LINGUISTIC THEORY in AMERICA Second Edition
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Notes on the Development of the Linguistic Society of America 1924 To
NOTES ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA 1924 TO 1950 MARTIN JOOS for JENNIE MAE JOOS FORE\\ORO It is important for the reader of this document to know how it came to be written and what function it is intended to serve. In the early 1970s, when the Executive Committee and the Committee on Pub1ications of the linguistic Society of America v.ere planning for the observance of its Golden Anniversary, they decided to sponsor the preparation of a history of the Society's first fifty years, to be published as part of the celebration. The task was entrusted to the three living Secretaries, J M. Cowan{who had served from 1940 to 1950), Archibald A. Hill {1951-1969), and Thomas A. Sebeok {1970-1973). Each was asked to survey the period of his tenure; in addition, Cowan,who had learned the craft of the office from the Society's first Secretary, Roland G. Kent {deceased 1952),was to cover Kent's period of service. At the time, CO'flal'\was just embarking on a new career. He therefore asked his close friend Martin Joos to take on his share of the task, and to that end gave Joos all his files. Joos then did the bulk of the research and writing, but the~ conferred repeatedly, Cowansupplying information to which Joos v.t>uldnot otherwise have had access. Joos and HiU completed their assignments in time for the planned publication, but Sebeok, burdened with other responsibilities, was unable to do so. Since the Society did not wish to bring out an incomplete history, the project was suspended. -
On the Irrelevance of Transformational Grammar to Second Language Pedagogy
ON THE IRRELEVANCE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR TO SECOND LANGUAGE PEDAGOGY John T. Lamendella The University of Michigan Many scholars view transformational grammar as an attempt to represent the structure of linguistic knowledge in the mind and seek to apply transformational descriptions of languages to the de- velopment of second language teaching materials. It will be claimed in this paper that it is a mistake to look to transformational gram- mar or any other theory of linguistic description to provide the theoretical basis for either second language pedagogy or a theory of language acquisition. One may well wish to describe the ab- stract or logical structure of a language by constructing a trans- formational grammar which generates the set of sentences identi- fied with that language. However, this attempt should not be con- fused with an attempt to understand the cognitive structures and processes involved in knowing or using a language. It is a cogni- tive theory of language within the field of psycholinguistics rather than a theory of linguistic description which should underlie lan- guage teaching materials. A great deal of effort has been expended in the attempt to demonstrate the potential contributions of the field of descriptive linguistics to the teaching of second languages and, since the theory of transformational grammar has become the dominant theory in the field of linguistics, it is not surprising that applied linguists have sought to apply transformational grammar to gain new in- sights into the teaching of second languages. It will be claimed in this paper that it is a mistake to look to transformational grammar or any other theory of linguistic description to provide the theoretical basis for either second language pedagogy or a theory of language acquisition. -
1. Introduction
A fox knows many things but a hedgehog one big thing Mark Aronoff Stony Brook University 1. Introduction Isaiah Berlin’s little book, The Hedgehog and the Fox (1953), takes its title from a line by the Greek poet Archilochus: πόλλ᾽ οἶδ᾽ ἀλωπηξ ἀλλ᾽ ἐχῖνος ἓν μέγα ‘many [things] knows [a] fox but [a] hedgehog one big [thing]’. Since it is impossible to do justice in a paraphrase to Berlin’s prose, I will quote the relevant passage in full: [T]aken figuratively, the words can be made to yield a sense in which they mark one of the deepest differences which divide writers and thinkers, and, it may be, human beings in general. For there exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who relate everything to a single central vision, one system less or more coherent or articulate, in terms of which they understand, think, and feel—a single, universal, organizing principle in terms of which alone all that they are and say has significance—and, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory, connected, if at all, only in some de facto way, for some psychological or physiological cause, related by no moral or aesthetic principle; these last lead lives, perform acts, and entertain ideas that are centrifugal rather than centripetal, their thought is scattered or diffused, moving on many levels, seizing upon the essence of a vast variety of experiences and objects for what they are in themselves, without, consciously or unconsciously, seeking to fit them into, or exclude them from, any one unchanging, all-embracing, sometimes self-contradictory and incomplete, at times fanatical, unitary vision. -
