Structural Models for Linguistic Automation

The formulation of explicit structural hypotheses is one of the striking developments of linguistics in the last decades. From the demand that linguistic analysis be based on form, followed the study of formal properties and relations which were observable in individual languages. Since all known languages display underlying similarities, concern with form in linguistics has led to combined formulations by which the linguist might embrace the totality not only of a language but of language in general—that is, to structural hypotheses. Two broad facets of research have accordingly developed in synchronic linguistics. One is toward a descriptive linguistics which establishes empirically testable generalizations about one or more languages. These generalizations display the structure of a language without seeking to explain it. The other is toward a theoretical linguistics which attempts to explain generalizations about structure by showing that they are logical consequences of more general hypotheses. Although theorizing about language can be traced to antiquity, interest in basic linguistic research has recently been stimulated by provision of data from a tremendous variety of languages, and in the past few years by the availability of computers as means to test structural hypotheses. Data from a wide variety of languages has led to a broadening of theory beyond that adequate to deal with the languages of Europe. Access to computers suggests the possibility of dealing for the first time with the multiple data of syntax and semantics as well as manipulating more comprehensively the data of phonology and morphology. Descriptive 1 Since this is a programmatic statement, not a survey of research, it is scarcely necessary to list a great number of publications in support of these assertions. They may perhaps be supported most effectively by reference to the preprints of papers for the Ninth International Congress of Linguists, August 27-31, 1962, Cambridge, Mass. For the use of computers in linguistics see especially P. L. Garvin, "The impact of language data processing on linguistic analysis," pp. 331-337. The extent of our expanded knowledge of different languages may be illustrated by detailed problems discussed at the Congress, or by a glance at virtually any linguistic journal.