Some principles of linguistic methodology

Current difficulties in achieving intersubjective agreement in linguistics require attention to principles of methodology which consider sources of error and ways to eliminate them. The methodological assumptions and practices of various branches of linguistics are considered from the standpoint of the types of data gathered: texts, elicitations, intuitions and observations. Observations of the vernacular provide the most systematic basis for linguistic theory, but have been the most difficult kinds of data for linguists to obtain; techniques for solving the problems encountered are outlined. Intersubjective agreement is best reached by convergence of several kinds of data with complementary sources of error. Less than twenty years divide us from the time when the study of methods was the reigning passion of American linguistics; yet the status of methodology has fallen so fast and so far that it now lies in that outer, extra-linguistic darkness where we have cast speculation on the origin of language and articles about slang. It cannot be denied that the pursuit of methods was carried on with a certain willful blindness to both theory and practice; there was a time when methods cast in the canonical form of tough-mindedness and symmetry were elevated to the status of ritual texts, though they were seen even then to be hopelessly impractical. But even if methodology is no longer an O.K. word in linguistics, we have no choice but to use it again. It is an open secret that the rough and ready exploitation of grammatical intuitions has run its course from exhilaration to despair. A more reflective approach to the problem of intersubjective knowledge is needed if our arguments are to mirror anything but our own polemical intent. In our exploration of the use of language in the secular world, we find that methods have steadily grown in theoretical importance: first as a necessity, then as an art, and now as a route towards the development of a theory of speaking. A course in secular linguistics must focus first on the act of speaking and methods for observing it. But it should also include training in the several methods of historical and synchronic linguistics, making use of the texts, elicitations, and intuitions which are the mainstay of the scholarly world. This paper will present some of the principles that govern the gathering of empirical data, in both the secular and scholastic places of linguistics. The principles will be stated with a