num_pages: 614
description: Based on extensive archival research, interviews, and participant observation over the course of two decades, "Theory Groups in the Study of Language in North America" provides a detailed social history of traditions and "revolutionary" challenges to traditions within North American linguistics, especially within 20th-century anthropological linguistics. After showing substantial differences between Bloomfield's and neo-Bloomfieldian theorizing, Murray shows that early transformational-generative work on syntax grew out of neo-Bloomfieldian structuralism, and was promoted by neo-Bloomfieldian gatekeepers, in particular longtime "Language" editor Bernard Bloch. The central case studies of the book contrast the (increasingly) "revolutionary rhetoric" of transformational-generative grammarians with rhetorics of continuity emitted by two linguistic anthropology groupings that began simultaneously with TGG in the late-1950s, the ethnography of communication and ethnoscience.The history of linguistics in North America provides a continuum from isolated scholars to successful groups dominating entire disciplines. Although focused on groupings -- both "invisible colleges" and readily visible institutions -- Murray discusses those writing about language in society who were not participants in "theory groups" or "schools" both before and after the three central case studies. He provides a theory of social bases for claiming to be making "scientific revolution" in contrast to building on sound "traditions," and suggests non-cognitive reasons for success in the often rhetorically violent contention of perspectives about language in North America during the last century and a half.The book includes appendices explaining the methodology used, an extensive bibliography, and an index.
language: English
title: Theory Groups and the Study of Language in North America: A social history
titlecomplete: Theory Groups and the Study of Language in North America: A social history (Studies in the History of the Language Sciences)
ratings_count: 1
series: Studies in the History of the Language Sciences
publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company