Theory Groups and the Study of Language in North America

A social history

Stephen O. Murray | El Instituto Obregón, San Francisco

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027245564 (Eur) | EUR 150.00

ISBN 9781556193644 (USA) | USD 225.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027284969 | EUR 150.00 | USD 225.00

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.

[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 69] 1994. xx, 598 pp.

Publishing status: Available
Published online on 2 May 2011

https://doi.org/10.1075/sihols.69

Table of Contents

List of Tables | p. xiii

List of Figures | p. xv

Introduction | p. xvii

1. Theory groups in science | p. 1

2. Early work on American languages | p. 27

3. Franz Boas and the Institutionalization of Academic Anthropology | p. 47

4. Boas's students | p. 67

5. Edward Sapir | p. 77

6. Was Bloomfield a Bloomfieldian | p. 113

7. Neo-Bloomfieldians | p. 137

8. Structuralist Diversification during the 1950s | p. 185

9. Transformational-Generative Grammar before the1964-66 Revelations | p. 225

10. Language contact and early sociolinguistics | p. 249

11. The Ethnography of Speaking | p. 289

12. Related perspectives | p. 341

13. Ethnosciene | p. 391

14. The sociology of language | p. 419

15. Permanent Chomskian civil war in linguistics | p. 431

16. The third generation of University of California sociolinguists | p. 447

17. The turn away from linguistic interest in contemporary American anthropology | p. 473

18. Conclusions | p. 479

An Appendix on Methods | p. 491

Index of Names | p. 577

Cited by (43)

Cited by 43 other publications

Order by:

Altman, Cristina

2021. The ‘Brazilian Connection’ in the History of American Linguistics. Historiographia Linguistica ► pp. 355 ff.

Newmeyer, Frederick

2021. A post-Bloomfieldian’s last stand: Charles Hockett’s attempt to resign from the LSA in 1982. Language & History 64:1 ► pp. 44 ff.

De Oliveira Batista, Ronaldo

2020. Retóricas revolucionárias na linguística: recepção de teorias e novidade científica. Forma y Función 33:2 ► pp. 41 ff.

Leeds-Hurwitz, Wendy

2020. Moving (slowly) toward understanding knowledge as a global commons. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 15:1 ► pp. 18 ff.

Leeds‐Hurwitz, Wendy

2002. American sociolinguistics: Theorists and theory groups. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 38:2 ► pp. 195 ff.

Leeds‐Hurwitz, Wendy

2010. Writing the Intellectual History of Intercultural Communication. In The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication, ► pp. 21 ff.

Leeds‐Hurwitz, Wendy

2023. Writing the Intellectual History of Intercultural Communication. In The Handbook of Critical Intercultural Communication, ► pp. 31 ff.

Zhou, Feifei

2020. Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson: Order in Conversation. In Models of the Human in Twentieth-Century Linguistic Theories, ► pp. 99 ff.

Newmeyer, Frederick J.

2019. Martin Joos’sReadings in Linguistics. Historiographia Linguistica 46:3 ► pp. 73 ff.

van Driem, George

2018. Linguistic history and historical linguistics. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 41:1 ► pp. 106 ff.

Parker, John N. & Ugo Corte

2017. Placing Collaborative Circles in Strategic Action Fields: Explaining Differences between Highly Creative Groups*. Sociological Theory 35:4 ► pp. 261 ff.

Cornips, Leonie & Frans Gregersen

2016. The impact of Labov's contribution to general linguistic theory. Journal of Sociolinguistics 20:4 ► pp. 498 ff.

Graffi, Giorgio

2016. Harris, Chomsky and the origins of transformational grammar. Lingvisticae Investigationes 39:1 ► pp. 48 ff.

Radick, Gregory

2016. The Unmaking of a Modern Synthesis: Noam Chomsky, Charles Hockett, and the Politics of Behaviorism, 1955–1965. Isis 107:1 ► pp. 49 ff.

Ladd, D. Robert

2015. The American Four-Level Analysis of Intonation Contours. Historiographia Linguistica 42:1 ► pp. 119 ff.

Lum, Casey Man Kong

2014. Media Ecology. In The Handbook of Media and Mass Communication Theory, ► pp. 137 ff.

Thomas, Margaret

2014. Jakobson’s circles. In History of Linguistics 2011 [Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 123], ► pp. 145 ff.

