30.1745, Qs: Corpus Linguistics: An Epistemology?

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LINGUIST List: Vol-30-1745. Tue Apr 23 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.1745, Qs: Corpus Linguistics: An Epistemology?

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Date: Tue, 23 Apr 2019 22:40:43
From: Debaprasad Bandyopadhyay [anekanta at gmail.com]
Subject: Corpus Linguistics: An Epistemology?

 
“Philosophical discussion in the absence of a theory is no criterion of the
validity of evidence.” 
-- A.  N. Whitehead.  Adventure of ideas. (1933:221) 

In case of an investigation or in a disciplinary technology, empirically
(irrationally  speaking, i.e., speaking in a strict non-Cartesian
way)speaking, data/corpora is the raw material (ephemeral ‘arbitrary
signifiers’ in case of linguistics) to built up a theory following inductive
method. 
Why, then, mere ‘corpus’ is tagged with linguistics, an epistemological
disciplinary technology? 
‘Corpus’ is not tagged with Physics, Geology, Psychology, Sociology etc (e.g.,
Corpus Physics or Corpus Sociology), though they are also dealing with data!  
Collection of data and arranging them (typing?) in a digital machine do not
involve any knowledge or wis(h)dom but a special skill that needs clerical
precision. Documentation, no doubt, is a tiresome job. Utilizing a tool (a
digital machine) as a repertoire, does not necessarily entail the birth of
discipline. 
Ascribing static (“thetic...”, Kristeva,1974) meaning to those entries, though
needs epistemology and that can be handled by well-established theory-based
disciplines:  Lexicology, Semantics, Pragmatics etc.  If we have such levels
of linguistic analysis, do we need such dubious coinage, “Corpus Linguistics”?
And each empirical discipline needs data for further observation,
experimentation and inductive generalization (one may raise Popper’s [1934,
2009] points for refuting Inductivism here), i.e., data is an initial part of
the whole, but neither a theory nor a praxis. 
However, it is a salebrated discipline now! Why is it so? What is the purpose
of such discipline? 
My friend says, “We, the residents of the so-called third world, are part of
the data-collection team—don’t you understand that? How dare you? You cannot
be allowed to perform theoretical plays.” (Galtung, 1980) 

Bibliography:

Galtung, J. 1980. True Worlds: A Transitional Perspective. New York: Free
Press
Kristeva, J. 1974. Revolution in Poetic Language.  (Abridged English
translation) New York: Columbia University Press, 1984.
Popper, K. 1934. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York: Routledge.      
                           
________. 2009. The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge
(Routledge Classics).  New York: Routledge.                                   
                                                                              
   
Whitehead, A.N. 1933. Adventures of Ideas. New York: Free Press.
 
See Also: Can Computer Speak? Language and Artificial Intelligence, 
“Computational Linguistics: A dissenter’s Voice.”,  
Anthropogenic Global Heating and The Condition of Creative Speaking Subject
 

Linguistic Field(s): Discipline of Linguistics
                     Linguistic Theories
                     Philosophy of Language



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