Formalism (linguistics)
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In linguistics, the term formalism is used in a variety of meanings which relate to formal linguistics in different ways. In common usage, it is merely synonymous with a grammatical model or a syntactic model: a method for analyzing sentence structures.[3][4] Such formalisms include different methodologies of generative grammar which are especially designed to produce grammatically correct strings of words;[5] or the likes of Functional Discourse Grammar which builds on predicate logic.[6]
Additionally, formalism can be thought of as a theory of language. This is most commonly a reference to mathematical formalism which argues that syntax is purely axiomatic being based on sequences generated by mathematical operations. This idea stands in contradistinction to psychologism and logicism which, respectively, argue that syntax is based on human psychology; or on semantic a priori structures which exist independently of humans.[7]