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Main Author: Hao, Sophie
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.20088
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author Hao, Sophie
author_facet Hao, Sophie
contents Chesi's (forthcoming) target paper depicts a generative linguistics in crisis, foreboded by Piantadosi's (2023) declaration that "modern language models refute Chomsky's approach to language." In order to survive, Chesi warns, generativists must hold themselves to higher standards of formal and empirical rigor. This response argues that the crisis described by Chesi and Piantadosi actually has little to do with rigor, but is rather a reflection of generativists' limited social ambitions. Chesi ties the fate of generative linguistics to its intellectual merits, but the current success of language model research is social in nature as much as it is intellectual. In order to thrive, then, generativists must do more than heed Chesi's call for rigor; they must also expand their ambitions by giving outsiders a stake in their future success.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_20088
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Generative Linguistics, Large Language Models, and the Social Nature of Scientific Success
Hao, Sophie
Computation and Language
Chesi's (forthcoming) target paper depicts a generative linguistics in crisis, foreboded by Piantadosi's (2023) declaration that "modern language models refute Chomsky's approach to language." In order to survive, Chesi warns, generativists must hold themselves to higher standards of formal and empirical rigor. This response argues that the crisis described by Chesi and Piantadosi actually has little to do with rigor, but is rather a reflection of generativists' limited social ambitions. Chesi ties the fate of generative linguistics to its intellectual merits, but the current success of language model research is social in nature as much as it is intellectual. In order to thrive, then, generativists must do more than heed Chesi's call for rigor; they must also expand their ambitions by giving outsiders a stake in their future success.
title Generative Linguistics, Large Language Models, and the Social Nature of Scientific Success
topic Computation and Language
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.20088