Single Idea 2517

[catalogued under 19. Language / A. Nature of Meaning / 1. Meaning]

Full Idea

In linguistics there are two schools of thought: Bloomfieldian structuralism (favoured by Quine) conceives of sentences acoustically and meanings behaviouristically; and Chomskian generative grammar (which is silent about semantics).

Gist of Idea

Structuralists see meaning behaviouristically, and Chomsky says nothing about it

Source

Jerrold J. Katz (Realistic Rationalism [2000], Int.xxiv)

Book Reference

Katz,Jerrold J.: 'Realistic Rationalism' [MIT 2000], p.-11


A Reaction

They both appear to be wrong, so there is (or was) something rotten in the state of linguistics. Are the only options for meaning either behaviourist or eliminativist?