Chomskyan Linguistics and Its Competitors; Pius ten Hacken

Pius ten Hacken [+–]

University of Innsbruck

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Pius ten Hacken wasLecturer 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).

* Explains Chomskyan linguistics in an accessible and balanced way. Takes objections that have been made to the assumptions in the research programme seriously and explains why these assumptions can and should be made.

* Explains the differences between Chomskyan linguistics and its main competitors without bias. This will help the reader to understand research articles in different frameworks.

* Shows how areas of linguistics that are not central to Chomskyan linguistics can be incorporated within this framework.

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.

Introduction

Introduction [+–] 1 – 4

PAPERBACK PUBLISHED MAY 2009 * Explains Chomskyan linguistics in an accessible and balanced way. Takes objections that have been made to the assumptions in the research programme seriously and explains why these assumptions can and should be made. * Explains the differences between Chomskyan linguistics and its main competitors without bias. This will help the reader to understand research articles in different frameworks. * Shows how areas of linguistics that are not central to Chomskyan linguistics can be incorporated within this framework. 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.

Research programmes [+–] 5 – 38

The central concept to be introduced here is that of research programme. This concept emerged as a response to certain problems with the common-sense view of science. Therefore, Section 1.1 spells out some of the common assumptions as to how science is supposed to work. Section 1.2 starts by showing the logical problems raised by this view of science and proposes a solution in the form of research programmes. As will be shown, assuming research programmes does not only solve the logical problems but also explains why these problems are not usually observed as such. Section 1.3 then addresses a number of other key concepts in the philosophy of science which play an important role in the present study. They include truth and its relation to the goal of science, progress as a measure of success, and revolutions as perhaps the most controversially discussed historical phenomenon in science. Finally, Section 1.4 narrows the focus to the study of language, considering to what extent it poses specifi c problems in the application of these terms.

The research programme of Chomskyan linguistics [+–] 39 – 128

The purpose of this chapter is to explain the research programme adopted by linguists working in the framework of Chomskyan linguistics. It is not the author’s intention to discuss all the objections that have been raised against it. Some of these objections will be presented in later chapters, because they play a role in the discussions between Chomskyan linguistics and its competitors.

The Chomskyan revolution [+–] 129 – 182

In this chapter, the authors’ first consider the research programme of this group (Section 3.1). Section 3.2 will then discuss the similarities and differences to the research programme of Chomskyan linguistics as explained in Chapter 2 as well as their consequences. Section 3.3 evaluates the claim in (1) in the light of these findings.

Some modern competitors [+–] 183 – 272

The method adopted here involves a relatively detailed analysis of a small number of approaches or theories. Their choice is determined in part by the importance of the theories in terms of the size of the research communities and their infl uence in the fi eld, in part also by the issues they raise for the discussion of research programmes.

Aspects of language development and use [+–] 273 – 331

In this chapter, some of the issues arising in this context will be presented. The discussion will be limited largely to Chomskyan linguistics, for which by far the most material is available.

References

References [+–] 332 – 351

Author Index

Author Index [+–] 352 – 357

Subject Index

Subject Index [+–] 358 – 366

Reviews

..I wish the book a large readership because it seems to have the potential to convince even some great sceptics of Chomskyan linguistics of the expedience and the legitimacy of its research programme, if not its “correctness”. Linguistische Berichte 223/2010

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Chomskyan Linguistics and Its Competitors

Pius ten Hacken [+–]

University of Innsbruck

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