linguistics as a science

Is linguistics a science? Why? When we talk about syntax, which is a branch of linguistics, we are referring to the way that words are placed together in order to form new sentences. Linguistics is a science. Its ending in -ics means that linguistics is the scientific study or use of a language. Scientific methodology can be provided to study the language. Research can work inductively or deductively to study the use of a language. There is a difference between them. While induction starts from the observation of empirical data to find a hypothesis, deduction revises and reformulates a theory which has already been suggested to get new hypotheses. Focusing on the next exercise, we are going to see how language is studied in a scientific way: Using induction, we observe the empirical data in order to formulate a hypothesis which provides an explanation of this data. Examples (1), (2) and (3) have in common that they follow the same pattern, which is SVO (subject, verb and object). Therefore, declarative sentences in English follow the same order. This new hypothesis seems to be right in these sentences. The subjects (James, The baby and He) are followed by the main verbs and then the rest of the sentence. Proving it with different examples we are searching regularities for stablishing systematic patterns which are repeated and which support the hypothesis, afterwards, we find the first general norm. Thanks to these examples we saw the law that confirms that declarative sentences in English follow SVO pattern. Nevertheless, having expressed a set of norms which take part in the theory, the investigation must go further using deduction. It is necessary to examine a specific element of the preceding theory. The objective will be to analyze how the hypotheses that have been formulated interact with each other; the investigation will search contrary predictions. Using this method of revision will conduct us to new theories which must be verified on the basis of the empirical date. The following examples, (4) and (5), show a different pattern which is O-V-S. This leads us to conclude that not all declarative sentences follow SVO pattern. Our theories should be clear and exact. Theory is never concluded; it can be revised and formulated again.