Practice question · Put in order

Arrange these steps of a descriptive investigation in the order they are performed.

State a rule that would generate those patterns
Collect utterances from speakers of the variety
Identify the recurring patterns in the data
Test the rule against forms it predicts should be impossible
Revise the rule where the prediction fails

Hints

You cannot state a rule before you have seen the data.
The strongest test of a rule is a form it forbids, not one it allows.

Show the answer

Collect utterances from speakers of the variety
Identify the recurring patterns in the data
State a rule that would generate those patterns
Test the rule against forms it predicts should be impossible
Revise the rule where the prediction fails

Why

The fourth step is the one that makes it science. A rule that accounts for everything already collected is cheap; a rule that says this form should be impossible, checked against speakers who reject it, has been risked and survived.

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Arrange these steps of a descriptive investigation in the order they are performed.

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