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Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > General
The book demonstrates that it is possible to study the language
faculty with the core scientific method, i.e., by deducing definite
predictions from hypotheses and obtaining and replicating
experimental results precisely in accordance with the predictions.
In light of the "reproducibility crisis" as extensively addressed
in recent years in a number of fields, the demonstration that
rigorous replication can be obtained in the study of the language
faculty in terms of correlational and categorical predictions is
particularly significant. While the claim has been made over the
years that Chomsky's research program is meant to be a scientific
study of the language faculty, a conceptual and methodological
articulation has never been made as to how we can accumulate our
knowledge about the language faculty by the basic scientific
method, including, most crucially, how exactly we can put our
hypotheses to rigorous empirical and experimental test. The book
proposes how to do that by providing a conceptual basis for the
methodology for language faculty science. The book also offers
empirical demonstrations of the viability of the proposed
methodology. The experiments were conducted with Japanese and
English speakers. Overall, the book explores new directions for the
study of the mind.
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