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I agree. Note, that I made no claims about
"relevance." Clearly, linguists like Chomsky and Halliday
are relevant in many ways, and their thinking<br>
still seriously influences much current work in various fields. In
my case, I took courses from Chomsky in the early sixties, when he was my
hero;<br>
he definitely refocused the field and phrased new and fruitful
questions. And I learned much from Halliday when he lectured at
Berkeley, decades<br>
ago. With regard to Chomsky, the question is whether his current
approach is useful for the fields that I listed in my last
email.<br><br>
Dan<br><br>
<br>
At 10:01 AM 10/11/2007, Jeff MacSwan wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=2 color="#000080">I would agree with
these remarks. But I think it would be insensitive, not to mention
empirically incorrect, to say, for instance, that Halliday is not
relevant today. The question is, relevant to whom? While many linguists
find relevance in Halliday’s work, others don’t. The same can be said of
Chomsky. I think it would be a mistake to say of either example that the
figure is “not relevant” to linguistics (or to anything) since the field
includes functionalists and formalists alike. Right?<br>
<br>
<div align="center"><br>
</font></div>
<font size=2><b>From:</b> Dan I. Slobin
[<a href="mailto:slobin@berkeley.edu" eudora="autourl">
mailto:slobin@berkeley.edu</a>] <br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, October 11, 2007 9:52 AM<br>
<b>To:</b> Jeff MacSwan<br>
<b>Subject:</b> RE: Chomsky: Obsolete?<br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times"> <br>
It depends on what you consider "the current linguistics
literature."<br>
I enjoy the rich literature on functional, conceptual, typological,
diachronic,<br>
developmental, anthropological, psychological, sociological,
pedagogical<br>
linguistic literature--all of which quite happily make great progress
with little<br>
or no reference to generativist work. There was hardly a mention of
Chomsky,<br>
for example, in last month's five-day international conference in Paris
of<br>
the Association for Linguistic Typology, as well as four more days
of<br>
associated workshops on many topics. Like many ideologies in our
world,<br>
things look different depending on which camp you live in.<br><br>
Dan<br><br>
At 09:23 AM 10/11/2007, you wrote:<br><br>
It's not a surprise that those who are committed to frameworks which<br>
disavow generativist work would gleefully await the day when the
most<br>
influential figure, who also created the field, is no longer
"relevant."<br><br>
But Chomsky's work actually continues to grow in significance and<br>
influence, precisely due to its relevance not only to linguistics<br>
generally, but also to the social sciences, the cognitive sciences,<br>
computer science and mathematics, and philosophy.<br><br>
While one can do interesting and important linguistic research that
does<br>
not heavily rely on Chomsky's own specific contributions to
linguistic<br>
theory, the idea that his work has generally lost relevance or<br>
significance reflects a lack of acquaintance with the current<br>
linguistics literature.<br><br>
Jeff MacSwan<br><br>
-----Original Message-----<br>
From: info-childes@mail.talkbank.org<br>
[
<a href="mailto:info-childes@mail.talkbank.org" eudora="autourl">
mailto:info-childes@mail.talkbank.org</a>] On Behalf Of Anat Ninio<br>
Sent: Thursday, October 11, 2007 7:56 AM<br>
To: r.n.campbell<br>
Cc: info-childes@mail.talkbank.org<br>
Subject: Re: Chomsky: Obsolete?<br><br>
Hi Robin,<br><br>
Chomsky actually changed his mind about what syntax is, so maybe he's
<br>
now a more relevant figure than before?<br><br>
Anat Ninio<br><br>
<br><br>
r.n.campbell wrote:<br>
>> *Competence vs. Performance: A False Distinction?*<br>
><br>
> A broader topic (which includes this one and is equally worth <br>
> discussing) is that Noam Chomsky and all his works are also
obsolete. <br>
> For me, it will be a happy day when this is so.<br>
> -- <br>
> <br>
> Dr Robin N Campbell<br>
> Dept of Psychology<br>
> University of Stirling<br>
> STIRLING FK9 4LA<br>
> Scotland, UK<br>
><br>
> telephone: 01786-467649 facsimile: 01786-467641<br>
> email: r.n.campbell@stir.ac.uk<br>
> Website:
<a href="http://www.psychology.stir.ac.uk/staff/rcampbell/index.php" eudora="autourl">
http://www.psychology.stir.ac.uk/staff/rcampbell/index.php</a><br>
><br>
> -- <br>
><br>
> The University of Stirling is a university established in Scotland
by <br>
> charter at Stirling, FK9 4LA. Privileged/Confidential Information
may <br>
> be contained in this message. If you are not the addressee indicated
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> in this message (or responsible for delivery of the message to such
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><br>
</font><br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=1>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br>
Dan I. Slobin, Professor of the Graduate School<br>
Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Linguistics<br><br>
Department of Psychology email:
slobin@berkeley.edu<br>
3210 Tolman
#1650
phone (Dept): 1-510-642-5292<br>
University of
California
phone (home): 1-510-848-1769<br>
Berkeley, CA 94720-1650
fax: 1-510-642-5293<br>
USA
<a href="http://ihd.berkeley.edu/slobin.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://ihd.berkeley.edu/slobin.htm</a><br>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br>
</font></blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br>
Dan I. Slobin, Professor of the Graduate School<br>
Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Linguistics<br><br>
Department of Psychology email:
slobin@berkeley.edu<br>
3210 Tolman
#1650
phone (Dept): 1-510-642-5292<br>
University of
California
phone (home): 1-510-848-1769<br>
Berkeley, CA 94720-1650
fax: 1-510-642-5293<br>
USA
<a href="http://ihd.berkeley.edu/slobin.htm" eudora="autourl">
http://ihd.berkeley.edu/slobin.htm<br>
</a>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><br>
<br>
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