Abstract
An integrated science of language is usually advocated as a step forward for linguistic research. In this paper, we maintain that integration of this sort is premature, and cannot take place before we identify a common object of study. We advocate instead a science of language that is inherently multi-faceted, and takes into account the different viewpoints as well as the different definitions of the object of study. We also advocate the use of different data sources, which, if non-contradictory, can provide more solid evidence for linguistic analysis. Last, we argue that generative grammar is an important tile in the puzzle.
Highlights
In a recent article, Christiansen and Chater (2017) ( CC) argue in favor of an ‘integrated science of language.’ Just as “integration and interaction between levels of analysis and diverse data is ubiquitous [in] the physical and biological sciences,” progress in linguistics can only be guaranteed by taking into account a wide variety of data from a range of different sources.We suspect there are not many linguists who would disagree with the observation that attempts to integrate knowledge and to facilitate interaction between students of language working at different ‘levels of analysis’ would probably be beneficial to the field
The number and variety of empirical sources that have become available in recent decades for anyone interested in the topic of human language has broadened considerably, and continues to do so: from ultrasound measurements to automatic exploration of large amounts of words used on social media, and from fieldwork notes on Amazonian languages that are already extinct to neurolinguistics data on people learning artificial languages while in an MRI machine – all of these can potentially shed light on the question what human language is and how it works
CC, see one major obstacle in this integration: ‘Chomskyan’ linguistics. They state: “Many of the phenomena that have become the focus of syntactic theory are so abstract that they are often difficult to connect even with specific linguistic phenomena, let alone with experiments on how people process language or observations of how children learn their native tongue.”. They propose replacing generative grammar with construction grammars, because their “quasi-regular nature [. . .] allows them to capture both the rule-like patterns as well as the myriad of exceptions that often are excluded by fiat from the old view built on abstract rules.”
Summary
In a recent article, Christiansen and Chater (2017) ( CC) argue in favor of an ‘integrated science of language.’ Just as “integration and interaction between levels of analysis and diverse data is ubiquitous [in] the physical and biological sciences,” progress in linguistics can only be guaranteed by taking into account a wide variety of data from a range of different sources. CC, see one major obstacle in this integration: ‘Chomskyan’ linguistics They state: “Many of the phenomena that have become the focus of syntactic theory are so abstract that they are often difficult to connect even with specific linguistic phenomena, let alone with experiments on how people process language or observations of how children learn their native tongue.”. For this reason, they propose replacing generative grammar with construction grammars (for which they cite Goldberg, 2006; strangely, they do not cite any reference for generative grammar), because their “quasi-regular nature [. They state: “Many of the phenomena that have become the focus of syntactic theory are so abstract that they are often difficult to connect even with specific linguistic phenomena, let alone with experiments on how people process language or observations of how children learn their native tongue.” For this reason, they propose replacing generative grammar with construction grammars (for which they cite Goldberg, 2006; strangely, they do not cite any reference for generative grammar), because their “quasi-regular nature [. . .] allows them to capture both the rule-like patterns as well as the myriad of exceptions that often are excluded by fiat from the old view built on abstract rules.”
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