quote #2

[...] the complexities of the universe, linguistic or otherwise, are so vast that one cannot but help but be awed and humbled by them, and that arrogance in a linguist betrays at least a lack of perspective on the problems which confront him. (Wallace Chafe, in Meaning and the structure of language. Chicago, 1970. p. 2)

quote #1

(Harald Baayen, talking today @ UofT about the preponderance of linear models in linguistics and a neat, categorical, modular world view) "A simple world with a simple statistical technique" (continuing why he believes the mental operations and representations is more complex, dynamic and non-modular:) "Under such a world view, you don't expect things to be linear all the time"