Ideology and Linguistic Theory - Noam Chomsky and the Deep Structure Debates (Hardcover)

Just what is the role of meaning in grammar? In the late 60s and the early 70s the question split the linguistics community and separated Chomsky from some of his most prized students. In the Ideological Structure of Linguistic Theory Geoffrey Huck and John Goldsmith provide a revisionist account of this very public schism and the ensuing Deep Structure Debates. The triumph of Chomsky's interpretative semantics, they argue, had less to do with the fact that it was right, than with the fact that the opposing side with their programme for generative semantics, failed to establish an institutional base. Through detailed examination of the principle theoretical arguments the authors reveal just how similar the two models really were, and demonstrate just how many of the concepts employed by the losing side were incorporated into the Chomskyan paradigm. Supplemented by extended interviews with four of Chomsky's former students, this book provides a re-appraisal of the paradigm which has dominated American linguists for the last quarter of a century. This book will appeal to any with an interest in the study of language and mind or the history of the human sciences.