The End of Linguistics

[P L Patrick]

While Halpern's quotes don't strike me, either, as worth much air-time
in this forum, several responses have been interesting.
	Comparing linguistics to physics may be largely beside the
point. "Hard-science" models are not the only things that can validate
intellectual pursuits, and i think Lx has already spent too much effort
trying to be a science on such a model.
	Halpern's list was a partial inventory of things linguists do,
all of which are worth doing. (He missed some important ones -- big
deal.) He clearly doesn't understand most of them, as his comments
about Chomsky and universals show.
	Kerim's comments suggested a valid viewpoint might be an
inductive one: theory as the eventual product of interrelation and
analysis of established facts. In such a model, you don't get to the
theory for a long time. Is the time-before-theory then wasted or
"unscientific"? This is clearly nonsense. For a discussion of how such
an empirical approach to linguistic theory works, see pp 4-5 of Bill
Labov's (1994) Principles of Language Change.
	I will let deductive linguists take care of themselves.
	Halpern also seems to think a healthy field is one in which
everyone is doing the same thing, driven by agreement on a single
theory. This is so obviously not true that I don't think it needs
discussion. Does anyone know of such a field? Certainly not in the
'human sciences', i suspect...
	I am personally not excited or motivated by the thought of "a
comprehensive and unified theory of language". I'm not sure how much
help one would be to a sociolinguist like myself, and don't really
expect to see one in my lifetime anyway. Nor do I think peering into
the brain will be much use to me, as there's not much social
interaction going on in there.
	Halpern points to the self-awareness of people being studied as
a problem "that besets all the human sciences". Yes? So? How can this
be either good or bad? success or failure? That's people, Mike. We deal
with them the best we can.
	On to the next crank...
	-peter-

Prof. Peter L. Patrick
Dept. of Language & Linguistics
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
COLCHESTER CO4 3SQ
U.K.

Tel: (from within UK) 01206.87.2088
    (from outside UK) +44.1206.87.2088
Fax: (as above)           1206.87.2198
Email: patrickp at essex.ac.uk
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