Skinner and Chomsky thirty years later

Abstract

SummaryThis paper offers a historiographie account of the fate of B. F. Skinner’s famous 1957 bookVerbal Behaviorand N. Chomsky’s more-famous review of it that appeared inLanguagein 1959. For the period from the late 1950s, four reasons are identified to explain the repression of Skinner’s behaviorist approach to language with respect to Chomsky an generativism: (i) cognitive taste; (ii) the legacy of the 1960s; (iii) the power of essentializing humanism, and (iv) the discipline of linguistics as it conceived of itself through its textual tradition. The paper argues, furthermore, that changes in the same four categories have provided a more positive climate for behaviorism in the late 1980s. As a result of these recent changes, the paper proposes that Skinner’s place in the historical record of linguistics be reconsidered, along with that of V. N. Vološinov whose approach to language is favorably compared to Skinner’s.

Précis of Foundations of Language: Brain, Meaning, Grammar, Evolution,

“…Jackendoff exemplifies this view when he pushes the world into the mind. But it is a risky move (Andresen 1990), and parallel moves in biology have not fared well. For example, genetic material is no longer said to carry blueprints of organisms, nor does it reveal properties of the environments within which it was selected; it is instead best regarded as a recipe for development (Dawkins 1982).…”

Bibliographic processes and products, and a bibliography of the published primary-source works of B. F. Skinner

“…Such a bibliography permits broader contact with his publications, and thus more refined and textured scholarship, some of which might even reveal sympathies and symmetries between Skinner's work and like-minded programs of science in, for instance, perception (e.g., Gibson, 1979;see Costall, 1984), cognition and memory (e.g., Rumelhart, McClelland, & the PDP Research Group, 1986;Watkins, 1990;see Donahoe & Palmer, 1989), developmental systems (e.g., Oyama, 1985;see Midgley & Morris, 1992), as well as convergences among such conceptual systems as psychoanalysis (e.g., Schafer, 1976; see Lee, 1988), hermeneutics (Day, 1980a;H. L. Miller, 1994), existentialism (Fallon, 1992;McDowell, 1975), phenomenology (Giorgi, 1975;Kvale & Grenness, 1967), social constructionism (Guerin, 1992;Ruiz, 1995), and postmodernism and poststructuralism (Andresen, 1990;Freeman & Locurto, 1994;see Morris, in press;Czuberoff, 1991).…”

Uma análise etimológico-funcional de nomes de sentimentos

“…Questionando a noção tradicional de linguagem como "instrumento de uso", a teoria funcional do significado continua sendo pragmática ao apontar a função do contexto ambiental físico e social (audiência) no controle da emissão (e não do "uso") de qualquer operante verbal, incluindo os nomes de sentimentos. Isto foi reconhecido pela Lingüística no início da década de 90, quando Andresen (1990) afirmou que o livro Verbal Behavior (Skinner, 1957) foi um precursor da pragmática, a área da lingüística que estuda o "uso" das palavras.…”