Theory groups and the study of language in North America : a social history
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Theory groups and the study of language in North America : a social history
（Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science, ser. 3 . Studies in the history of the language sciences,
J. Benjamins, c1994
- : us
- : eur
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Note
An earlier version was presented as the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--1979
Bibliography: p. [503]-576
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Based on extensive archival research, interviews, and participant observation over the course of two decades, Theory Groups in the Study of Language in North America provides a detailed social history of traditions and "revolutionary" challenges to traditions within North American linguistics, especially within 20th-century anthropological linguistics. After showing substantial differences between Bloomfield's and neo-Bloomfieldian theorizing, Murray shows that early transformational-generative work on syntax grew out of neo-Bloomfieldian structuralism, and was promoted by neo-Bloomfieldian gatekeepers, in particular longtime Language editor Bernard Bloch. The central case studies of the book contrast the (increasingly) "revolutionary rhetoric" of transformational-generative grammarians with rhetorics of continuity emitted by two linguistic anthropology groupings that began simultaneously with TGG in the late-1950s, the ethnography of communication and ethnoscience.The history of linguistics in North America provides a continuum from isolated scholars to successful groups dominating entire disciplines. Although focused on groupings - both "invisible colleges" and readily visible institutions - Murray discusses those writing about language in society who were not participants in "theory groups" or "schools" both before and after the three central case studies. He provides a theory of social bases for claiming to be making "scientific revolution" in contrast to building on sound "traditions", and suggests non-cognitive reasons for success in the often rhetorically violent contention of perspectives about language in North America during the last century and a half.
The book includes appendices explaining the methodology used, an extensive bibliography, and an index.
Table of Contents
- 1. List of Tables
- 2. List of Figures
- 3. Introduction
- 4. 1. Theory groups in science
- 5. 2. Early work on American languages
- 6. 3. Franz Boas and the Institutionalization of Academic Anthropology
- 7. 4. Boas's students
- 8. 5. Edward Sapir
- 9. 6. Was Bloomfield a Bloomfieldian
- 10. 7. Neo-Bloomfieldians
- 11. 8. Structuralist Diversification during the 1950s
- 12. 9. Transformational-Generative Grammar before the1964-66 Revelations
- 13. 10. Language contact and early sociolinguistics
- 14. 11. The Ethnography of Speaking
- 15. 12. Related perspectives
- 16. 13. Ethnosciene
- 17. 14. The sociology of language
- 18. 15. Permanent Chomskian civil war in linguistics
- 19. 16. The third generation of University of California sociolinguists
- 20. 17. The turn away from linguistic interest in contemporary American anthropology
- 21. 18. Conclusions
- 22. An Appendix on Methods
- 23. Bibliography
- 24. Index of Names
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