PROLEGOMENON TO THE RELATION BETWEEN SOCIAL-THEORY AND METHOD

Building on the work of Noam Chomsky (1963), this paper presents a hie rarchy of grammars and associated computational automata in order to i nform social theory construction and method. A detailed exposition of linguistic forms within the grammar hierarchy reveals clear analogues with common social scientific paradigms. Two of these paradigms (which are termed structural and process approaches) are already being widel y exploited by formal methodological techniques. A third paradigm, whi ch is rooted in a tradition of interpretive sociology, has been more r esistant to formalization. Using arguments from theoretical computer s cience, the paper suggests that existing quantitative methodologies ca n be extended to accommodate qualitative arguments which subsume empir ical domains as diverse as natural language and structurational phenom ena.