Roger Bacon and Martin Joos

Generative linguistics’ reading of the past

Bibliographic Data

ID3955443
AuthorsMargaret Thomas (0000-0001-7731-6642, Boston College, corresponding author)
Year2002
Volume29
Issue3
Pages339-378
Publication date2002-12-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHistoriographia Linguistica (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0302-5160 • E-ISSN: 1569-9781
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/hl.29.3.05tho
OpenAlexW1985964951
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited62

Expositions of the history of western linguistics, especially those designed for a novice readership, often refer to a passage from the writings of the twelfth-century scholar Roger Bacon. That passage is conventionally interpreted as an assertion of the existence of universal grammar, framed in the terms of early medieval language science. Among generative grammarians, the text from Bacon has been construed as evidence for the longevity of a concept which Chomskyan linguistics now reformulates in modern guise. Generativists also sometimes cite another passage, in this case taken from a 1957 text by the American descriptivist Martin Joos. The quotation from Joos performs an inverse function compared to that from Bacon, in that it is taken to epitomize the anti-universalism of early twentieth-century descriptivism. As such, Joos' words are employed to distinguish generative grammar from the intellectual context of the immediately preceding school of linguistics. There are reasons to doubt the historical accuracy of the conventional readings of both these passages. This article re-opens the question of what Bacon meant and what Joos meant, then examines how their words have been incorporated into recent generative literature. As a case study in the historical orientation of modern linguistics, I find generative theory to be less interested in understanding other cultures' ideas about language than in using historical material to advance its own self-representation. Is this a legitimate use of the past

Epistemology · Generative grammar · Grammar · History of linguistics · Linguistics · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Philosophy · Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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