Skinner and Chomsky thirty years later
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3955421 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Julie Tetel Andresen (Duke University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1990 |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 145-165 |
| Publication date | 1990-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Historiographia Linguistica (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0302-5160 • E-ISSN: 1569-9781 |
| Publisher | John Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1075/hl.17.1-2.12and |
| OpenAlex | W2072477355 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 7 |
This paper offers a historiographie account of the fate of B. F. Skinner's famous 1957 book Verbal Behavior and N. Chomsky's more-famous review of it that appeared in Language in 1959. For the period from the late 1950s, four reasons are identified to explain the repression of Skinner's behaviorist approach to language with respect to Chomsky an generativism: (i) cognitive taste; (ii) the legacy of the 1960s; (iii) the power of essentializing humanism, and (iv) the discipline of linguistics as it conceived of itself through its textual tradition. The paper argues, furthermore, that changes in the same four categories have provided a more positive climate for behaviorism in the late 1980s. As a result of these recent changes, the paper proposes that Skinner's place in the historical record of linguistics be reconsidered, along with that of V. N. Vološinov whose approach to language is favorably compared to Skinner's
Behaviorism · Epistemology · Humanism · Linguistics · Power (physics · Theology · Behavioral and Psychological Studies · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Philosophy · Psychology
| Citations per year | 0.15 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2000 - 2021 (22) |
| Highly cited | No |