On 11th February, it is celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. When talking about science, society tends to think about disciplines such as Chemistry, Engineer, Medicine, Biology or Maths but nobody thinks about Humanities, a field in which we also do science. In fact, if you googled "International Day of Women and Girls in Science" or "11F", you will find images of women wearing lab coats, using microscopes or carrying test tubes. However, there are disciplines other than those ones which also do science and which contribute to the scientific field. I am talking about Humanities, always overlooked when referring to science. So, taking advantage of the celebration of this day, I have decided to start this blog today and to begin this project explaining why I also do science, despite being a humanitarian, and why I am also a scientist.
Five reasons why Linguistics is a science:
- First of all, according to Sokal, science is "a worldwide giving primacy to reason and observation and a methodology aimed at acquiring accurate knowledge of the natural and social world" (2013, p. 3) (for those of you who do not know Sokal, he is a physicist, not a linguist, so his claims are not biased). The main aim of linguists is the same as any other scientists, that of to increase our knowledge and understanding of the world. In Linguistics, we study the human language, is there anything more natural than that?
- Secondly, in Linguistics, we use the Scientific Method, that is, we observe a phenomenon, we gather information and pose questions. Afterwards, we formulate a hypothesis which explains that phenomenon and we test them, then we analyse the results and we reached some conclusions that will confirm or reject our initial hypothesis. Of course, if the results are satisfactory, we will develop a theory, if not, we will elaborate new hypothesis. Yes, just as chemists do. This method can be adapted to different fields, what remains is the "underlying philosophy [...] to constrain our theories as strongly as possible by empirical evidence, and to modify or reject those theories that fail to conform the evidence" (Sokal, 2013, p. 13).
- Thirdly, using the scientific method, we based our studies on real evidence. Fortunately, there is plenty of evidence around us. We compile tons of information as people are constantly producing language in very different ways, speaking, writing, on the Internet, on books, on television, etc. Is there anything more real than our language, the one we use in (almost) every moment of our daily lives?
- Fourthly, we do not use microscopes, lab coats or test tubes but we also make experiments. You will be surprised to know that computers are one of our main tools but we use even more, such as eye-trackers, EGG machines (for measuring brain waves) and, of course, we have labs!
- Finally, as Linguistics studies a unique and central feature of being a human, it overlaps with other scientific disciplines, all of them converging on the study of language such as Psychology, Computer Science or Biology, resulting in sub-disciplines such as Psycholinguistics, Computational Linguistics, Biolinguistics, Clinical Linguistics or Forensic Linguistics, among others. All these branches contribute significantly to society, helping people to solve problems in their daily lives.
References
- Almazán-Ruiz, E. & Orrequia-Barea, A. The British press's coverage of coronavirus threat: a comparative analysis based on Corpus Linguistics, Çankaya University Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 14(1), 1-22.
- Sokal, D. A. (2013). What is science and why should we care?, Logos Journal, 12(2)
- Wolfs, F. L. H., Appendix E: Introduction to the Scientific Method. http://teacher.pas.rochester.edu/phy_labs/AppendixE/AppendixE.html