[Corpora-List] Do you think LINGUISTICS is SCIENCE or ARTS?

[Gilles Serasset]

Dear all,

What I meant in my earlier answer is that the classical question  
"SCIENCE OR ART" is most of the time asked only for political reasons  
and that it is indeed non relevant in general.

Physics, for instance, is always mentionned as the example of what one  
may call REAL science.

And it is indeed science when one systematically uses a theory to  
predict some behaviours that are to be validated by observation. This  
aspect has been clearly stated by P. Fung.

But what about the way a theory is conceived ? Do you really think  
that the theory of relativity was the result of a "systematic pursuit  
of knowledge" ? I do believe that most of this work relies on the  
pursuit of an "aesthetic" result that would reconcile the theory and  
the "annoying facts".

In this regard, there is ART and SCIENCE in physics.

The same kind of observation holds even in mathematics when the  
hypotheses (a "beautifully" reduced set of assumption) that are  
admitted by a community are destroyed by the discovery of a new  
paradox. The hypothesis are a product of ART, there failure is a  
product of SCIENCE.

And I do believe that there is no way it could be another way, because  
even scientists are human and whichever definition you give to  
"humanity" it will not only involve the concepts of 'rigor',  
'honesty', 'systematicity', ...

I think that whatever the way you do linguistics (by introspection or  
with a computing device or whatever), the theories, rules and  
principle you "see" in your work are the result of an artistic  
process. And there will be many other linguists that will then argue  
on your production and try to invalidate them systematically (and this  
is science).

Hence an irrelevant (but logically deduced from the above unscientific  
assumptions) answer to the original question:

Linguistics IS SCIENCE OR ART, because Linguistics IS SCIENCE AND ART.

Regards,

Gilles,
--
Gilles Sérasset
GETALP-LIG                         BP 53 - F-38041 Grenoble Cedex 9
Phone: +33 4 76 51 43 80                   Fax:   +33 4 76 63 56 86


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