Meanings
- informaluncountablehuman sciencesAny linguistic enterprise employing introspection rather than empirical methods, such as elicitation.
1 more example
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.
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 35Antonyms: field linguistics
Synonyms & antonyms
nounAny linguistic enterprise employing introspection rather than empirical methods, such as elicitation.
Origin
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.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Russian диванная лингвистика
- диванная лингвистика (divannaja lingvistika)linguistics not based on empirical methods
Swedish fåtöljlingvistik
- fåtöljlingvistiklinguistics not based on empirical methods
Cite this entry
armchair linguistics. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/armchair%20linguistics
“armchair linguistics.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/armchair%20linguistics. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “armchair linguistics,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/armchair%20linguistics.
Source: armchair linguistics on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.