36.2645, Books: Generative Grammar's Grave Foundational Errors: Postal (2025)

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2645. Thu Sep 04 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.2645, Books: Generative Grammar's Grave Foundational Errors: Postal (2025)

Moderator: Steven Moran (linguist at linguistlist.org)
Managing Editor: Valeriia Vyshnevetska
Team: Helen Aristar-Dry, Mara Baccaro, Daniel Swanson
Jobs: jobs at linguistlist.org | Conferences: callconf at linguistlist.org | Pubs: pubs at linguistlist.org

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Editor for this issue: Mara Baccaro <mara at linguistlist.org>

================================================================


Date: 03-Sep-2025
From: Rosanna Woensdregt [rosanna.woensdregt at brill.com]
Subject: Generative Grammar's Grave Foundational Errors: Postal (2025)


Title: Generative Grammar's Grave Foundational Errors
Series Title: Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Theory
Publication Year: 2025

Publisher: De Gruyter Brill
           https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en
Book URL: https://brill.com/display/title/72288

Author(s): Paul M. Postal

Hardback ISBN: 978-90-04-73091-5
E-book ISBN: 978-90-04-73092-2

Abstract:

This work examines Noam Chomsky's widely accepted ontological
assumptions, now referred to as “biolinguistics”—and demonstrates that
they are internally inconsistent. Notably, it is shown that Chomsky
himself has at least once admitted this flaw.
Additionally, the volume challenges a fundamental assumption from
Chomsky’s 1950s linguistic writings. This is the claim that the
grammars of natural languages, particularly of English, must be
constructive (proof-theoretic) devices, usually called generative
grammars. It is shown that this persistent view cannot in principal
account for a multitude of linguistic structures realized as perfectly
natural sentences.
Finally, the work scrutinizes Chomsky’s frequent assertion that “there
is essentially only one language spoken on Earth,” revealing it to
have no actual substance.
The exposition of these flaws calls for a reassessment of fundamental
aspects of generative linguistics.

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics
                     Philosophy of Language

Written In: English (eng)



------------------------------------------------------------------------------

********************** LINGUIST List Support ***********************
Please consider donating to the Linguist List, a U.S. 501(c)(3) not for profit organization:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=87C2AXTVC4PP8

LINGUIST List is supported by the following publishers:

Bloomsbury Publishing http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/

Cambridge University Press http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics

Cascadilla Press http://www.cascadilla.com/

De Gruyter Brill https://www.degruyterbrill.com/?changeLang=en

Edinburgh University Press http://www.edinburghuniversitypress.com

John Benjamins http://www.benjamins.com/

Language Science Press http://langsci-press.org

MIT Press http://mitpress.mit.edu/

Multilingual Matters http://www.multilingual-matters.com/

Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG http://www.narr.de/

Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT) http://www.lotpublications.nl/

Peter Lang AG http://www.peterlang.com


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2645
----------------------------------------------------------