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How do theoretical linguists develop general explanations for language structure?

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Ferdinand de Saussure seated in a formal pose, wearing a dark suit with a vest and sporting a thick mustache, circa 1900. — Linguistics Much of the foundation of 20th-century sociolinguistics was created by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913).

Theoretical linguists aim to construct a general theory or framework for the structure of language. To develop these explanations, they employ several formal and analytical approaches:1

Formal Modeling: Linguists construct mathematical models to represent the phonological and grammatical structures of languages. These models are evaluated based on their capacity to generate all sentences of a natural language while prohibiting unnecessary rules.2
Generative Frameworks: Modern theoretical linguistics often utilizes generative grammar, which focuses on the speaker's internal linguistic competence rather than actual performance. This approach seeks to identify formal and substantive universals shared across languages.3
Evaluation Criteria: Rather than relying on discovery procedures, linguists formulate precise criteria to evaluate and compare alternative descriptions of a language. These descriptions are typically formalized using modern mathematical notions.3
Structural Analysis: Approaches such as stratificational grammar analyze language through interstratal relationships, using logical notions like conjunction and disjunction to describe how linguistic units relate to one another without necessarily invoking process-based rules.4

By synthesizing these methods, linguists strive to uncover the underlying principles that govern language structure.21