caa a22 4500 378934562 CHVBK 20180305123637.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161128e20040525xx s 000 0 eng 10.1515/thli.29.3.295 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)gruyter-10.1515/thli.29.3.295 Durst Uwe 1 University of Erlangen. About NSM: A general reply [Elektronische Daten] [Uwe Durst] 1. Is NSM ‘scientific'? The absence of technical terms and formal devices in NSM explications seems to invite some critics to dispute the scientific nature of the theory. In one example, Riemer2 states that "[the] commitment to naturalness seems contradictory because in other areas of investigation, the development of a ‘scientific' (i.e. empirical and testable) theory necessitates the very type of technical, artificial vocabulary which NSM explicitly repudiates”. To support this criticism, Riemer refers to evolutionary theory and generative phonology. But evolutionary theory is about the development of natural species, and generative phonology investigates (the rules of) phonological representations on the basis of phonological features. Both disciplines can rely on physical data, and hypotheses can be tested on this physical basis. Even abstract phonological features such as [±vocalic] or [±grave] can be described in physical terms. © Walter de Gruyter Theoretical Linguistics Walter de Gruyter 29/3(2004-05-25), 295-303 0301-4428 29:3<295 2004 29 thli https://doi.org/10.1515/thli.29.3.295 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1515/thli.29.3.295 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Durst Uwe 1 University of Erlangen NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Theoretical Linguistics Walter de Gruyter 29/3(2004-05-25), 295-303 0301-4428 29:3<295 2004 29 thli CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-gruyter