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The doctrines of transformational-generative grammar (as promulgated in 1957, with frequent later emendations) have on occasion been criticised, sometimes severely. Such criticism have, however, appeared mostly in article-form, and mostly in relatively inaccessible places. Discussions in bookform have been rare. In this book, the criticism offered by Professor Hall over more than twenty years have been brought together. They cover the range of linguistic structure (phonology, morphosyntax, and semantics), general theory, and the history of linguistics. In these essays, the many short-comings of transformational-generative grammar are revealed by critical examination, with inevitably negative conclusions. The two final essays of the book deal with parallel aberrations in current literary theory, especially Derridian “radical skepticism concerning language” and “deconstruction”, as viewed from a linguistic stand-point.
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LINGUISTICS AND PSEUDO-LINGUISTICS
AMSTERDAM STUDIES IN THE THEORY AND HISTORY OF LINGUISTIC SCIENCE General Editor E.F. KONRAD KOERNER (University of Ottawa)
Series IV - CURRENT ISSUES IN LINGUISTIC THEORY
Advisory Editorial Board Henning Andersen (Buffalo, N.Y.); Raimo Anttila (Los Angeles) Thomas V.Gamkrelidze (Tbilisi); Hans-Heinrich Lieb (Berlin) J.Peter Maher (Chicago); Ernst Pulgram (Ann Arbor, Mich.) E.Wyn Roberts (Vancouver, B.C.); Danny Steinberg (Tokyo)
Volume 55
Robert A. Hall, Jr. Linguistics and Pseudo-Linguistics
LINGUISTICS AND PSEUDO-LINGUISTICS SELECTED ESSAYS 1965-1985
R O B E R T A . HALL, Jr. Cornell University
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA 1987
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Hall, Robert Anderson, 1911Linguistics and pseudo-linguistics. (Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, ISSN 0304-0763; v. 55) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. Generative grammar. 2. Deconstruction. I. Title. II. Series. P158.H28 1987 415 87-21053 ISBN 90 272 3549 X (alk. paper) © Copyright 1987 - John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
In Memoriam W. FREEMAN TWADDELL (1906-1982)
CONTENTS
Preface and Acknowledgements
ix
Fact and Fiction in Grammatical Analysis
1
Some Recent Studies on Port-Royal and Vaugelas
9
Review of Saltarelli, A Phonology of Italian in a Generative Grammar
32
"Underlying Representation" and Observable Fact in Phonology
37
. .
Review of Hockett, The State of the Art
58
Some Critiques of Chomskyan Theory
80
Review of Hagège, La grammaire générative
89
Can Linguistics Be a Science?
94
Review of Sampson, Liberty and Language,
and of Matthews,
Generative Grammar and Linguistic Competence
98
Review of Newmeyer, Linguistic Theory in America
103
Review of Fietz, Funktionaler Strukturalismus
113
Deconstructing Derrida on Language
116
References
123
Index of Names and Topics
139
PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although the intellectual impulse behind the transformational-genera tive grammar (TGG) movement of the 1960's and 1970's is by now largely spent, the use of TGG as a weapon in academic power-politics is unfortu nately still wide-spread. The same is true of the (not unrelated) "deconstructionist" movement in literary criticism. It is, therefore, still appropri ate to present, as energetically as possible, the case against TGG and "deco