Normativity in Linguistics, Logic, and Other Domains

Normative statements concern what ought to be rather than what is. They talk about what is right or good or proper, not about the sort of plainly factual considerations encountered in the sciences. This talk considers the issue of whether linguistics has the kind of subject matter where normative discourse is appropriate (and occasionally draws a contrast or a parallel with logic). In grammar at least, normative discourse would seem inevitable. A grammar does not describe past events or predict future events; it defines a distinction between objects that are properly formed(the appropriately structured expressions of the language) and objects that are not. It specifies the form expressions ought to have if they are properly formed with respect to the language in question, not the formthat tokens of them actually happen to have in the world as we find it. Yet linguistics claims to be an empirical discipline. I explore the tension here, and suggest that there is a resolution to be had.

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