The Value Of A Theory

Fawcett (2010: 290-1):

In the last analysis, it is the value of a theory in making principled descriptions of languages and texts that provides one of the two most telling types of evidence for or against it — together with the test of a principled, large-scale computer implementation. But it is not enough to provide a theory of syntax; one must also provide a complementary theory and description of the meanings of many types that the syntax expresses (together with the items and the intonation or punctuation). This is a topic to which we shall return in the final section of this chapter.

 

Blogger Comments:

[1] To be clear, computer implementation does not test the value of a theory, because this requires the adaptation of the theory to the limitations of computers. However, computers can be used to test the explicitness and self-consistency of theories, for example.

[2] To be clear, this is precisely what Fawcett has not provided in this publication. That is, Fawcett has not provided his systems of meaning, intonation or punctuation (an aspect of graphology).