Language as a Theoretical Posit

Traditional philosophy of science relies on a distinction between observables and theoretical posits, and these play distinct and complementary roles in scientific theory construction. Roughly, observable objects (e.g. planets, animals) and their observable properties (e.g. motions, behaviours) constitute the empirical basis from which we infer the existence and properties of theoretical posits (forces, cells, etc.). One of the central, and I believe under-appreciated, aspects of Noam Chomsky’s “revolution” in linguistics involves insisting that ‘Language’ is taken to refer to something in the latter, not the former, category. This has a number of significant upshots, and failure to appreciate it has led to much confusion and discord within linguistics. In this talk I shall explain what it means to view language in this way, and diagnose some recent disagreements in light of this.