Re: theory (was: Re: Greenberg's Word Order Universals)

On Fri, 15 Sep 2000, John Cowan wrote:

> On Fri, 15 Sep 2000, J Matthew Pearson wrote:
>
> > > Good ol' theorists. Always proving their theories by using the theories
> > > in question.
> >
> > What's with all this bashing of theorists?  As a theorist myself, should I take
> > offense at this?
> >
> > Linguistics is the only field I know where theoretical work--and even the idea that
> > there should *be* theories--is routinely dismissed.  Nobody would seriously suggest
> > that physicists or chemists or psychologists or economists should confine themselves
> > to the collection of data and avoid positing theories to explain that data.
Actually, from what I hear, theoretical work in *biology* is much less
well-regarded than experimental work, the reverse for most? natural sciences.

YHL