Theoretical approaches to universals, variation, and the phonetics/phonology distinction: an introduction

Different approaches to universals and variation are discussed in the context of a distinction, proposed by Burton-Roberts (2000), between a generic conception of the notion ‘language’, in which the study of language is the study of human languages (such as English and French), and a naturalistic conception, in which ‘language’ is used to denote a biological entity, a specifically linguistic innate module of mind, distinct from socio-political entities such as French and English. This is related to the notion of structural analogy, and to the status and role of corpora and intuitive well-formedness judgments in phonology. It is also related to the notion of the grounding of syntax and phonology.