PROBLEMS OF METALINGUISTICS

Delivered by:
L. Meleshkevych, PhD, Associate
Professor
 OUTLINE

1. Methodology, epistemology, linguistic methodology.

2.Subject, object and main assignments of linguistic
methodology.

3. Major methodologies of Linguistics.

4. Notion of a scientific paradigm.

5. Main linguistic paradigms.
 RESEARCH
looking at what other people have said about a
particular issue (secondary, conceptual or library
research);
conducting one's own data-based (‘empirical’)
investigation, which involves collecting some sort
of information and then drawing some conclusions
from it (primary research)
 SCIENCE
a special kind of cognitive activity, which
aims to produce objective, systematically
organized and valid knowledge about the
world,
a social institute, which ensures the
functioning of scientific cognitive activities.
 SCIENCE
 isa specific form of human activity that has
developed historically and the result of which
is purposefully, intentionally selected facts,
hypotheses, theories, laws and research
methods. 
 MAIN FEATURE OF SCIENCE
the proof that scientific knowledge is true (verified).

KEY STAGES IN THE RESEARCH PROCESS:

a) observing a phenomenon or identifying a

problem;
b) generating an initial hypothesis
c) testing the hypothesis
 THEORY
 a teaching, a system of ideas, opinions,
statements aimed at interpretation of the
phenomenon.
A SCIENTIFIC LAW is the internal connection of
phenomena, that determines their natural
development.
 HYPOTHESIS
a scientific assumption, theorized to
explain any processes (phenomena) or
reasons that cause this or that result. 
a component of a scientific theory.
 CONCEPT
• an idea reflected in a generalised form.
• scientific knowledge necessary for setting a
problem and forming hypotheses
 METHODOLOGY
theory of research methods (descriptive
methodology, cognitive methodology, generative
methodology)
creation of conceptions,
system of knowledge about the theory of science
system of research methods
method
set of procedures and techniques for analysis of a
science
 METHODOLOGY
a branch of knowledge that deals with the general
principles or axioms of the generation of new
knowledge

McGregor, S.L.T., & Murnane, J. A. (2010).

Paradigm, methodology and method: Intellectual integrity
in consumer scholarship. International Journal of
Consumer Studies, 34(4), 419-427
 METHODS
are the techniques and procedures followed
to conduct research, and are determined by
the methodology (i.e., sampling, data
collection, data analysis and results
reporting, as well as theories, conceptual
frameworks, taxonomies and models).
 RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES ARE
DIFFERENTIATED
(a) what counts (is worthy) as knowledge and how people
come to know it (epistemology – from ancient Greek
episteme-‘knowledge’);
(b) what counts as nature, reality, feeling, existence or being
(ontology);
(c) what is acceptable as rigour and inference in the
development of arguments, judgements or insights (logic);
(d) what counts as fundamental values and what is
consciousness (moral choices, ethics, and normative
judgements) (axiology).
 Yuriy Stepanov, Iryna Arnold
 
distinguish between methodology,
method and research technique
(методика)
 SPECIAL EPISTEMOLOGY
   deals with specific research questions, such as:
1) defining the object and the subject of the
research,
2) outlining the methods for validation of results
and conclusions,
3) highlighting the relevance of the studied
problems, etc.
(R. Frumkina)
 METALINGUISTICS
overall relation of the linguistic system to the
other systems of behaviour in the associated
culture (compare the similar notion of context of
situation).

Crystal, David, A dictionary of linguistics and

phonetics, p. 302
 MAJOR METHODOLOGIES OF
LINGUISTICS
1) phenomenological (Plato, Aristotle, Leibnitz, theories of
the people’s spirit (Herder and von Humboldt), Hegel, Marxist
concept of historical materialism);
2) positivist (antique materialist philosophers and medieval
nominalist philosophers (Hume, Mill);
3) rationalist (theories of Descartes, Kant, Fichte,
Wittgenstein);
4) functionalist (Kant, Schiller, Popper, Vygotsky)
 PARADIGM
 (Greek παράδειγμα is an example, a sample)

a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns,

including theories, research methods, postulates,
and standards for what constitutes legitimate
contributions to a field
 THE STRUCTURE OF
SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS
(1962), Thomas Kuhn defines a scientific
paradigm as: "universally recognized scientific
achievements that, for a time, provide model
problems and solutions for a community of
practitioners.
what is to be observed and scrutinized
the kind of questions that are supposed to be asked
and probed for answers in relation to this subject
how these questions are to be structured
what predictions made by the primary theory within
the discipline
how the results of scientific investigations should be
interpreted
how an experiment is to be conducted, and what
equipment is available to conduct the experiment
 SCIENTIFIC PARADIGM
a framework containing all of the commonly
accepted views about a subject, a structure
of what direction research should take and
how it should be performed.
Kuhn believed that science had periods of
patiently gathering data, in a paradigm, and
then revolution occurred as the paradigm
matured.
A paradigm can absorb some errors but they
eventually become insurmountable, and result
in a paradigm shift
 PARADIGM
1) genetic (comparative historical,
evolutionary),
2) taxonomic (systemic structural), 
3) pragmatic (communicative functional)
4) cognitive (or cognitive discursive), 
 ANTHROPOCENTRIC
PARADIGM
is believed to be a superparadigm,
because conceptions it contained
became independent linguistic
paradigms
 CHANGE OF A PARADIGM AS
a pendulum swing (P. Parshin),
circular movement (D. Rudenko) ,
a consistent change (Z. Turayeva),
in a spiral (Yu. Stepanov),
coexistence with the dominance of one or
two paradigms (Kubriakova).
the accumulation of contradictions in a particular
paradigm determines the emergence of new
knowledge, formation of different scientific
approaches, and then crisis situation in which
destroyed foundations of the old paradigm lay a
foundation for the new one

[M. Alefìrenko 2005, 27].