Newmeyer's book

[Matthew S Dryer]

Dan Parvaz asks which aspects of functionalism Newmeyer's recent book does
not "summarily trash".  The answer is none.  While there are many
particular functionalist claims that he argues against, these arguments
are clearly based on extensive and careful reading of the functionalist
literature.  I believe that in general these arguments can be addressed,
although in some cases it may require rejecting certain aspects of the
functionalist analyses that I would characterize as nonessential to
functionalist claims.  But I do think that if functionalism is going to
survive as more than a passing phase in the late 20th century,
functionalists will have to be able to respond to arguments of the sort
given by Newmeyer with the same level of careful reasoning.

Matthew Dryer