The hermetic nature of linguistic research: A note to Jackendoff

Philip Lieberman

doi:10.1515/TLR.2007.018

Abstract

The hermetic, exclusionary stance of formal linguistic research towards relevant data condemns the linguistic enterprise to irrelevance. The procedures and principles of evolutionary biology are excluded from discussions of the evolution of language. Stories are instead crafted to fit speculation. Although human speech is a central element of our linguistic capacity, the findings of studies of speech are thought to be outside the domain of linguistic research. Well attested facts such as the formant frequency relationships that characterize vowels are ignored. Phonological studies continue to use binary coded tongue positions that neither describe the relationships that hold between vowels, or predict the direction of sound changes. Linguists generally continue to hold to the premise that a domain specific “faculty” of the brain exists, contrary to the findings of neurophysiologic studies that demonstrate linkages between the neural bases of motor control, cognition and language. A “Universal Grammar” continues to be a core property of linguistic theory, despite evidence to the contrary from genetic, behavioral and these neurophysiologic studies.

The hermetic nature of linguistic research: A note to Jackendoff

Abstract

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