Experimental Linguistics

Linguistics has suffered from the lack of interaction between theoretical and experimental activities. In order to carry out experimental studies in language it is, of course, necessary to have a descriptive system for the stimuli, and formal linguistics has provided a plethora of alternative possibilities. In addition, the theory can perhaps suggest some hints as to the direction experimental studies might take, at least to the extent that it suggest various kinds of relation among syntactic or phonological structures. But the theory alone cannot determine the nature of such relations in the cognitive or processing system of the language user. The first section of this volume addresses several of the key theoretical controversies in linguistics and attempts to specify the kinds of experimental evidence which might contribute to their ultimate resolution. The papers in the second section concern the collection of that evidence and its interpretation.