XXth-century theories of language: an epistemological diagnosis

This article id intended as a study in the methodology and epistemology of linguistics, a field which developed out of theoretical linguistics in the past thirty years.Methodology and epistemology (or philosophy) 1 of linguistics can be subsumed underthegeneral domain of "philosophical linguistics" (cfr. Kasher - Lappin 1977), whichalsoincludes a theory of meaning and reference, a theory of linguistic (or, moregenerallysemiotic) communication, and - in some cases - a formalization of linguisticsubsystems. The specific contribution of methodology and epistemology of linguistics liesinthe definition of the object of linguistics, in the determination and justification of itsre search techniques, in the appreciation of its results with respect to a broader field ofin vestigation, in the reflection on the nature, status, and variability of approaches tolan guage.