Scribd
Upload
11 views42 pages

American Structuralism

Uploaded by

Omer Ibrahim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
11 views42 pages

American Structuralism

Uploaded by

Omer Ibrahim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 42

&

The name structuralism was originally used


in psychology, by Angell in 1907;
nevertheless, the wider intellectual
movement that it came to represent in the
1950s and beyond had its origins in
linguistics, as did the first significant
challenge to the supremacy of the
"structuralist" movement
The study of structural linguistics in America is
called American structuralism. American linguists
Edward Sapir, Leonard Bloomfield, and Franz Boas
were among the leading figures in this movement.
The founding figure in contemporary American
linguistics was Leonard Bloomfield. In the US, he
oversaw the development of structural linguistics
in the 1930s and 1940s. We refer to this period as
the Bloomfieldian age. Bloomfield and his
colleagues in linguistics primarily studied the
types of linguistic objects.
were built upon the languages of Europe. It
forced American linguists to pursue more in-
depth research. Thus, American linguistics
differs from other linguistics structuralism
movements in that it was shaped by its emphasis
on Native American languages. In the latter half
of the 1950s and early 1960s, Bloomfieldian
structural linguistics began to lose ground to
Noam Chomsky's Generative Grammar theory.
The Institutes of Anthropology, not the Institutes of
Languages, produced the American Linguistic
Studies. The American academics were
anthropologists who focused on the Amerindian
languages that were already in use and created
structural concepts. Unlike the languages of Europe,
these languages had no written history or prior
descriptions. Their historical dimensions were thus
disregarded.
John Fought and Dell Hymes 1975 define American
structuralism as follows. Their emphasis is on
language as a system. According to American
structuralism, language is an ordered system of signs.
Rather of concentrating just on specific words or
meanings, this viewpoint emphasizes the connections
between various language components, such as
phonemes, morphemes, and syntax.
According to Hymes and Fought, there are several areas
where American structuralism and other academic fields
like sociology, psychology, and anthropology converge. By
using multiple fields of study, language as a social
phenomenon is better understood.
challenge of Formalism: Hymes and Fought argued for a
broader view that takes into account language's social and
pragmatic elements in order to challenge the more formalist
approaches to linguistics that dominated early
structuralism.
The contribution of American Structuralism also includes
knowledge about how language shapes and reflects identity,
community, and cultural practices. This viewpoint is essential
for comprehending how language functions in social
interactions.
1- It is a branch of anthropology
2- Influenced by behaviorist psychology
3- Focused on native American languages
4- Neglect of semantics
By challenging several tenets of these opinions, Chomsky
significantly reduced the distance. From a European viewpoint,
looking past the obvious parameters of the dispute, Chomsky
was the one who broke through decades of resistance to fully
implement structuralism in American linguistics and introduced
the theory to the field for the first time.Once more, the tale is
complicated since it is impossible to completely separate or
integrate the advancement of linguistics in America and Europe.
Of the two most well-known American linguists of the first half
of the 20th century, German-born Edward Sapir (1884–1939) and
Leonard Bloomfield (1887–1949)

You might also like