Podcast episode 33: Formalism and distributionalism
May 31, 2023
auto_awesome
Exploring the formalist aspects of linguistic work by Sapir and Bloomfield, and the evolution of their methods into distributionalism. Focus on abstract systems and patterns in linguistics from Neo-Grammarians to modern linguists.
Sapir and Bloomfield emphasized formal patterns in language structure, separate from meaning.
Distributionalism emerged by analyzing recurring formal patterns in linguistic data, expanding to morpheme analysis.
Deep dives
The Formalist Approach of Sapir and Bloomfield
Sapir and Bloomfield embraced a formalist approach to language, focusing on formal patterns within languages independently of meaning or external factors. Sapir viewed languages as abstract systems, investigating the function and form of symbolic structures. Bloomfield's postulates defined linguistics as the study of forms comprising utterances, introducing concepts like morphemes and complementary distribution.
Distributionalism and Formal Patterns in Linguistics
Distributionalism, derived from Sapir and Bloomfield's methodologies, involves identifying recurring formal patterns by analyzing linguistic data. Swadesh's work on phonemic analysis highlighted complementary distribution, where variants of a phoneme never contrast in the same environment. This approach expanded to morpheme analysis articulated by Zellig Harris, paralleling phonemic units structurally.
Influence and Evolution in American Linguistics
The principles of distributionalism were further developed post-World War II in Zellig Harris's 'Methods in Structural Linguistics.' This period saw a shift towards cognitive approaches away from strict empiricism. Noam Chomsky's generative grammar theory challenged empirical methods, sparking the cognitive revolution and redirecting focus to the workings of the human mind.
1.
Exploration of Formalism and Distributionalism in Linguistic Methods
In this episode, we examine the formalist aspects of the linguistic work of Edward Sapir and Leonard Bloomfield, and see how their methods were turned into the doctrines of distributionalism by the following generation.
Bloch, Bernard (1948), ‘A set of postulates for phonemic analysis’, Language 24:1, 3–46.
Bloch, Bernard, and George Trager (1942), Outline of Linguistic Analysis, Baltimore: Linguistic Society of America.
Bloomfield, Leonard (1909–1910), ‘A semasiological differentiation in Germanic secondary ablaut’, Modern Philology 7, 245–288, 345–382. (Introduction reprinted in Hockett 1970, pp. 1–6.)
Bloomfield, Leonard (1922), Review of Sapir Language, The Classical Weekly 15, 142–143. (Reprinted in Hockett 1970, pp. 95–100.)
Bloomfield, Leonard (1926), ‘A set of postulates for a science of language’, Language 2, 153–164. (Reprinted in Hockett 1970, pp. 128–138.)
Bloomfield, Leonard (1942), Outline Guide for the Practical Study of Foreign Languages, Baltimore: Linguistic Society of America.
Harris, Zellig S. (1942), ‘Morpheme alternants in linguistic analysis’, Language 18:2, 169–180.
Harris, Zellig S. (1951), Methods in Structural Linguistics, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Hockett, Charles F., ed. (1970), A Leonard Bloomfield Anthology, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. archive.org
Hockett, Charles F. (1980), ‘Preserving the heritage’, in First Person Singular, ed. Boyd H. Davis and Raymond K. O’Cain, Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 97–107.
Mandelbaum, David G., ed. (1949), Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language, Culture and Personality, Berkeley: University of California Press. archive.org
Sapir, Edward (1921), Language, New York: Harcourt, Brace and co. archive.org
Sapir, Edward (1949 [1924]), ‘The grammarian and his language’, in Mandelbaum (1949), pp. 150–159. (Original published in American Mercury 1 [1924], 149–155.)
Saussure, Ferdinand de (1922 [1916]), Cours de linguistique générale, ed. by Charles Bally and Albert Sechehaye, Paris: Payot. 3rd edition, 1931: BNF Gallica (English translation: Ferdinand de Saussure, 1959 [1916], Course in General Linguistics, trans. by Wade Baskin, New York: Philosophical Library. 2011 edition available from archive.org)
Swadesh, Morris (1934), ‘The phonemic principle’, Language 10:2, 117–129.
Secondary sources
Darnell, Regna (1990), Edward Sapir: Linguist, anthropologist, humanist, Berkeley: University of California Press. archive.org
Darnell, Regna (1998), And along came Boas: Continuity and revolution in Americanist anthropology. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Fortis, Jean-Michel (2019), ‘On Sapir’s notion of form/pattern and its aesthetic background’, in Form and Formalism in Linguistics, ed. James McElvenny, Berlin: Language Science Press, pp. 59–88. Open access
Fought, John G. (2001), ‘The “Bloomfieldian School” and descriptive linguistics’, in History of the Language Sciences – Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaften – Histoire des sciences du langage. An International Handbook on the Evolution of the Study of Language from the Beginnings to the Present, ed. Sylvain Auroux, E. F. Konrad Koerner, Hans-Josef Niederehe, and Kees Versteegh, vol. II, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, pp. 1950–1966.
Matthews, Peter H. (1993), Grammatical Theory in the United States from Bloomfield to Chomsky, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Newmeyer, Fredereick J. (2022), American Linguistics in Transition: From post-Bloomfieldian structuralism to generative grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.
