Separating Linguistic Analyses from Linguistic Theories

Many of the papers in this volume stress the desirability of making computational use of insights from linguistics as an aid in the processing of natural language. Groups of researchers throughout the world are engaged in efforts that are often described as implementing a linguistic theory. In this paper I will start out by addressing the question of what level of linguistic practice is best for natural-language-processing (NLP) efforts1, whether results from linguistic theory (LT) should be utilized by modeling a particular linguistic theory, interpreting a linguistic formalism, or embodying a linguistic analysis. That is, I will investigate what the role of linguistic theories and their associated formalisms and analyses should be in the engineering discipline of developing NLP applications. In particular, I will contend that, because the goals and strategies of LT and NLP research differ, linguistic theories and formalisms may be inappropriate for importation into NLP applications.