Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2003/11/27
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Marc, Chomsky pioneered and developed generative and transformational linguistics. Structural linguistics was the current fad that he was rebelling against in the 50's. I agree with everything else you say about his work, just not that terminology. Bob Chomsky's seminal academic work was in the 1950's when he developed what is now Structural Linguistics as a distinct field. And one of the first paradigms he developed for structural linguistics was that the only perfect grammar of a language was a compendium of all possible sentences which could be stated in that language. Simple. Brilliant. Definitive. And absolutely new. He completely converted the writing of grammars from an inductive process of ADDING on to a deductive process of building a construct which would accomodate all of those sentences. Traditional linguists hated (and continue to hate) structural linguistics but it does have a place. And, yes, Chomsky, in his field, is a genius. I find that his commentaries on political, social, and artistic issues range from bland to banal. Marc msmall@infionline.net FAX: +540/343-7315 Cha robh bąs fir gun ghrąs fir! - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html - -- To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html