armchair linguistics

Etymology based on the perceived image of a linguist sitting in an armchair and pondering about language phenomena rather than carrying out field work. Compare armchair general, etc.

armchair linguistics (uncountable)

1. (linguistics, informal) Any linguistic enterprise employing introspection rather than empirical methods, such as elicitation.

   Antonym: field linguistics

   • 1991, Charles J. Fillmore, ““Corpus Linguistics” or “Computer-aided armchair linguistics””, in Werner Winter, editor, Directions in Corpus Linguistics: Proceedings of Nobel Symposium 82, Stockholm, 4-8 August 1991, Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 35:

     Armchair linguistics does not have a good name in some linguistics circles. A caricature of the armchair linguist is something like this. He sits in a deep soft comfortable armchair, with his eyes closed and his hands clasped behind his head. Once in a while he opens his eyes, sits up abruptly shouting, "Wow, what a neat fact!", grabs his pencil, and writes something down. Then he paces around for a few hours in the excitement of having come still closer to knowing what language is really like.

• armchair linguist