dismissal of analogy

[Gilles Fauconnier]

The importance of analogy in all matters linguistic
has of course been recognized for centuries.

In early generative grammar, you'll find quite a few
disparaging references to analogy.
This was due to a confusion between the cognitive operation
of analogy  and the folk-theoretic notion of 'analogy' as
a non-scientific, vague and unconstrained way of trying
to explain things.
The same mistake would probably not be made today, because
of the impressive amount of work done in the 80's and 90's
in cognitive science on analogy, metaphor, frame-projections,
conceptual blending, etc.

You ask about Chomsky, who always looms large in the
preoccupations of linguists! On a personal note, I had
occasion some years ago to tell him about the explanatory
value of analogical mapping in semantics.  I have to say that
he showed no aptitude at all for this way of thinking (and
little curiosity for the empirical data that motivate it)!

[BTW, the prejudice against analogy remains strong in
so-called formal semantics and in analytic philosophy]



Gilles Fauconnier

Department of Cognitive Science
University of California San Diego
La Jolla CA 92093

Phone 619 534 69 58
Fax     619 822-0599
E-mail    gfauconnier at ucsd.edu