Bloomfieldian structuralism
E87786
Bloomfieldian structuralism is a behaviorist, empiricist approach to linguistics that analyzes language through distributional patterns of observable forms, emphasizing description over innate mental structures.
Aliases (2)
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
behaviorist approach to linguistics
→
linguistic theory → structuralism in linguistics → |
| aimsAt |
rigorous descriptive adequacy
→
|
| associatedWith |
American descriptivism
→
taxonomic linguistics → |
| assumes |
language can be analyzed without recourse to speaker intuition
→
linguistic units can be defined distributionally → |
| basedOnWorkOf |
Leonard Bloomfield
→
|
| contrastsWith |
Chomskyan generative grammar
→
mentalistic linguistics → |
| coreConcept |
levels of linguistic structure
→
morpheme as minimal meaningful form → phoneme as minimal distinctive sound unit → |
| developedFrom |
American structural linguistics
→
|
| dominantIn |
American linguistics in the 1930s
→
American linguistics in the 1940s → American linguistics in the early 1950s → |
| emphasizes |
description over explanation
→
distributional analysis of forms → formal analysis of linguistic structure → observable linguistic behavior → |
| focusesOn |
distribution of linguistic units in corpora
→
morphology → phonology → segmentation and classification of linguistic forms → syntax → |
| geographicFocus |
United States
NERFINISHED
→
|
| hasTheoreticalOrientation |
behaviorism
→
empiricism → |
| historicalPeriod |
first half of the 20th century
→
|
| influenced |
American descriptive linguistics
→
early generative grammar debates → post-Bloomfieldian structuralism → |
| influencedBy |
behaviorist psychology
→
logical positivism → |
| methodologicalStance |
anti-mentalism
→
data-driven description → |
| minimizes |
reference to meaning in analysis
→
|
| namedAfter |
Leonard Bloomfield
→
|
| prefers |
formal criteria over semantic criteria
→
|
| rejects |
innate mental structures in language
→
mentalistic explanations of language → |
| usesMethod |
corpus-based description
→
distributional analysis → immediate constituent analysis → |
| viewsLanguageAs |
observable stimulus–response behavior
→
system of habits → |
Referenced by (3)
| Subject (surface form when different) | Predicate |
|---|---|
|
Chomskyan linguistics
→
|
contrastsWith |
|
Boasian linguistics
("American structural linguistics")
→
|
influenced |
|
Zellig Harris
("Structural Linguistics")
→
|
notableWork |