{"id":845,"date":"2010-09-05T10:00:08","date_gmt":"2010-09-05T08:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elanguage.net\/blogs\/booknotices\/?p=845"},"modified":"2010-07-07T09:10:56","modified_gmt":"2010-07-07T07:10:56","slug":"hard-science-linguistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/?p=845","title":{"rendered":"Hard-science linguistics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em;\"><strong>Hard-science linguistics.<\/strong> Ed. by <strong>Victor H. Yngve <\/strong>and <strong>Zdzis\u0142aw W\u0105sik<\/strong>. New York: Continuum, 2004. Pp. 382. ISBN <a href=\"http:\/\/www.worldcat.org\/title\/hard-science-linguistics\/oclc\/70128127&amp;referer=brief_results\">9780826492395<\/a>. $70.<\/div>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Reviewed by <a href=\"http:\/\/linguistlist.org\/people\/personal\/get-personal-page2.cfm?PersonID=103499\"><strong>Margaret J. Blake<\/strong><\/a>, <em>Aarhus University, Denmark<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The contributions to this volume investigate linguistics empirically and scientifically, using data-driven rather than theory-driven methods.<\/p>\n<p>This book consists of seven parts. Parts 1 and 7 (\u2018Orientation to hard-science linguistics\u2019 and \u2018Disciplinary considerations\u2019, respectively) are the philosophical and methodological core of the work. All of the chapters in Parts 1 and 7 are written by the editors. Parts 2\u20136 (\u2018Reconstituting phonetics-phonology\u2019, \u2018In search of context\u2019, \u2018Variational and historical linguistics\u2019, \u2018Social and psychological issues\u2019, and \u2018Practical applications\u2019, respectively) contain efforts to put scientific methodology into practice in areas of classical linguistics as well as in areas in which linguistics intersects literary studies. Unfortunately, Parts 2\u20136 contain contributions from researchers who have been won over to the hard-science paradigm, rather than those who are already doing empirical, experimentally-focused work in areas such as psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, or even sociolinguistics.<\/p>\n<p>The contrast between Parts 1 and 7 and Parts 2\u20136 is striking. I almost wish that the editors had turned this volume into two books: one slim textbook, consisting of Parts 1 and 7, suitable for inexpensive purchase by undergraduates and new philosophical converts, and an expanded volume, including Parts 2\u20136 as well as contributions from psycholinguists, neurolinguists, and sociolinguists, which would have lent credence to this otherwise admirable attempt at promoting a paradigm shift in linguistics.<\/p>\n<p>This volume, while slightly lacking, is an important philosophical contribution to the field. Scholars who wish to see the scientific approach to language would do well to read this volume.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hard-science linguistics. Ed. by Victor H. Yngve and Zdzis\u0142aw W\u0105sik. New York: Continuum, 2004. Pp. 382. ISBN 9780826492395. $70. Reviewed by Margaret J. Blake, Aarhus University, Denmark The contributions to this volume investigate linguistics empirically and scientifically, using data-driven rather than theory-driven methods. This book consists of seven parts. Parts 1 and 7 (\u2018Orientation to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=845"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":846,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845\/revisions\/846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.linguisticsociety.org\/booknotices\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}