An annotated bibliography traces Chomsky's thought from 1951 through 1975. An attempt was made to include all of Chomsky's linguistic publications in English during that period. His political writings, except those concerning both politics and linguistics, were excluded. Listings are chronological by year. Titles are alphabetical within each year.…

On critique of an anthology which contains 12 papers by 11 authors. The critique is preceded by a lengthy theoretical framework for such terms as syntax and semantics, since the anthologized authors, who represent a diversity of specialities, use such simple terms in widely differing senses. (EJS)

Discussion of two basic conceptions: Wilhelm von Humboldt's idea of language as energeia'' existing within and without man, and Noam Chomsky's idea of language generated by the speaker according to an innate apparatus. Revised version of lectures presented at the University of Bonn, West Germany in August 1971. (RS)

Sketches Noam Chomsky's conception of language, the ways it can and should be studied, and how it works as a scientific enterprise. (Author/GT)

A survey of linguistic history to demonstrate the linguistic basis of logical and mathematical formalism is presented. (HP)

Special issue devoted to language and history. (VM)

Examines the level of explanatory adequacy outlined by Chomsky's theory of transformational grammar and finds it inadequate. (CK)

A COMPREHENSIVE MODEL OF LANGUAGE SHOULD ACCOUNT FOR ENTIRE DISCOURSES. BY REGARDING THE UNDERLYING STRUCTURE OF DISCOURSE AS A COLLECTION OF TREES GENERATED BY A PREDICATE GRAMMAR AND RELATED TO EACH OTHER ON THE BASIS OF FOCUS, IT APPEARS POSSIBLE TO FIT A MODEL TO LINGUISTIC BEHAVIOR BOTH ABOVE AND BELOW THE LEVEL OF THE SENTENCE. THE BASE OF…

This paper discusses the validity and role of linguistic theory in terms of philosophy and logic and considers the relationship among these fields of human knowledge. The main objective of linguistic science is to discover the composition laws actually used by speech communities at any given moment in history. Linguistics is therefore not…

The effect of sentence complexity on the ability of 40 trainable mentally retarded mongoloids (median IQ 34.3) to comprehend and imitate verbally presented strings was examined in two studies. Comprehension ability was tested by asking each subject to indicate which of two pictures was being described in the sentence spoken by the examiner. Eight…

Transformational grammar offers the most adequate system by which to meet the goal of grammar instruction, which is to increase the student's understanding of the nature of language. This grammar attempts to explain the mental processes underlying the production and understanding of sentences, to describe linguistic competence, to construct…

These two units of the Minnesota Project English curriculum employ transformational grammar in an attempt to make eighth-grade students aware of fundamental facts about their language. Concepts taught in the first unit are (1) that an infinite number of English sentences exists, (2) that a few basic transformations are the basis for a large number…

The greatest benefit of transformational grammar lies in helping students to understand and appreciate language but not to use it. (DD)

THE PROBLEM OF THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE STRUCTURE IS CONSIDERED AND THE FORM WHICH ANY LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION SHOULD TAKE. THE AUTHOR EXAMINES THE INFLUENCE OF THE SWISS LINGUIST, FERDINAND DE SAUSSURE, ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN LINGUISTICS. THE QUESTION OF "MENTALISM" IN LINGUISTICS IS REDUCED TO THE PROBLEM OF WHETHER LINGUISTIC…

The approaches of traditional grammar, descriptive linguistics, and generative grammar are largely complementary rather than exclusive. Traditional grammar defines eight parts of speech according to meaning or function and concerns itself almost wholely with the written language. Descriptive linguistics postulates that English has a set of unique…