methodologies {was Re: form versus meaning}

[Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.]

At 03:28 PM 1/13/97 -1000, Jon Aske wrote:
>This is related to the methodology strand of this schizophrenic
>conversation.

>My conclusion: everybody should learn to look at language in as many
>ways as possible.  Introspecting about it, devising experiments, etc.
>But I think that the first and primary way should be to look at language
>as it is actually used.  It is different.  Believe me.  And something
>else, you would probably have to go through dozens of hours of
>transcripts to come up with one example of some of the phenomena that
>fill many theoretical journals these days.  The core stuff, you know.


Well, I hate to sound a somewhat controversial note, especially when I
agree with the majority of what is being said, but I think it should be
born in mind that, at some level syntax is represents organizational principles
that may not be completely visible through usage and because of
this, it might be necessary to do a lot of the work in this area based on
the judgements of the experts.  If we limited ourselves to the mathematics that
is used in daily life, we would have very primitive mathematics, and if
linguists limit themselves to what occurs in very daily life, we would
(and do) have very primitive linguistics.  Linguists might have a good
description of daily life language, but they do not have a very good
picture of the organizational principles that are represented in langauge.

Now at some point we as linguists are going to have to
find some measure of the value of our research to justify our
existence in these days of budget cuts.  If we as a discipline can present
nothing to the outside world besides squabbling that is meaningless except
to a few experts, our days are numbered.  Especially if this squabbling
looks as though we have yet to agree on who we are and what we do. So
whether or not we resolve any of these disputes, it seems to me the onus on
the discipline should be on bringing forth some tangible result of the 30 years
of research that has given us linguistics departments and jobs.  I realize
that we as insiders to this field can point to many contributions that have
been made by linguists and others in this area; however, I doubt that there
are many others outside the field (even among those who decide the future of
departments) who have any idea what it is we do, even after 30 years. And if
we cannot say who or what we are, how can they be expected to continue to fund
us.

Phil Bralich








what if we limited our knowledge of math to
Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.
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