Statement of Purpose
"The main obstacle that we have today to clearly understanding the nature and origin of language is the overly formalistic, anti-empirical, anti-historical influence of Chomsky's paradigm for doing linguistics.
It has become very clear in recent years that Chomsky's generative calculus model of linguistics has no relevance at all to anything about actual language. It has also become clear that the main generative notion of the innateness of language is based on flimsy, non-existent evidence.
Despite this, and despite the fact that many people in many different fields are now actually studying language in realistic, empirical ways, and despite the fact that many people intuitively understand the emptiness of generative claims and practices, it still remains true, that to the world at large, Chomsky's theories are somehow considered an important "scientific breakthrough."
So, the time has come that those of us who want to start a new paradigm for language studies, who want to begin an empirical way of studying real language, should simply explain why the entire Chomskyan method must be thrown away."
-- Bruce Richman