I think theories in the soft sciences just gain popularity in proportion to how easily they generate thesis topics.
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The ‘generative’ in generative grammar refers to its open-ended ability to generate make-work for grad students.
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Replying to @mr_scientism
that's definitely true, but isn't the real question - how much of those grad students go on to do good work?
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Replying to @QuasLacrimas @mr_scientism
my rule of thumb is that what makes linguistics interesting is turning up rules that native speakers not only apply unconsciously but don't believe they're following, and Chomsky's students were great at that
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Replying to @QuasLacrimas
I only know the theory and not application to particular languages but the central concerns always struck me as quite artificial.
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which ones do you mean? at root, the basic idea is if you want to find out what rules languages follow, you have to start by assuming they follow rules... which is kinda complicated
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