Chomskyan Linguistics and Its Competitors - Softcover

Ten Hacken, Pius

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1845535545 ISBN 13: 9781845535544

Publisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd, 2007

Synopsis

Noam Chomsky is not only one of the most influential, but also one of the most controversial figures in 20th century linguistics. In view of the polarization of opinions on Chomsky, giving a balanced account of Chomskyan linguistics is an ambitious venture. The approach chosen here is to describe both Chomskyan linguistics and the positions defended by its opponents in terms of research programmes. A research programme consists of a number of assumptions on what language is and how it should be studied. Only by assuming that research programmes adopted by a large number of scholars for a prolonged period have to be rational, coherent systems can we hope to fully understand the nature of the conflicts between them.

After a general discussion of the notion of research programme, it is shown how the various stages of Chomskyan theory can be analysed as belonging to a single, coherent research programme. This research programme is then compared to the ones for Post-Bloomfieldian linguistics, Lexical-Functional Grammar, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar and Montague Grammar, and Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar. Finally the relevance of the research programme of Chomskyan linguistics for the practical study of the acquisition, change, and use of language is addressed.

About this title

About the Author

Pius ten Hacken is Lecturer for Linguistics and Translation at the School of European Languages of the University of Wales Swansea. He is the author of Defining Morphology (G. Olms Verlag, 1994) and the editor of Terminology, Computing and Translation, part of the Forum für Fachsprachenforschung (G. Narr, forthcoming).

Edition details

• Publisher: Equinox Publishing Ltd
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1845535545
• ISBN 13: 9781845535544
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320