Lexical Integrity As a Constructional Strategy
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Institutional Research Information System University of Turin LEXICAL INTEGRITY AS A CONSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY LEXICAL INTEGRITY AS A CONSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY LIVIO GAETA* 1. INTRODUCTION What is the input of word formation? As basic as this question may appear, a clear answer is still missing. Not only that: Depending on the answer, the very existence of morphology as an autonomous component of language has been challenged. In this sense, the Lexical Integrity Hypothesis (cf. Bresnan and Mchombo 1995) as well as the No Phrase Constraint (cf. Botha 1983) are complementary principles watching over the autonomy of morphology from other components, and specifi cally syntax. Both principles have been strongly criticized and even rejected as empirically inadequate.1 It is not my concern to enter into details here; for the sake of the following discussion, my only interest is to emphasize the ‘spirit’ underlying both of them, namely their watchdog function against any intrusion of syntax into (lexical) morphology. Those who want to deny any autonomy to morphology usually draw attention to two kinds of examples showing that morphology can be directly fed by syntax, and accordingly no kind of lexical integrity can be seriously defended. Therefore, morphology as a theoretical construct is supposed to lack any conceptual density and can be reduced to more general properties of the language faculty (cf. Lieber 1992:21). The fi rst set of examples comes from incorporation, where it can be shown that lexical stuff and syntactic structures are so intertwined that the basic notion of lexical word gives up much of its sense (cf. -
Paul Rastall, a Linguistic Philosophy of Language, Lewiston, Queenston
Linguistica ONLINE. Published: July 10, 2009 http://www.phil.muni.cz/linguistica/art/mulder/mul-001.pdf ISSN 1801-5336 PAUL RASTALL: A LINGUISTIC PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE, LAMPETER – LEWISTON, 2000[*] review article by Jan W. F. Mulder (University of St. Andrews, UK) Introductory note by Aleš Bičan In 2006 I happened to have a short e-mail conversation with Jan Mulder. I asked him for off-prints of his articles, as some of them were rather hard to find. He was so generous to send me, by regular post, a huge packet of them. It took me some time to realize that some of the included writings had never been published. One of them was a manuscript (type- script) of a discussion of a book by Paul Rastall, a former student of his, which was pub- lished in 2000 by The Edwin Press. I naturally contacted Paul Rastall and asked him about the article. He was not aware of it but supported my idea of having it published in Linguis- tica ONLINE. He consequently spoke to Mulder who welcomed the idea and granted the permission. The article below is thus published for the first time. It should be noted, how- ever, that Jan Mulder has not seen its final form. The text is reproduced here as it appears in the manuscript. I have only corrected a few typographical errors here and there. The only significant change is the inclusion of a list of references. Mulder refers to a number of works, but bibliographical information is not pro- vided. I have tried to list all that are mentioned in the article. -
Download the Linguistics Wars Free Ebook
THE LINGUISTICS WARS DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK Randy Allen Harris | 368 pages | 09 Mar 1995 | Oxford University Press Inc | 9780195098341 | English | New York, United States Language wars: the 19 greatest linguistic spats of all time While the entrenched linguists were not looking for a messiah, apparently many of their students were. Dave rated it liked it Jun 06, Trivia About The Linguistics Wars. Use this word at your own risk. This book chronicles both sides of the Generative Semantics vs. The debates followed the usual trajectory of most large-scale clashes, scientific or otherwise. To study this co-ordination of certain sounds with certain meanings is to study language. Albaugh and Kathryn M. Both positions changed dramatically in the course of the dispute--the triumphant Chomskyan position was very The Linguistics Wars from The Linguistics Wars initial one; the defeated generative semantics position was even more transformed. Particularly, it The Linguistics Wars, when you add gender to the mix. Jul 11, David rated it liked it Shelves: linguisticsdid-not-finish. PaperbackThe Linguistics Wars. That drives them to spend hours arguing with strangers on the internet, to go around correcting misspelt signs in the dead of night, or even to threaten acts of violence? Start your review of The Linguistics Wars. Betsy rated it really liked it Jun 10, What can I say about this book. There was a revolution, which colored the field of linguistics for the following decades. There was a revolution, which colored the field of linguistics for the following decades. The repercussions of the Linguistics Wars are still with us, not only in the bruised feelings and late-night war stories of the combatants, and in the contentious mood in many quarters, but in the way linguists currently look at language and the mind. -
