This article explores how linguistics has influenced
information retrieval (IR) and attempts to explain the
impact of linguistics through an analysis of internal
developments in information science generally, and IR
in particular. It notes that information science/IR has
been evolving from a case science into a fully fledged,
“disciplined”/disciplinary science. The article establishes
correspondences between linguistics and information
science/IR using the three established IR
paradigms—physical, cognitive, and computational—as
a frame of reference. The current relationship between
information science/IR and linguistics is elucidated
through discussion of some recent information science
publications dealing with linguistic topics and a novel
technique, “keyword collocation analysis,” is introduced.
Insights from interdisciplinarity research and
case theory are also discussed. It is demonstrated that
the three stages of interdisciplinarity, namely multidisciplinarity,
interdisciplinarity (in the narrow sense), and
transdisciplinarity, can be linked to different phases of
the information science/IR-linguistics relationship and
connected to different ways of using linguistic theory in
information science and IR.