Languages I / A History of Linguistics
Practice question · Match the pairs

Match each figure or school to the position they are known for.

  • William Jones
  • The Neogrammarians
  • Ferdinand de Saussure
  • Leonard Bloomfield
  • Noam Chomsky
  • Language is a system of differences
  • Sanskrit, Greek and Latin share a source no longer existing
  • Rigorous distributional procedure, wary of mind
  • A finite grammar generating infinitely many sentences
  • Sound change is exceptionless
Hints
  1. The chronological order of the five is also the order of the list.
  2. The position wary of talking about mind is the American structuralist one.
Show the answer
  • William Jones → Sanskrit, Greek and Latin share a source no longer existing
  • The Neogrammarians → Sound change is exceptionless
  • Ferdinand de Saussure → Language is a system of differences
  • Leonard Bloomfield → Rigorous distributional procedure, wary of mind
  • Noam Chomsky → A finite grammar generating infinitely many sentences
Why

Read as a sequence these are five answers to "what is a linguist entitled to talk about", a common ancestor, a law without exceptions, a system of contrasts, observable distribution, and a mental faculty. The scope of the permitted object expands, contracts under Bloomfield, and expands again.

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