Modelling Language using Large Language Models

ArXi:2404.09579v2 Announce Type: replace-cross This paper argues that large language models have a valuable scientific role to play in serving as scientific models of public languages. Linguistic study should not only be concerned with the cognitive processes behind linguistic competence, but also with language understood as an external, social entity. Once this is recognized, the value of large language models as scientific models becomes clear. This paper defends the position against a number of arguments to the effect that language models provide no linguistic insight.