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“Internal” and “External” Evidence in Linguistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2022

Arnold M. Zwicky
Arnold M. Zwicky*
Affiliation:
The Ohio State University
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Extract

It has become customary for linguists (especially generative linguists) to draw a distinction (initially rather unnatural for philosophers of science) between “internal” and “external” evidence. Usually classified as internal are data on the cooccurrence and alternation of linguistic elements in some language, as well as such systemic considerations as formal simplicity, economy, and the like. External evidence is everything else: the use of phonemes in rhyme schemes, patterns of acquisition, comparison to other languages, speech errors, dialect differences, historical change, and so on. The distinction is usually made invidiously--only internal evidence is probative--or defensively--external evidence, or at least some types of external evidence, are relevant and useful.

The distinction arises at two quite different points in the investigation of language. It arises first in the division of labor between linguistics and other fields.

Type
Part XI. The Problem of Data in Linguistics
Information
PSA: Proceedings of the Biennial Meeting of the Philosophy of Science Association , Volume 1980 , Issue 2: Volume Two: Symposia and Invited Papers 1980 , 1980 , pp. 598 - 604
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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References

Botha, Rudolf (1979). “Methodological Bases of a Progressive Mentalism.” Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics 2: 1-38.Google Scholar
Churma, Donald G. (1979). Arguments from External Evidence in Phonology. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Ohio State University. Xerox University Microfilms. Publication #80-09263.Google Scholar
Zwicky, Arnold M., (1975). “Settling on an Underlying Form: The English Inflectional Endings.” In Testing Linguistic Hypotheses. Edited by Cohen, D. and Wirth, J.. Washington, D.C.: Hemisphere Publishing Co. Pages 129-185.Google Scholar