The case for pure linguistics

The specificity of linguistic structures must be explicitly acknowledged and the investigation of such structures should not be lost in the mass of cognitive sciences. It is claimed that “pure linguistics” meets that requirement. It is founded on the Saussurean definition of a language and on its interpretation by the epistemologist Granger. He showed that language defined in this way is a concept similar to those upon which natural sciences were founded, with similar consequences. That concept entails strict limitation of the field of research, but because of this very limitation, linguistics is made more able to reach precise and secure results and thus to overcome the common shortcomings of the humanities. The legitimacy of pure linguistics does not in the least invalidate that of other language sciences and the quest for cognitive explanations. Moreover, the perspective of pure linguistics appears to be converging with a trend which has been emerging in linguistics towards more strict procedures.