When it was first published in 1957, Noam Chomsky's Syntactic Structure seemed to be just a logical expansion of the reigning approach to linguisti...
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Dec 17, 2009
Aaron
rated it: 
A great history of war in academia, with emotional betrayals, highly abstract argumentation and many nasty words. And as a truly great academic clash, most people have never heard about it, and it probably affected them very little. As a non-linguist, this book also served as a serviceable introduction to some of the field's basic ideas, and it was interesting to read about Chomsky in his original role. I was only familiar with him through philosophy and politics. Seeing how he fought in this i
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Apr 06, 2007
Nat
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This is a very readable intellectual history of 20th century linguistics. The most enjoyable part of the book is the account of the revolt against Chomsky in the late 60s and early 1970s by the Generative Semanticists.
The Generative Semanticists thought Chomsky's use of examples was too stodgy. Chomsky's famous examples involve John:
'John is eager to please'
'John is easy to please'
Whereas the Generative Semanticists introduce a whole bunch of crazy cou More...
The Generative Semanticists thought Chomsky's use of examples was too stodgy. Chomsky's famous examples involve John:
'John is eager to please'
'John is easy to please'
Whereas the Generative Semanticists introduce a whole bunch of crazy cou More...
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Feb 01, 2012
David
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Really enjoyable discussion of the progression of linguistics and the personalities of the field's players.
Aug 01, 2010
Anie
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A wonderful history of the development of generative grammar and the intellectual developments which led to the rise and fall of generative semantics. It's both engaging and, in my opinion, fair-minded; it presents a very nice overall view of the debate.
It also, of course, brings up the question of the primacy of meaning in grammar---excellent food for thought on that level.
It also, of course, brings up the question of the primacy of meaning in grammar---excellent food for thought on that level.
Aug 23, 2010
David
rated it: 
This book manages to describe academic battles without making it very clear what the substance is.
Admittedly, some of the work in this field is rather dense, but the book could have been a lot clearer and more sprightly. I did not care enough to get more than halfway thorugh.
Admittedly, some of the work in this field is rather dense, but the book could have been a lot clearer and more sprightly. I did not care enough to get more than halfway thorugh.
Mar 24, 2008
People say my name should be Jeff
rated it:
This isn't about "Linguistics" so much as it is about semantics.
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