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Redefining what matters: Syntactic explanation in American linguistics, 1955-1970

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Janet Martin-Nielsen
Janet Martin-Nielsen*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Abstract

The postwar decades are well known for having brought dramatic change to American linguistics on many fronts. This paper explores an internally focused aspect of this change: conditions of explanation. The two questions at stake are, firstly, what counts as explanation in linguistics? and, secondly, how is this decided? I argue that transformational grammarians dominated the setting of explanatory criteria in 1960s American syntax, and that this dominance was essential to the overall success of that theory. Importantly, rival grammarians were forced to devote as much time and effort to fitting their theories to the transformational criteria as they were to advancing their own explanatory priorities. By successfully naming the conditions for explanation, transformationalists provided their own supporters with significant questions to pursue and, simultaneously, drew energy away from rivals. This monopoly over explanatory criteria was central to the dominant position transformational grammar established in the American academic linguistics community.

Résumé

Résumé

Les décennies de l’après-guerre ont été caractérisées par des changements importants dans la linguistique américaine. Cet article explore un aspect interne de ces changements : les conditions d’explication. Deux questions sont enjeu ici : premièrement, en quoi consiste l’explication en linguistique? et en deuxième lieu : Comment décide-t-on en quoi consiste l’explication? Je soutiens que les grammairiens transformationnels ont imposé le choix des critères d’explication de la syntaxe américaine au cours des années 1960 et que cette domination était essentielle au succès global de la grammaire transformationnelle. Les grammairiens rivaux ont dû consacrer autant de temps et d’effort à adapter leurs théories aux critères transformationnels qu’à avancer leur propres priorités d’explication. En réussissant à définir les critères d’explication, les transformationalistes ont nourri leur propres partisans de questions importantes à poursuivre en même temps qu’ils ont drainé les énergies de leurs rivaux. Ce monopole des critères d’explication était central à la position dominante que la grammaire transformationelle a établie dans la communauté linguistique universitaire américaine.

Keywords

syntaxexplanationtransformational grammarhistorytheory debatessyntaxeexplicationgrammaire transformationnellehistoiredébats de théories
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 55 , Issue 3 , November 2010 , pp. 331 - 358
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association/Association canadienne de linguistique 2010 

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