Communications in Humanities Research

- The Open Access Proceedings Series for Conferences


Communications in Humanities Research

Vol. 19, 07 December 2023


Open Access | Article

Generative Grammar in Thomas Kuhn’s Paradigm and Structure of Scientific Revolution

Wenyuan Hu * 1
1 University of Massachusetts Boston

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Communications in Humanities Research, Vol. 19, 173-180
Published 07 December 2023. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by EWA Publishing
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Citation Wenyuan Hu. Generative Grammar in Thomas Kuhn’s Paradigm and Structure of Scientific Revolution. CHR (2023) Vol. 19: 173-180. DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/19/20231233.

Abstract

This research aims to justify that generative grammar, an approach of linguistic study started by Nome Chomsky, is a Kuhnian paradigm. By reviving previous academic writings, two methods, or two sets of components that were thought to be present in Kuhnian paradigms, were employed: the first set included symbolic generalization, model, value, and exemplar; the second set included methodological component, theoretical component, and empirical components. The research also discussed the scientific revolution between generative grammar and North American Descriptivists, which came before generative grammar, as well as the scientific revolution between generative grammar and construction grammar, which came after generative grammar. For the events of emerging of generative grammar and construction grammar, though one of them may even be referred to as a “revolution”, and both of them may also share some feathers of the Kuhnian scientific revolution, they both appear to have fallen short of fully completing the paradigm-replacement process. It was decided that the recent history of linguistics might not fit under Kuhn’s original framework of scientific revolution.

Keywords

linguistic development, generative grammar, Thomas Kuhn, paradigm, scientific revolution

References

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2. Kuhn, T. S., & Hacking, I. (2012). The structure of Scientific Revolutions. The University of Chicago Press.

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8. Koerner, E. F. K. “Towards a Historiography of Linguistics 19th and 20th Century Paradigms.” Anthropological Linguistics, vol. 14, no. 7, 1972, pp. 255–80. J STOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/30029109. Accessed 1 Sept. 2023.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Volume Title
Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Interdisciplinary Humanities and Communication Studies
ISBN (Print)
978-1-83558-181-0
ISBN (Online)
978-1-83558-182-7
Published Date
07 December 2023
Series
Communications in Humanities Research
ISSN (Print)
2753-7064
ISSN (Online)
2753-7072
DOI
10.54254/2753-7064/19/20231233
Copyright
07 December 2023
Open Access
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Copyright © 2023 EWA Publishing. Unless Otherwise Stated