BASED ON A LECTURE GIVEN AT THE UNIV. OF TEXAS SCIENCE CONFERENCE, NOV. 20, 1964, THIS PAPER PRESENTS IN RELATIVELY NON-TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY A DESCRIPTION OF THE "STRUCTURAL" APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE WHICH UNDERLIES THE WORK OF THE LINGUISTICS RESEARCH CENTER. THIS APPROACH ANALYZES LANGUAGE IN SUCH A WAY THAT IT CAN BE MANIPULATED WITH A COMPUTER. STRESSING THE NECESSITY FOR A MORE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING OF LANGUAGE AS THE BASIS FOR MACHINE TRANSLATION AND COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS, THE AUTHOR DEALS WITH (1) THE FORMAL STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE, (2) SIMULATION, (3) LANGUAGE DATA PROCESSING, (4) AUTOMATIC CLASSIFICATION, (5) ANALYSIS OF MEANING, AND (6) ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THE FIELD OF LINGUISTIC RESEARCH. INCLUDED ARE REPRODUCTIONS OF THE ANALYSIS OF A SENTENCE WITH A PARSING DIAGRAM, AND A CHART OF THE LINGUISTICS RESEARCH SYSTEM. (AM)