Peninsulas and Probes

[sergi balari]

Carl Pollard wrote:

> Well, Sergio, this may sound a lot like things that were proposed in
> LFG and GPSG 22 years ago, but there is an important scientific
> difference.  They were not then proposed by Chomsky, and therefore
> incapable in principle of being taken REALLY seriously, to say nothing
> of being right. Now, from what you say, it sounds like the ideas may
> have become right, and if so then surely Chomsky get the credit.
> Surely Gerald Gazdar and Ron Kaplan shouldn't get any credit for
> having these ideas when they were wrong! What sense would that make?
>
> Remember the old phrase "it's not what you know, it's who you know"?
> To that perhaps should be added: "it's not what you know, but who you
> are when you know it."
>
> C.

That was the reason I mentioned that particular case. In this connection,
it is particularly interesting to go back and look at Chomsky's writings
around 1982 (e.g., Some concepts... and also the Generative Enterprise),
where Gazdar's proposals are dismissed (in a footnote, of course). That was
the point of my message, it is this kind of things we have to fight
against, and not (just) quarrel about who is more apt to get such and such
'label'. Of course the latter is easier that the former, but still...

Sergio

--
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Sergio Balari Ravera
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Àrea de Lingüística General
Departament de Filologia Catalana
Facultat de Lletres, Edifici B
E-09193 Bellaterra (Barcelona)
Spain
Phone: +34 935 812 350 Fax: +34 935 812 782
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