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REVIEW ARTICLE Incorporation: A theory of grammatical function changing. By MARK C. BAKER. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press, 1988. Pp. viii, 543. Reviewed by TARO KAGEYAMA, Kwansei Gakuin University* 1. INTRODUCTION.This bulky volume, a revised version of B's 1985 MIT dissertation, is an important contribution to both the principles- and-parameters theory of grammar and general studies on language uni- versals. Its ambitious (perhaps overambitious) goals are aptly epito- mized in the main and subtitles: Incorporation and grammatical function (GF) changing. Thus, by drawing data from genetically and typological- ly diverse languages, B attempts to unify a wide range of GF-changing rules as postulated in relational grammar (RG) under a single underlying concept called Incorporation and dispense with all GF changes as automatic side effects of the interactions of Incorporation and existing subtheories such as Case theory and government theory. A few illustrative examples in English will give the reader a general idea of what GF-changing phenomena are and how they are analyzed in RG (for expository purposes, relational analyses are stated in ordinary prose rather than in RG's Relational Networks: cf. Perlmutter 1983, Perlmutter and Rosen 1984). (1) Passive: Joe kicked Bill. →Bill was kicked by Joe. [Direct object is promoted to subject, whereby the original subject becomes a 'chomeur', here marked with by.] Dative Shift: Harry gave a van to his son. →Harry gave his son a van. [Indirect object is promoted to direct object, and the original direct object becomes a chomeur, here with a zero marking.] Possessor Raising: Joe patted Mary's back. -
An Approach for Teaching American English to Chinese Speakers
DOCUMENT RESUME ED 038 625 AL 002 355 AUTHOR Tiee, Henry Hung-Yeh TTL7 An Approach for Teaching American English to Chinese F4eakers Rased on a Contrastive Syllabic ana Prosodic Analysis. PUB DATE Aug 67 NOT'? 232p.; Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas, August 1967 EDPS PRICE EDPS Price MF-$1.00 HC -1'11 .70 DESCPTPTOPS American English, *Contrastive Linguistics, *English (Second Language) , Interference (Language Learning), *Intonation, Language Programs, *Mandarin Chinese, Phonetic Transcription, Phonology, Structural Analysis, *Suprasegmentals, Syllables, Teaching Methods, Tone Lanauages ABSTRACT Pxperiments in language teaching have indicated +hat, especially in the case of teaching Pnglish as a foreign language, no pronunciation of English sounds natural unless the intonation (prosodic features) is fairly acceptable. Pven with satisfactory consonants and vowels, a phrase with incorrect melody still sounds foreign. On the other hand, when brief phrases are given proper pitch pattern, large errors in consonants and vowels seem much less important. English is spoken with a stress-time rhythm; the everyday speech of Chinese tends to he a polysyllabic language which often combines two or more syllables. The rate of utterance of a succession of syllables, unlike that of English is syllable-timed, the length of each syllable remaining approximately the same. Therefore, in teaching Chinese speakers to learn Pnglish, the shift from their tendency toward a syllable-timing rhythm to a stress-timing rhythm is very necessary. Consauently, syllable analysis in both languages must become a basic step in the learning process. This contrastive study of American English and mandarin Chinese examines the syllable structure and prosodic features of both languages and relates this analysis to language teaching. -
Introduction
CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1.1 Some Historical and Methodological Backgrounds Semantic Syntax is a formal theory of grammar, introducing an entirely new method of syntactic description. It takes a grammar to be a formal system map- ping well-motivated semantic analyses (SA’s) onto well-formed surface struc- tures of sentences. My claim is that no other formal grammatical theory has achieved the level of success reached by Semantic Syntax, which is unique in the way it accounts for, often so far unobserved, syntactic complications in the languages analysed in the terms of a unified theory. Grammars are, naturally, language-specific but it is a central tenet of Semantic Syntax that all grammars of individual languages or language varieties are subject to strong universal constraints. Consequently, it is a central concern of Semantic Syntax to search for those constraints, so that a maximally unified account can be provided of natural languages and their grammars. Semantic Syntax is characterised by the one overarching hypothesis that every sentence in every natural language is to be seen as a composition of prop- ositional structures (under a speech act operator), each consisting of a predi- cate and its argument terms. In its present form, this hypothesis goes back to James D. McCawley (1938–1999) but it is, in fact, the continuation of medi- eval and renaissance thinking about language, reaching a first apogee in the great work by the Salamanca professor Franciscus Sanctius, Minerva seu de Causis Linguae Latinae, published in 1587, and in Antoine Arnauld and Claude Lancelot’s famous Grammaire générale et raisonnée, known as the Port Royal Grammar, published in Paris in 1660. -
