Abstract
The early success in the United States of Chomsky’s book Syntactic Structures and the theory of transformational-generative grammar that it introduced raises the question of the reception of the theory in other countries. Looking at Europe, there is no overarching generalisation. In some countries (the UK, the Netherlands) the theory enjoyed a great success, in others a moderate success, at least for a time (France, Germany), and in other countries very little success (Italy, Spain). Nevertheless, there is widespread agreement that European contributions to the theory have been among the most important.
Highlights
The early success in the United States of Chomsky’s book Syntactic Structures and the theory of transformational-generative grammar that it introduced raises the question of the reception of the theory in other countries
Syntactic Structures presented a novel theory of syntax, transformational-generative grammar (TGG), though one that was rooted in existing structuralist traditions — in particular American
In his chapter, Manfred Bierwisch noted that there was nothing distinctive about TGG, as practiced in Europe, remarking: since the early sixties and increasing number of linguists in Europe have been attracted by the theory of generative grammar, they do not form in any serious sense a particular trend or
Summary
With a couple of exceptions to be discussed below, very few European countries had active centres of generative grammar before the 1970s or later. It is still the case that some European countries have no more than a small handful of generativists. The first collection of generative papers written and edited by European generativists did not appear until 1973 (Kiefer and Ruwet 1973), with contributions from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Poland, East Germany, West Germany, France, Hungary, the USSR, Sweden, and Romania.. In his chapter, Manfred Bierwisch noted that there was nothing distinctive about TGG, as practiced in Europe, remarking: since the early sixties and increasing number of linguists in Europe have been attracted by the theory of generative grammar, they do not form in any serious sense a particular trend or The first collection of generative papers written and edited by European generativists did not appear until 1973 (Kiefer and Ruwet 1973), with contributions from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Poland, East Germany, West Germany, France, Hungary, the USSR, Sweden, and Romania. In his chapter, Manfred Bierwisch noted that there was nothing distinctive about TGG, as practiced in Europe, remarking: since the early sixties and increasing number of linguists in Europe have been attracted by the theory of generative grammar, they do not form in any serious sense a particular trend or
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