I received my Ph.D. in linguistics, specialization in syntax, minor in computer and information sciences (1982). I also did coursework in teaching English as a second language (TESL). I have taught linguistics and ESL in the US, China, and Poland. I was concerned for quite a few years about the shakiness of the "scientific" status of linguistics and eventually was convinced during the 1990's of its status as a branch of philosophy, not science, by Victor H. Yngve (see, e.g., Yngve's 1996 book From Grammar to Science: New Foundations for General Linguistics). Linguistics as it is usually conducted is fraught with internal contradiction and unprovable assumptions. Yngve has presented a way out, a framework called "human linguistics" or "hard-science linguistics." It is from that perspective that I now work.