<div dir="ltr">There is another sense of theory, that I have not yet seen discussed here, which corresponds to the shall we say technical sense of the word, with a meaning of "a set of tested explanations of a phenomenon" (as in the film title A Theory of Everything). The word is used quite a bit in that sense in the (transformational) generative framework, and that gives us things like case theory, or how someone might propose their theory of inverse agreement in language L. I wouldn't call that an abuse.<div><br></div><div>Bernat</div><div><br clear="all"><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><font color="#666666" size="1">- - </font></div><div><font color="#666666" size="1">Bernat Bardagil</font></div><div><font color="#666666" size="1">Postdoctoral researcher</font></div><div><font color="#666666" size="1">Department of Linguistics, UC Berkeley</font></div><div><font color="#666666" size="1"><a href="http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/bbardagil" target="_blank">http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/bbardagil</a> </font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Feb 11, 2020 at 6:38 AM Eitan Grossman <<a href="mailto:eitan.grossman@mail.huji.ac.il">eitan.grossman@mail.huji.ac.il</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto">Hi all,<div dir="auto"><br><div dir="auto">In oral comments and reviews, I encounter two main uses of "theory" and "theoretical." One is simply an autonym of generative linguists, as in "John only hangs out with theoretical linguists" or "Mary does great fieldwork but we want to hire a theoretician."</div><div dir="auto">You might also encounter something along the lines of "This abstract makes some very interesting observations but does not reference the theoretical literature, and it is unclear how it relates to theory." </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">The other use is something like "having a point (beyond describing facts)" or "referencing general linguistic literature." </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">But in my experience, the first is by far the most common.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Eitan</div><div dir="auto"><br></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">בתאריך יום ג׳, 11 בפבר׳ 2020, 12:16, מאת paolo Ramat <<a href="mailto:paolo.ramat@unipv.it" target="_blank">paolo.ramat@unipv.it</a>>:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Hi everyone,<div>Martin H. has written that <<there is confusion also about ]...] the relation between "typology" and "theory">>. I fully agree. But Martin says further that <<the term "theory" can be used as a count noun , or as a mass noun ("linguistic theory", "grammatical theory">>. This sounds rather strange: I had always thought that mass nouns are nouns such as 'sugar', 'blood', 'sand' etc. Can we consider abstract nouns like 'philosophy','theology' or even 'democracy' as mass nouns? Let alone by adding an adjective as in "linguistic/grammatic theory". This is not the habitual use of the term and sounds confusing. </div><div>Paolo</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">prof. dr. Paolo Ramat<div><div> Università di Pavia (retired)</div><div>Istituto Universitario Studi Superiori (IUSS Pavia) (retired)</div><div>Accademia dei Lincei, Socio corrispondente<br><div>'Academia Europaea'</div><div>'Societas Linguistica Europaea', Honorary Member</div></div></div><div>piazzetta Arduino 11 - I 27100 Pavia</div><div>##39 0382 27027</div><div>347 044 98 44</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">Il giorno mar 11 feb 2020 alle ore 10:47 Haspelmath, Martin <<a href="mailto:haspelmath@shh.mpg.de" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">haspelmath@shh.mpg.de</a>> ha scritto:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
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<div>I would talk about "confusion", not about "abuse", because there are many different kinds of linguistic theories. Moreover, the term "theory" can be used as a count noun (as in the last sentence), or as a mass noun ("linguistic
theory", "grammatical theory"). Linguists rarely reflect on kinds of theories, or on kinds of senses of the word "theory", and the papers that Hartmut mentioned have not become well-known. So there is a lot of confusion.<br>
<br>
In my 2010 paper on "Framework-free grammatical theory" (<a href="https://zenodo.org/record/814947" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://zenodo.org/record/814947</a>), I distinguished four senses of "theory".<br>
<br>
But there is confusion also about the relation between "typology" and "theory": Quite a few people have contrasted them as if they were different ways of doing linguistics, or different parts of research, e.g.<br>
<br>
<font size="-1">Hengeveld, Kees. 1992. <em>Non-verbal predication: Theory, typology, diachrony</em>. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.<br>
Polinsky, Maria & Robert Kluender. 2007. Linguistic typology and theory construction: Common challenges ahead.
<em>Linguistic Typology</em> 11(1). 273–283.<br>
Van Langendonck, Willy. 2008. <em>Theory and typology of proper names</em>. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.</font><br>
<br>
But on the other hand, it is clear that "atheoretical typology" is impossible, so this usage is confusing. See this recent blogpost, which proposes an alternative:
<a href="https://dlc.hypotheses.org/1915" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://dlc.hypotheses.org/1915</a><br>
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Martin<br>
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On 11.02.20 10:18, Hartmut Haberland wrote:<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)" lang="EN-US">Jün-Tin Wang 1973. ”On the representation of generative grammars as first-order theories.” In: Radu J. Bogdan and Ilkka Niinilouto eds.
<i>Logic,</i> <i>Language and Probability</i>. Dordrecht: Reidel, 302-316<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)" lang="EN-US">Hans-Heinrich Lieb 1974. "Grammars as theories: The case for axiomatic grammar (Part I)".
<i>Theoretical Linguistics</i> 1: 39-115.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)" lang="EN-US">Hans-Heinrich Lieb 1976. "Grammars as theories: The case for axiomatic grammar (Part II)".
</span><i><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)" lang="DE-AT">Theoretical Linguistics</span></i><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)" lang="DE-AT"> 3: 1-98.</span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)" lang="EN-US"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif;color:rgb(31,73,125)" lang="DE-AT"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif">Fra:</span></b><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"> Hartmut Haberland
<a href="mailto:hartmut@ruc.dk" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"><hartmut@ruc.dk></a>
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<b>Sendt:</b> 11. februar 2020 09:33<br>
<b>Til:</b> TALLMAN Adam <a href="mailto:Adam.TALLMAN@cnrs.fr" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">
<Adam.TALLMAN@cnrs.fr></a><br>
<b>Emne:</b> Re: [Lingtyp] The (ab)use of the term "theory" in (generative) linguistics<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Hans-Heinrich Lieb has written extensively about this in the
<span style="color:rgb(31,73,125)">7</span>0s, also Jün-tin Wang. </span>Hartmut <u></u><u></u></p>
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Den 11. feb. 2020 kl. 07.12 skrev TALLMAN Adam <<a href="mailto:Adam.TALLMAN@cnrs.fr" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">Adam.TALLMAN@cnrs.fr</a>>:<u></u><u></u></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black">Hello all,
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black">Does anyone have any sources that discuss the abuse of the term "theory" in generative linguistics (or in linguistics generally)? I figure that a paper like this must exist given
the deeply insightful comments that I have received by some reviewers.<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black">best,<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black">Adam<u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black"><u></u> <u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black">Adam James Ross Tallman (PhD, UT Austin)</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black;background-color:white;background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial">ELDP-SOAS -- Postdoctorant<br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black;background-color:white;background-position:initial initial;background-repeat:initial initial">Numero celular en bolivia: +59163116867</span><span style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Tahoma,sans-serif;color:black"><u></u><u></u></span></p>
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<pre cols="72">--
Martin Haspelmath (<a href="mailto:haspelmath@shh.mpg.de" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">haspelmath@shh.mpg.de</a>)
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
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