Corpora: Chomsky/Harris - May the Defence Bring in Their Evidence!!

[VSWarren at aol.com]

Dear All,

How wonderful to see that the empiricist/theoricist debate is going live and
strong on the Corpus (or should it be Corpora) Linguistics chat room.

I am just completing a PhD which is using corpora, statistical methods and
computers - any two of which in combination just a few years ago would have
seemed unthinkable.  I am facing real problems though in finding linguists or
computer scientists to accept that using real data holds any advantages over
a purely theoretical approach.  Finding a panel for my viva has proved almost
impossible due to this and the fact that I am looking at phonological
acquisition in non Indo European languages!

I have always maintained linguistics should take into account the evidence
that is all around us in the form of ambient language.  Is this such a
strange view point to hold?
Am I missing something here but what other fields ignore the evidence.  Maybe
50 years ago before the advent of computers as we know them today a
non-empirical approach could be justified but surely not now?  Generative
linguists please reply in your defence!!!!

Anyway just thought I would put my bit in about how pleased I am to see that
others are at last debating this important issue.

On another note could someone please send me the 3 earliest messages on this
subject as my e-mail went into a black hole for a few days.

S. Warren - UK