Customer Reviews

Schools of Linguistics

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From the title, you would think that this book was an overview of different schools of current linguistic thought, and that would be partially true. However, there's also some treatment of the history of linguistics, starting with the historical linguists of the 19th century.

This is an incredibly readable book--lively and well-written, so much so that for a week I skipped my lunchtime novel and read this, instead.

I found two more or less separate threads in the book. One is an insightful treatment of pre-Chomskyan linguistics, with a chapter each on 19th-century historical linguistics, Saussure, the American descriptivists, and (primarily) European functionalists. The second thread has to do with Chomskyan and other approaches to linguistics as of the late 70's/early 80's. Some parts of this second thread are as screamingly funny as the elements of the first thread are insightful; I don't think that "funny" is normally a word that you would associate with a critique of classical generative grammar, but indeed I was rolling as I read it. To be clear--I mean "funny" not in the sense of being laughable, but rather humorous--it's really quite entertaining. His analysis of the sins of rationalism as applied to questions in language acquisition is absolutely devastating. Hopefully Sampson's description of the Chomskyan community is no longer accurate; I can't recall ever meeting a linguist as stupid as he paints (at least the early) TGists as being, and sometimes wasn't sure that his description of their theoretical excesses was not meant to be hyperbole or a caricature. In any case, it's tremendously enjoyable to read. And, Sampson certainly does point out both the things that TG is good for, and the weak points of the theories that he *does* approve of.

All in all, a great book--I'd love to see an updated version.

If the book weren't so dated, it would be a better survey of the field. Sampson does a good job outlining the historical development of linguistics as a discipline and the main schools of thought currently existing; it's a must-read for those who enjoy the field. But there are a couple of needlessly eurocentric comments, and while I agree with the author's attacks on generative grammar, they are probably a bit harsher than deserved (though at the time of publication, as Sampson is keen to point out-- and exaggerate-- the generative school had an enormous unfair advantage in terms of media publicity and the ability to dominate professional linguistics journals).