Abstract

This work joins a growing list of publications which are taking Chomsky’s conception of linguistics sharply to task. Such critical studies fall roughly into two groups: those that work out different transformational models of language ; and those that dissent from the entire generative approach to language. This book falls within the latter category. The dangers of the Chomskyan model are for Robinson that it will lead to a sharply restricted view of linguistics which on the one hand claims too much for that field of study and on the other bases its claim on a narrowly conceived and dogmatically defended model. For philosophers, this book will be of interest because, although Robinson himself is a linguist, he is aware of and utilizes the philosophical tradition represented by Wittgenstein and J. L. Austin in his critique of Chomsky.