armchair linguistics
nounEtymology Etymology based on the perceived image of a linguist sitting in an armchair and pondering about language phenomena rather than carrying out field work. Compare armchair general, etc.
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Human sciences, Linguistics, Sciences Informal Any linguistic enterprise employing introspection rather than empirical methods, such as elicitation.
- Armchair linguistics does not have a good name in some linguistics circles. A caricature of the armchair linguist is something like this. He sits in a deep soft comfortable armchair, with his eyes closed and his hands clasped behind his head. Once in a while he opens his eyes, sits up abruptly shouting, "Wow, what a neat fact!", grabs his pencil, and writes something down. Then he paces around for a few hours in the excitement of having come still closer to knowing what language is really like.1991, Charles J. Fillmore, ““Corpus Linguistics” or “Computer-aided armchair linguistics””, in Werner Winter, editor, Directions in Corpus Linguistics: Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 82, Stockholm, 4-8 August 1991, Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 35:
- Derived terms
- armchair linguist