural language users have a certain level of understanding of a range of characteristics of language(s). But this does not necessarily equip them with a systematic body of knowledge constituting a theory that they can articulate when speaking of language(s). Nor do they readily build a theory of language(s) when they describe aspects of natural language. But linguists who build sophisticated theories of language are also users of language in some way or other. What is it about natural language that then enables them to understand natural language in a manner that may correspond to the way a theory of language is constituted? One may note that this question has a different flavour from what one may ordinarily ascribe to linguists who appear to gain a specialized expertise by way of training. To be clear, the question has a direction of fit from the properties of natural language to a theory of language, in that the question is of how to move from the properties of natural language to the construction of a theory of language. This issue is quite different from that usually raised in the context of determining what a theory of language has to account for when it accounts for natural language phenomena or aspects of natural language.