[Lingtyp] The (ab)use of the term "theory" in (generative) linguistics

Tue Feb 11 12:17:34 UTC 2020

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.

Bernat

- -
Bernat Bardagil
Postdoctoral researcher
Department of Linguistics, UC Berkeley
http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/bbardagil

On Tue, Feb 11, 2020 at 6:38 AM Eitan Grossman <
eitan.grossman at mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> 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."
> 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."
>
> The other use is something like "having a point (beyond describing facts)"
> or "referencing general linguistic literature."
>
> But in my experience, the first is by far the most common.
>
> Eitan
>
>
> בתאריך יום ג׳, 11 בפבר׳ 2020, 12:16, מאת paolo Ramat ‏<
> paolo.ramat at unipv.it>:
>
>> Hi everyone,
>> 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.
>> Paolo
>>
>>
>> prof. dr. Paolo Ramat
>>  Università di Pavia (retired)
>> Istituto Universitario Studi Superiori (IUSS Pavia) (retired)
>> Accademia dei Lincei, Socio corrispondente
>> 'Academia Europaea'
>> 'Societas Linguistica Europaea', Honorary Member
>> piazzetta Arduino 11 - I 27100 Pavia
>> ##39 0382 27027
>> 347 044 98 44
>>
>>
>> Il giorno mar 11 feb 2020 alle ore 10:47 Haspelmath, Martin <
>> haspelmath at shh.mpg.de> ha scritto:
>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> In my 2010 paper on "Framework-free grammatical theory" (
>>> https://zenodo.org/record/814947), I distinguished four senses of
>>> "theory".
>>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> Hengeveld, Kees. 1992. *Non-verbal predication: Theory, typology,
>>> diachrony*. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
>>> Polinsky, Maria & Robert Kluender. 2007. Linguistic typology and theory
>>> construction: Common challenges ahead. *Linguistic Typology* 11(1).
>>> 273–283.
>>> Van Langendonck, Willy. 2008. *Theory and typology of proper names*.
>>> Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
>>>
>>> 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: https://dlc.hypotheses.org/1915
>>>
>>> Martin
>>>
>>>
>>> On 11.02.20 10:18, Hartmut Haberland wrote:
>>>
>>> Jün-Tin Wang 1973. ”On the representation of generative grammars as
>>> first-order theories.” In: Radu J. Bogdan and Ilkka Niinilouto eds.
>>> *Logic,* *Language and Probability*. Dordrecht: Reidel, 302-316
>>>
>>> Hans-Heinrich Lieb 1974. "Grammars as theories: The case for axiomatic
>>> grammar (Part I)". *Theoretical Linguistics* 1: 39-115.
>>>
>>> Hans-Heinrich Lieb 1976. "Grammars as theories: The case for axiomatic
>>> grammar (Part II)". *Theoretical Linguistics* 3: 1-98.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Fra:* Hartmut Haberland <hartmut at ruc.dk> <hartmut at ruc.dk>
>>> *Sendt:* 11. februar 2020 09:33
>>> *Til:* TALLMAN Adam <Adam.TALLMAN at cnrs.fr> <Adam.TALLMAN at cnrs.fr>
>>> *Emne:* Re: [Lingtyp] The (ab)use of the term "theory" in (generative)
>>> linguistics
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Hans-Heinrich Lieb has written extensively about this in the 70s, also
>>> Jün-tin Wang. Hartmut
>>>
>>>
>>> Den 11. feb. 2020 kl. 07.12 skrev TALLMAN Adam <Adam.TALLMAN at cnrs.fr>:
>>>
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> best,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Adam
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Adam James Ross Tallman (PhD, UT Austin)
>>>
>>> ELDP-SOAS -- Postdoctorant
>>> CNRS -- Dynamique Du Langage (UMR 5596)
>>> Bureau 207, 14 av. Berthelot, Lyon (07)
>>>
>>> Numero celular en bolivia: +59163116867
>>>
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>>>
>>> --
>>> Martin Haspelmath (haspelmath at shh.mpg.de)
>>> Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History
>>> Kahlaische Strasse 10	
>>> D-07745 Jena
>>> &
>>> Leipzig University
>>> Institut fuer Anglistik
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>>> D-04081 Leipzig
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