Remise à niveau linguistique Formation : Prof. Dr.

Ingo Feldhausen
Master TAL présentiel Université de Lorraine (UFR SHS)
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Questions d’orientation (séances 2-3) :

Den Dikken, Marcel, Judy B. Bernstein, Christina Tortora & Raffaella Zanuttini. 2007. Data and
grammar: Means and individuals. Theoretical Linguistics 33(3): 335–352.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/TL.2007.022

1) What kind of data is typically used by generative linguists according to Den Dikken et al.
(2007)? What is “I-language”? What is “E-language”?

2) Name two or three points of the “broad criticism” against the kind of data used in generative
linguistics. Explain the points and explain the corresponding counterarguments by Den Dikken et
al. (section 2)

3) According to Den Dikken et al. (2007) “the heart of Featherston’s paper [is] the explicit
proposal that we should not treat as data the judgments of individuals, but rather the mean value
of the judgments of a group of individuals” (p. 340). Explain why Den Dikken et al. (2007) think
that studying a group is useful, but that it is wrong to say that “studying a group is the only way
to do solid work”. Give two or three examples. (section 3)

4) List two or three of the recommendations Den Dikken et al. (2007) suggest for working with
individuals and explain why they recommend them.