Abstract:

This paper points out that generative linguistics, also called formal linguistics, is an empirical science that shares quite a number of similarities with theoretical physics with regard to the ways of investigating natural phenomena, given that language is also a natural phenomenon. Researchers in both formal linguistics and theoretical physics use deductive methods to investigate the natural phenomenon about which they are curious. As an empirical science, the most important characteristic of formal linguistics is that the hypotheses it proposes must be falsifiable. At present, generative linguistics has developed to the stage of the Minimalist Program, which has a particular focus on the study of the Basic Property of human language (Chomsky 2016 ). The Minimalist Program aims to construct a simple computational system of syntax that can be used to derive the complexities of human language. The goal of formal linguistics, as in natural science, is to account for the numerous, complicated phenomena pertaining to human language in a unified way, and in terms of a few simple principles.

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