Talk:Theoretical linguistics
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[edit] Merge with linguistics?
Could this page be merged with Linguistics? Most people who are not doing anything theoretical do not call what they're doing linguistics. For example, many sociolinguists would dispute that what they are doing is not theoretical. If this page continues to exist it will either have to become more narrowly specialized than its name implies, or else it will repeat a lot of what is said on the Linguistics page. --Svenonius 11:53, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
- I don't think it's true that most non-theoretical linguists would argue that what they do isn't linguistics. Nevertheless, there's so little here I think it would make more sense as a section of Linguistics if it doesn't get expanded soon. User:Angr 12:07, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
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- What I meant was, theoretical linguistics seems a little redundant; the term 'linguistics' already implies the study of language, hence almost unavoidably with some sort of theory. Without theory, you can talk about language, but are unlikely to actually call what you're doing linguistics. For the same reasons, there is hardly any talk of "theoretical biology", for example. Even in psychology, where you might want to distinguish clinical practice from theoretical research, the expression "theoretical psychology" is not used a lot, it seems to me. --Svenonius 13:54, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
- Perhaps not in those other fields, but in linguistics it is quite common to distinguish between theoretical linguistics and applied linguistics. The University of Potsdam, for example, divides its Linguistics Department up into three divisions: Theoretical Linguistics, Computer Linguistics, and Patholinguistics. User:Angr 14:56, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
- What I meant was, theoretical linguistics seems a little redundant; the term 'linguistics' already implies the study of language, hence almost unavoidably with some sort of theory. Without theory, you can talk about language, but are unlikely to actually call what you're doing linguistics. For the same reasons, there is hardly any talk of "theoretical biology", for example. Even in psychology, where you might want to distinguish clinical practice from theoretical research, the expression "theoretical psychology" is not used a lot, it seems to me. --Svenonius 13:54, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
