American linguistics in transition : from post-Bloomfieldian structuralism to generative grammar / Frederick J. Newmeyer

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Newmeyer, Frederick J., author.

Series:

Oxford Academic

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historical linguistics.

English language.

United States.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (433 pages)

Place of Publication:

Oxford Oxford University Press, 2022

Summary:

American Linguistics in Transition is devoted to a major chapter in the history of linguistics in the United States. From the 1930s to the 1960s a form of structural linguistics was dominant in that country. By the end of the 1960s Chomsky's generative grammar had to a significant extent eclipsed its structuralist antecedents. The book discusses the rise of structuralism in the 1930s, explaining its successes and its limitations. One chapter is devoted to the interplay between American structuralism and European structuralism. Another deals with the early debate between structuralism and generative grammar, pinpointing what the two approaches shared and how they differed. Other chapters focus on the what generativists did to make their new ideas known, on how their theory was accepted (or not) in Europe, and on the resistance to the new theory by leading structuralists, which continued into the 1980s. The final chapter demonstrates that generative grammarians were not organizationally dominant in the field in the US in the 1970s and 1980s, despite what has often been claimed.

Contents:

1 The structuralist ascendancy in American linguistics

2 American structuralism and European structuralism

3 Martin Joos's Readings in Linguistics as the apogee of American structuralism

4 Early transformational generative grammar

5 The diffusion of generativist ideas

6 The European reception of early transformational generative grammar

7 The contested LSA presidential election of 1970

8 Charles Hockett's attempt to resign from the LSA in 1982

9 The generativist non-dominance of the field in the 1970s and 1980s

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Other Format:

Print version: Newmeyer, Frederick J. American Linguistics in Transition

ISBN:

0-19-265745-3

0-19-192637-X

0-19-265744-5