Linguistics has changed over the decades. It was at one time more like the “field sciences,” those branches of inquiry such as geology, anthropology, and biology, wherein learning entails leaving the laboratory for the rough world of fieldwork. Of course, many linguists continue to do field research on languages around the world. But the explosive growth of linguistics after the advent of Chomsky in the 1950s has altered the ethos of the discipline in profound ways. Chomsky’s attraction for many linguists, including me, is the elegance of his theory, not field research.
