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89 THE DATA OF LINGUISTICS
Possible disadvantages of this type of data include:
• Speakerswhoareaskedtomakejudgementsaboutasetof verysimilarconstructions
can easily become confused about what is and is not possible.
• Different varieties of the same language sometimes differ on how they
treat constructions that are taken as crucial for some theoretical point.
Unverified data from introspection can lead to ultimately fruitless
arguments about whether the theoretical point is justified on the basis
of one variety, when it may not be justified on the basis of another.
• Introspection is often not reliable (see also elicitation, below).
Random (or systematic) observation
Random observations can lead to good scientific outcomes: we only have to
remember Newton’s apple to see that. Many a piece of good linguistic description
has likewise started from an observation of a particular utterance and a
question as to what the systematic pattern underlying the utterance might be.
Following a random observation, there may be a period of more systematic
observation: listening for similar utterances from newsreaders, passengers on
the bus, colleagues in meetings, interlocutors, and so on. One colleague I know
went from a random observation about the lines from the song ‘Diamonds are
a girl’s best friend’
And that’s when those louses
Go back to their spouses
to enquire into the figurative use of irregular plural forms in English. This kind
of serendipity is a crucial source of questions about linguistic structure, and
linguists in general seem to be very aware of the benefits of such observations.
Possible benefits of this type of data include:
• It provides an extremely valuable source of insights into linguistic
structures.
• It draws attention to rare or innovative structures.
Possible disadvantages of this type of data include:
• An observation of the existence of a particular structure says nothing
about how frequently it occurs or who uses it.
• The initial observation may be misleading – for instance, if the speaker
made a speech error.
• Such a means of data collection is insufficient by itself.