<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The article responds to the current variability of research into linguistic laws and the explanation of these laws. We show basic features to approach linguistic laws in the field of quantitative linguistics and research on linguistic laws outside the field of language and text. Language laws are usually explained in terms of the language system—especially as economizing—or of the information structure of the text (Piantadosi 2014). One of the hallmarks of the transmission of linguistic laws outside the realm of language and text is that they provide other kinds of explanations (Torre et al. 2019). We want to show that the problem of linguistics in the explanation of linguistic laws lies primarily in its inability to clarify the internal structure of language material, and the influence of the theory or method used for sample processing on the result of law analysis—which was formulated by Peter Grzybek (2006). We would like to show that this is the reason why linguistics avoids explanations of linguistic laws.</p>
</abstract>

The article responds to the current variability of research into linguistic laws and the explanation of these laws. We show basic features to approach linguistic laws in the field of quantitative linguistics and research on linguistic laws outside the field of language and text. Language laws are usually explained in terms of the language system—especially as economizing—or of the information structure of the text (Piantadosi 2014). One of the hallmarks of the transmission of linguistic laws outside the realm of language and text is that they provide other kinds of explanations (Torre et al. 2019). We want to show that the problem of linguistics in the explanation of linguistic laws lies primarily in its inability to clarify the internal structure of language material, and the influence of the theory or method used for sample processing on the result of law analysis—which was formulated by Peter Grzybek (2006). We would like to show that this is the reason why linguistics avoids explanations of linguistic laws.

Explain the law: When the evidence is not enough

Linguistic Frontiers

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"Explain the law: When the evidence is not enough"}

The article responds to the current variability of research into linguistic laws and the explanation of these laws. We show basic features to approach...

Explain the law: When the evidence is not enough

Publié en ligne: 14 oct. 2021

Pages: 54 - 61

Reçu: 01 juil. 2020

Accepté: 01 sept. 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/lf-2021-0016

Mots clés
linguistic law, Menzerath-Altmann law, language levels, phonetic transcription, data processing

© 2021 Martina Benešová et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Explain the law: When the evidence is not enough

Publié en ligne: 14 oct. 2021

Pages: 54 - 61

Reçu: 01 juil. 2020

Accepté: 01 sept. 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/lf-2021-0016

Mots cléslinguistic law, Menzerath-Altmann law, language levels, phonetic transcription, data processing

© 2021 Martina Benešová et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mots clés
linguistic law, Menzerath-Altmann law, language levels, phonetic transcription, data processing