The linguistic wars were extended deputes among American theoretical linguists that occurred mostly during the 1960s and 1970s, stemming from a disagreement between Noam Chomsky and several of his associates and students. The debates started in 1967 when linguists Paul Postal, John R. Ross, George Lakoff, and James D. McCawley—self-dubbed the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"[not verified in body]—proposed an alternative approach in which the relation between semantics and syntax is viewed differently, which treated deep structures as meaning rather than syntactic objects. While Chomsky and other generative grammarians argued that meaning is driven by an underlying syntax, generative semanticists posited that syntax is shaped by an underlying meaning. This intellectual divergence led to two competing frameworks in generative semantics and interpretive semantics.
Eventually, generative semantics spawned a different linguistic paradigm, known as cognitive linguistics, a linguistic theory that correlates learning of languages to other cognitive abilities such as memorization, perception, and categorization, while imperative semanticists and Chomsky have moved on to other linguistic notions different from deep structure that lead to more universal grammar.
linguistic wars is the chapter with this title in Frederick Newmeyer's book Linguistic Theory in America, which appeared in 1980. The LinguisticsWars is the...
in the linguistic wars, George Lakoff united in the early 1980s with Ronald Langacker and other advocates of neo-Darwinian linguistics in a so-called "Lakoff–Langacker...
guide to linguistics: Linguistics is the scientific study of language. Someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. Linguistics can be theoretical...
Linguistics is the scientific study of language, involving analysis of language form, language meaning, and language in context. Language use was first...
opponents. While expanding his work in linguistics over subsequent decades, he also became involved in the linguisticswars. In collaboration with Edward S....
acrimonious debates among linguists that have come to be known as the "linguisticswars". When Lakoff claims the mind is "embodied", he is arguing that almost...
defence of the first option, sparking an acrimonious debate, the "LinguisticsWars". Chomsky noted in his early years that by dividing deep structures...
linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include:...
until the turn of the 20th century, the Bohr–Einstein debates, the linguisticswars, or the debate over the causes of ADHD. Scientific discourse happens...
which during the 1970s "linguisticswars" gave rise to a wide variety of competing grammar frameworks. American linguistics outside the Chomskyan tradition...
was marked by intense and often personal clashes now known as the linguisticswars. Its proponents included Haj Ross, Paul Postal, James McCawley, and...
1949) was an American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and the 1940s. He is considered...
of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21379-3. Harris, Randy (1993). The LinguisticsWars. Oxford Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509834-X. Lezard...
Functional linguistics is an approach to the study of language characterized by taking systematically into account the speaker's and the hearer's side...
Political linguistics is the study of the relations between language and politics. It argues that language gives origin to the state. The reason is that...
Originally a Semiticist, he is best known for his work in structural linguistics and discourse analysis and for the discovery of transformational structure...
Evolutionary linguistics or Darwinian linguistics is a sociobiological approach to the study of language. Evolutionary linguists consider linguistics as a subfield...
Universal grammar (UG), in modern linguistics, is the theory of the innate biological component of the language faculty, usually credited to Noam Chomsky...
2018). "Chomsky's linguistics and military funding: a non-issue". Open Democracy. Harris, Randy Allen (2021). The LinguisticsWars: Chomsky, Lakoff, and...
Romance linguistics is the scientific study of the Romance languages. Romance languages have a number of shared features across all languages: Romance...
LGBT linguistics is the study of language as used by members of LGBT communities. Related or synonymous terms include lavender linguistics, advanced by...
Syntactic Structures is an important work in linguistics by American linguist Noam Chomsky, originally published in 1957. A short monograph of about a...