18 Questions
What would be possible if the view described in the passage holds?
It would be feasible to use solely empirical methods to describe language.
What is the goal of setting linguistics up alongside other empirical sciences like physics, according to the passage?
To make language description a laudable goal.
What would language description become if the view described in the passage holds?
Language description would become a matter of objective fact, not subjective speculation.
According to Chomsky's criticisms, is it possible to eschew introspection totally?
No, it is not possible to eschew introspection totally.
What is the number of sentences in a natural language, according to the passage?
The number of sentences in a natural language is potentially infinite.
What test does the passage suggest the curious reader can try to demonstrate the uniqueness of sentences in a natural language?
Go to any page in the book, choose a sentence that is not a direct quotation, and try to find that exact sentence in another book in the local public library.
How does Chomsky describe the nature of corpora?
Incomplete and skewed
What are the two senses in which corpora are considered partial?
Incomplete and skewed in frequency
Why does Chomsky criticize early corpus linguistics?
For its partiality
According to Chomsky, why is the sentence 'I live in New York' more likely to be included in a corpus than 'I live in Dayton Ohio'?
Due to higher likelihood of occurrence
What practical criticism does the passage mention about the corpus methodology?
It questions if corpus methodology would be the best even if language was finite
How does the passage describe the potential outcome of describing language based solely on a natural corpus?
As a mere list
According to the passage, what is the role of the corpus linguist satirized by Fillmore?
The role satirized is that of a passive linguist merely deriving secondary facts from a large corpus of text, such as determining the relative frequencies of parts of speech in different positions of a sentence.
What does Paul Postal's quote suggest about early corpus linguists' views?
Postal's quote suggests that early corpus linguists held very primitive and silly ideas about rigorously collecting and cataloguing data, mistakenly thinking this was true science.
How does the passage characterize Fillmore's depiction of the corpus linguist?
The passage characterizes Fillmore's depiction as an admittedly extreme and comic one.
What process does the passage suggest as an alternative to relying on corpus data?
The passage suggests introspection, or examining our own linguistic competence, as an alternative to relying on corpus data.
What does the passage imply about Chomsky's views on using corpus data in linguistics?
The passage implies that Chomsky was critical of using corpus data in linguistics and advocated for other approaches like introspection.
What does the passage suggest is a limitation of relying solely on corpus data?
The passage suggests that relying solely on corpus data casts linguists in a passive and frustrating mode, limiting deep insights into linguistic competence.
Test your knowledge on the use of empirical methods to describe language and the possibility of making language description objective. Explore the arguments for and against setting linguistics up as an empirical science similar to physics.
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