Abstract(s) at the core: a case study of disciplinary identity in the field of linguistics

The rise of computational methods and rich textual data has spawned a series of studies that map the contours of academic knowledge produced in various fields. However, while many fields span academic cultures, studies have neglected disciplinary dynamics that may be especially useful for understanding knowledge production in fields with subject matter that is the central focus of a core discipline. We study the knowledge reflected in doctoral dissertations of multiple disciplines that constitute the broader field of linguistics from 1980 to 2010 to produce a novel intellectual topography that reveals linguistics’ disciplinary core, which we analyze with respect to theory on disciplinary differences and identity. Using natural language processing, we identify and note trends of how language is used with respect to different disciplines in the field. The topography shows how linguistics’ core—language that is distinctively used by the discipline of linguistics— gravitates toward theoretically abstract topics constituted largely by the language of syntax and other topics that reflect hard, pure knowledge. We find that higher-status STEM disciplines in the field are more likely to engage with the core over time than lower-status social science, behavioral science, and humanities disciplines that show no significant engagement.