Syntax-Semantics Interface: Arabic Is a Case
Bulletin of Advanced English Studies – Vol. 1, No. 1 , 2018, pp. 1 -15 Available online at http:// www.refaad.com Syntax-Semantics Interface: Arabic is a Case Samir Al Jumaily Postgraduate Department - International University of Islamic Science - London [email protected] Abstract: In order to make a coherent statement or an accurate description, linguists have to focus on one aspect of a language and preclude the others according to a process called selected focusing, but it is believed that such an act of isolation is only an artificial practice. Although a naïve or a child is not aware of the various levels of language, he/she is well knowledgeable about the grammatical, structural, and semantic tools that make him/her easily and instantly spot the ill-formed or meaningless sentences of his/her native language. Two opposite mainstreams discovered in the study of syntax-semantics interface. The 1st is the syntactically-oriented perspective established by Chomsky and his followers, which is later modified and supported by the Optimal Theory Approach, and the 2nd is the semantically-oriented one in its two facets- the generative and the interpretive. The early generative transformational approach went too far in insisting that the syntactic aspect has an autonomous characteristic and should be dealt with in isolation from semantics, whereas others argue that they are interrelated and cannot be separated. The main objective of this study is to arrive at some general outlines that might help linguists, second/foreign language teachers as well as students and tries to shed light on this linguistic controversy in order to establish a scientific scheme in language studies. -
Philosophy of Language in the Twentieth Century Jason Stanley Rutgers University
Philosophy of Language in the Twentieth Century Jason Stanley Rutgers University In the Twentieth Century, Logic and Philosophy of Language are two of the few areas of philosophy in which philosophers made indisputable progress. For example, even now many of the foremost living ethicists present their theories as somewhat more explicit versions of the ideas of Kant, Mill, or Aristotle. In contrast, it would be patently absurd for a contemporary philosopher of language or logician to think of herself as working in the shadow of any figure who died before the Twentieth Century began. Advances in these disciplines make even the most unaccomplished of its practitioners vastly more sophisticated than Kant. There were previous periods in which the problems of language and logic were studied extensively (e.g. the medieval period). But from the perspective of the progress made in the last 120 years, previous work is at most a source of interesting data or occasional insight. All systematic theorizing about content that meets contemporary standards of rigor has been done subsequently. The advances Philosophy of Language has made in the Twentieth Century are of course the result of the remarkable progress made in logic. Few other philosophical disciplines gained as much from the developments in logic as the Philosophy of Language. In the course of presenting the first formal system in the Begriffsscrift , Gottlob Frege developed a formal language. Subsequently, logicians provided rigorous semantics for formal languages, in order to define truth in a model, and thereby characterize logical consequence. Such rigor was required in order to enable logicians to carry out semantic proofs about formal systems in a formal system, thereby providing semantics with the same benefits as increased formalization had provided for other branches of mathematics. -
VU Research Portal
VU Research Portal On the publication date of Syntactic Structures Noordegraaf, J. published in Historiographia Linguistica 2001 DOI (link to publisher) 10.1075/hl.28.1.18noo Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Noordegraaf, J. (2001). On the publication date of Syntactic Structures. Historiographia Linguistica, 28, 225-228. https://doi.org/10.1075/hl.28.1.18noo General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 25. Sep. 2021 Historiographia Linguistica XXVIII:225-228 (2001) On the publication date of Syntac tic Struc ture s A footnote to Murray (1999) Jan Noordegraaf Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam In his 1975 preface to the publication of his 1955/56 The Logical Structure of Linguistic Theory, Noam Chomsky told the following about the origin of his first book, Syntactic Structures: In 1956, at the suggestion of Morris Halle, I showed some of my lecture notes for an undergraduate course at MIT to Cornelis van Schooneveld, the editor of the Janua Linguarum series of Mouton and he offered to publish them.