Thomas, Margaret

2020. The monolingual approach in American linguistic fieldwork. Historiographia Linguistica 47:2-3 ► pp. 266 ff.

Wei, Li

2013. An Experimental Study of Interactive and Cooperative English Writing Strategy under Network Environment. Theory and Practice in Language Studies 3:2

Kertész, András

2010. Two Notions of ‘Research Program’ and the Historiography of Generative Linguistics. Historiographia Linguistica 37:1-2 ► pp. 165 ff.

Kertész, András

2010. From ‘scientific revolution’ to ‘unscientific revolution’: an analysis of approaches to the history of generative linguistics. Language Sciences 32:5 ► pp. 507 ff.

Kertész, András

2019. Fallacies in the Historiography of Generative Linguistics. Foundations of Science 24:4 ► pp. 775 ff.

Nevin, Bruce E.

2009. More Concerning the Roots of Transformational Generative Grammar. Historiographia Linguistica 36:2-3 ► pp. 459 ff.

van Helden, Andries

2009. Velmezova, E.: Les lois du sens: la sémantique marriste (Slavica Helvetica, 77), Bern, etc. Peter Lang, 2007, 392 pp.. Russian Linguistics 33:3 ► pp. 319 ff.

Le Prieult, Henri

2006. Délimitations et défenses du territoire : les conditions d’émergence de la linguistique nord-américaine au début du XXe siècle. Anglophonia Caliban/Sigma 19 ► pp. 149 ff.

Prieult, Henri Le

2006. Tradition vs. Modernité : doit-on nier la grammaire pour la faire ?. In La Négation, ► pp. 445 ff.

Verleyen, Stijn

2006. L’abandon progressif du fonctionnalisme dans les travaux de William Labov. Historiographia Linguistica 33:3 ► pp. 335 ff.

Verleyen, Stijn

2011. Die Sprachwissenschaft des 20. Jahrhunderts : Versuch einer Bilanz. Par Wolfgang Wildgen. Historiographia Linguistica 38:1-2 ► pp. 205 ff.

Tomalin, Marcus

2004. Leonard Bloomfield. Historiographia Linguistica 31:1 ► pp. 105 ff.

Cser, András

2003. Book review. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 50:3-4 ► pp. 475 ff.

Falk, Julia S.

2003. Turn to the history of linguistics. Historiographia Linguistica 30:1-2 ► pp. 129 ff.

Silverstein, Michael

2003. Charles Francis Hockett (1916–2000). American Anthropologist 105:1 ► pp. 225 ff.

Darnell, Regna

2002. Languages: Linguistic Change and the Study of Indian Languages from Colonial Times to the Present. In A Companion to American Indian History, ► pp. 173 ff.

Darnell, Regna

2005. Franz Boas. In Handbook of Pragmatics, ► pp. 1 ff.

Reményi, Andrea Ágnes

2001. Language use and hierarchy: a dyadic analysis of address in workplace groups. Review of Sociology 7:1 ► pp. 49 ff.

Altman, Cristina, Jon Mills, N. Guryanova, Werner Hüllen, Hiroyuki Eto, Joseph L. Subbiondo & John E. Joseph

1999. Review. Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas Bulletin 32:1 ► pp. 40 ff.

Mackert, Michael

1999. Franz Boas’ early northwest coast alphabet. Historiographia Linguistica 26:3 ► pp. 273 ff.

Murray, Stephen O.

1999. More on gatekeepers and Noam Chomsky's writings of the 1950s. Historiographia Linguistica 26:3 ► pp. 343 ff.

Linn, Andrew

1997. HenrySweetSocietyColloquium1997. Henry Sweet Society for the History of Linguistic Ideas Bulletin 29:1 ► pp. 10 ff.

Koerner, E.F. Konrad

1995. [no title] - Randy Allen Harris. The Linguistics Wars. New York: Oxford University Press. 1993. Pp. xii + 356. US$42.00 (hardcover).. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 40:2 ► pp. 247 ff.

Pupier, Paul

1995. The Linguistics Wars, Randy Allen Harris, 1993, Oxford University Press, xi+356 p.. Revue québécoise de linguistique 24:1 ► pp. 183 ff.

[no author supplied]

2020. The historiography of linguistics past, present, future. In Last Papers in Linguistic Historiography [Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 128], ► pp. 3 ff.

[no author supplied]

2020. Edward Sapir. In Last Papers in Linguistic Historiography [Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 128], ► pp. 163 ff.

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 december 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects

Linguistics

History of linguistics

Main BIC Subject

CF: Linguistics

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General

ONIX Metadata

ONIX 2.1

ONIX 3.0

U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 93034835 | Marc record