From Whitney To Chomsky: Essays In The History Of American Linguistics (studies In The History Of The Language Sciences)
by John E. Joseph /
2002 / English / PDF
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What is ‘American’ about American linguistics? Is Jakobson, who
spent half his life in America, part of it? What became of
Whitney’s genuinely American conception of language as a democracy?
And how did developments in 20th-century American linguistics
relate to broader cultural trends?This book brings together 15
years of research by John E. Joseph, including his discovery of the
meeting between Whitney and Saussure, his ground-breaking work on
the origins of the ‘Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis’ and of American
sociolinguistics, and his seminal examination of Bloomfield and
Chomsky as readers of Saussure.
What is ‘American’ about American linguistics? Is Jakobson, who
spent half his life in America, part of it? What became of
Whitney’s genuinely American conception of language as a democracy?
And how did developments in 20th-century American linguistics
relate to broader cultural trends?This book brings together 15
years of research by John E. Joseph, including his discovery of the
meeting between Whitney and Saussure, his ground-breaking work on
the origins of the ‘Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis’ and of American
sociolinguistics, and his seminal examination of Bloomfield and
Chomsky as readers of Saussure.
Among the original findings and arguments contained herein:
Among the original findings and arguments contained herein:
• why ‘American structuralism’ does not end with Chomsky, but
begins with him;
• why ‘American structuralism’ does not end with Chomsky, but
begins with him;
• how Bloomfield managed to read Saussure as a behaviourist avant
la lettre;
• how Bloomfield managed to read Saussure as a behaviourist avant
la lettre;
• why in the long run Skinner has emerged victorious over
Chomsky;
• why in the long run Skinner has emerged victorious over
Chomsky;
• how Whorf was directly influenced by the mystical writings of
Madame Blavatsky;
• how Whorf was directly influenced by the mystical writings of
Madame Blavatsky;
• how the Whitney–Max Müller debates in the 19th century connect to
the intellectual disparity between Chomsky’s linguistic and
political writings.
• how the Whitney–Max Müller debates in the 19th century connect to
the intellectual disparity between Chomsky’s linguistic and
political writings.