1	Chomskyan Linguistics January 31, 2002
2	Flashback (Predicate Logic) Page 4 “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” œx œy ¬((HAVE (YOU (ABILITYx)) & NEED (TASKy (ABILITYx)) e ¬DO (YOU (TASKy)).
3	Important Definitions and People Behaviorism Tabula rasa Empiricism
4	Behaviorism “Behaviorism is a theory in the philosophy of mind which maintains that talk of mental events should be translated into talk about observable behavior. Behaviorism parts company with dualistic traditions which hold that mind is a distinct substance from material bodies” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). www.utm.edu/research/iep/b/behavior.htm
5	Tabula Rasa The mind comes as a blank slate Basic Tenet of Behaviorism
6	Empiricism An approach to acquiring knowledge that emphasizes repeatable observations through the physical senses
7	Structuralism “Methodologically, it analyzes large-scale systems by examining the relations and functions of the smallest constituent elements of such systems, which range from human languages and cultural practices to folktales and literary texts” (pratt.edu/~arch543p/help/structuralism.html)
8	Roots of American Structuralism Leonard Bloomfield Bloomfield’s research was fueled by many of the Amerindian languages Zellig Harris
9	Roots of Generativism Noam Chomsky was a student of Zellig Harris Chomsky wanted to get at meaning—he needed a tool to get at the syntax
10	Characterizations of American Structuralism Corpus-based Examples from observation, not from introspection Taxonomic: no universals Bottom-Up: phonetics, phonology, etc… Each level is autonomous Based on early 1900s ideas: behaviorism, tabula rasa, empiricism
11	Characterizations of Generativism Not necessarily corpus-based Introspection is allowed Deals with universals: Universal Grammar Bottom-up: starting with syntax Still autonomous syntax A branch of individual, not social, psychology
12	Problems with American Structuralism Neglected Syntax Ignored Meaning Bottom-Up: This approach limits what can be done
13	Problems with Generativism Definition of language: set of sentences defined by a grammar Confusion between grammaticality and acceptability Ignores communication