lang-theory-building
Use when turning a linguistic pattern into a theoretically grounded claim for a Language (LSA) manuscript — an analysis with explicit assumptions, observable predictions, and engagement across competing frameworks rather than inside one formalism. Structures the argument; it does not gloss data or run the statistics.
Profile →npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill lang-theory-building --agent claude-code
Same command for any agent — swap --agent for codex, cursor, copilot.
Weekly change comes from our own snapshots, not the repository page — it measures attention, not adoption.
# Theory & Analysis Building (lang-theory-building) At *Language* the analysis is the contribution. A glossed pattern, a corpus trend, or an experimental effect is not a *Language* paper until it is attached to an **explicit account** — what the data are a *case of*, what the analysis predicts, and how it fares against rival analyses. The journal's defining demand is **theoretical grounding without framework parochialism**: state your assumptions, but engage the alternatives a reader from another tradition would raise. ## When to trigger - The data are solid but the "so what for linguistic theory" is thin - A reader called the paper "descriptive," "stipulative," or "framework-internal" - You need to make the analysis's predictions explicit and testable - Fieldwork or corpus work whose theoretical claim is implicit and needs surfacing ## Build the analysis (by mode of work) ### Formal (phonology / syntax / semantics / morphology) 1. **Generalization** — state the empirical generalization crisply, in theory-neutral terms first, so any reader can see the pattern before any formalism. 2. **Analysis** — give the account (e.g., a constraint ranking, a feature geometry, a derivation, a ty
- When to trigger
- Build the analysis (by mode of work)
- Formal (phonology / syntax / semantics / morphology)
- Variationist / sociolinguistic
- Historical / typological
- Psycholinguistic / computational
- The cross-framework test (Language-specific)
- The analytic-depth ladder (calibration, hedged)
- Engaging the tradition (a Language expectation)
- Referee-pushback patterns and the venue-specific fix
- Anti-patterns
- Output format
- Supplementary resources
What does the lang-theory-building skill do?
Use when turning a linguistic pattern into a theoretically grounded claim for a Language (LSA) manuscript — an analysis with explicit assumptions, observable predictions, and engagement across competing frameworks rather than inside one formalism. Structures the argument; it does not gloss data or run the statistics.
How do I install it?
Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill lang-theory-building --agent claude-code` — it drops the skill into your project so the agent can pick it up. Swap the --agent value for codex, cursor or copilot if you use one of those.
Where does this skill come from?
From brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, a repository with 909 stars. We read it straight from the repository tree rather than a submitted listing, so what you see here is what is actually published.
Is a popular skill a good skill?
Not necessarily. Stars measure attention, not adoption — a repository can trend for a week and be abandoned. That is why we show the weekly change from our own snapshots next to the total, instead of a single flattering number.