The Linguistics of Programming

Gordon, Colin S.

Onward! Essays, October 2024, doi: 10.1145/3689492.3689806

Abstract

Research in programming languages and software engineering are broadly concerned with the study of aspects of computer programs: their syntactic structure, the relationship between form and meaning (semantics), empirical properties of how they are constructed and deployed, and more. We could equally well apply this description to the range of ways in which linguistics studies the form, meaning, and use of natural language. We argue that despite some notable examples of PL and SE research drawing on ideas from natural language processing, there are still a wealth of concepts, techniques, and conceptual framings originating in linguistics which would be of use to PL and SE research. Moreover we show that beyond mere parallels, there are cases where linguistics research has complementary methodologies, may help explain or predict study outcomes, or offer new perspectives on established research areas in PL and SE. Broadly, we argue that researchers across PL and SE are investigating close cousins of problems actively studied for years by linguists , and familiarity with linguistics research seems likely to bear fruit for many PL and SE researchers.

Bibtex

@inproceedings{onward24,
    author = {Gordon, Colin S.},
    title = {The Linguistics of Programming},
    abbr = {Onward!},
    booktitle = {Onward! Essays},
    year = {2024},
    address = {Pasadena, California, USA},
    month = {October},
    bibtex_show = {true},
    youtube = {https://youtu.be/cMR6UD60KuQ},
    doi = {10.1145/3689492.3689806},
    acm = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3689492.3689806},
    abstract = { Research in programming languages and software engineering are
                broadly concerned with the study of aspects of computer programs:
                their syntactic structure, the relationship between form and
                meaning (semantics), empirical properties of how they are
                constructed and deployed, and more. We could equally well apply
                this description to the range of ways in which linguistics
                studies the form, meaning, and use of natural language. We argue
                that despite some notable examples of PL and SE research drawing
                on ideas from natural language processing, there are still a
                wealth of concepts, techniques, and conceptual framings
                originating in linguistics which would be of use to PL and SE
                research. Moreover we show that beyond mere parallels, there are
                cases where linguistics research has complementary methodologies,
                may help explain or predict study outcomes, or offer new
                perspectives on established research areas in PL and SE. Broadly,
                we argue that researchers across PL and SE are investigating
                close cousins of problems actively studied for years by linguists
                , and familiarity with linguistics research seems likely to bear
                fruit for many PL and SE researchers. },
}