procedure (n.)

A term used in LINGUISTICS referring to a particular way of arriving at a linguistic analysis or decision. Different views about the goals of a linguistic theory can be clarified by phrasing the question in terms of procedures, of which three types have attracted particular interest, since their first formulation by Noam Chomsky.

discovery procedure: a technique which can be automatically or ‘mechanically’ applied to a sample of LANGUAGE and which would produce a CORRECT analysis. Attempts to develop such a procedure characterized the work of many BLOOMFIELDIAN linguists, and were strongly criticized in early formulations of GENERATIVE GRAMMAR. It is argued that it is never possible to identify with certainty all the factors which lead a linguist in the direction of a particular analysis. Nor is it desirable to seek such a procedure, as the analysis itself can be evaluated regardless of the means by which it was obtained.

decision procedure: a technique which could be automatically applied to a series of grammars of a language, to decide which was the best grammar. It is suggested that such a goal is impossible, in the present state of linguistic knowledge, and that linguists must content themselves with relative and not absolute decisions, as in (c) below.

evaluation procedure: a technique which provides criteria for choosing the better of two analyses of a set of DATA, as when it is argued that one analysis is simpler, more plausible or more elegant than another. In generative linguistics, a few (controversial) procedures have been suggested which attempt to FORMALIZE the properties of alternative DESCRIPTIONS so that precise evaluations can be made.