American Linguistics in Transition: From Post-Bloomfieldian Structuralism to Generative Grammar

by Frederick J. Newmeyer

Overview

This volume is devoted to a major chapter in the history of linguistics in the United States, the period from the 1930s to the 1980s, and focuses primarily on the transition from (post-Bloomfieldian) structural linguistics to early generative grammar. The first three chapters in the book discuss the rise of structuralism in the 1930s; the interplay between American and European structuralism; and the publication of Joos's Readings in Linguistics in 1957. Later chapters explore the beginnings of generative grammar and the reaction to it from structural linguists; how generativists made their ideas more widely known; the response to generativism in Europe; and the resistance to the new theory by leading structuralists, which continued into the 1980s. The final chapter demonstrates that contrary to what has often been claimed, generative grammarians were not in fact organizationally dominant in the field in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780192843760
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	12/19/2022
Pages:	430
Product dimensions:	9.47(w) x 6.46(h) x 1.16(d)

About the Author

Frederick J. Newmeyer, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington

Frederick J. Newmeyer is Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington and Adjunct Professor at the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University. He specializes in syntactic theory and the history of linguistics, and is interested in particular in whether the work of functional linguists is compatible with, challenges, or refutes mainstream thinking in generative grammar. He has been President of the Linguistic Society of America and an editor of Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, and his many publications include the OUP volumes Possible and Probable Languages: A Generative Perspective on Linguistic Typology (2005) and Measuring Grammatical Complexity (co-edited with Laurel B. Preston; 2014; paperback 2017).

Table of Contents

1. The structuralist ascendancy in American linguistics2. American structuralism and European structuralism: How they saw each other3. Martin Joos's Readings in Linguistics as the apogee of American structuralism4. Early transformational generative grammar: Some controversial issues5. The diffusion of generativist ideas6. The European reception of early transformational generative grammar7. The contested LSA presidential election of 19708. Charles Hockett's attempt to resign from the LSA in 19829. The generativist non-dominance of the field in the 1970s and 1980sAppendices

Editorial Reviews

"In his book, F.J. Newmeyer re-evaluates Chomskyan linguistics, a domain in wich he once took an active part (as a visiting student at MIT in 1968-1969 and as elected secretary-treasurer of the LSA in 1989): here he returns to his chosen field and provides some innovative food for thought." — Histoire Épistémologie Langage

From the Publisher