The influence of Bloomfield’s linguistics on Skinner

The Behavior Analyst - Tập 30 - Trang 133-151 - 2017
Maria de Lourdes R. da F. Passos1, Maria Amelia Matos2
1Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Shriver Center, Waltham, USA
2Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Tóm tắt

Bloomfield’s “Linguistics as a Science” (1930/1970), Language (1933/1961), and “Language or Ideas?” (1936a/1970), and Skinner’s Verbal Behavior (1957) and Science and Human Behavior (1953) were analyzed in regard to their respective perspectives on science and scientific method, the verbal episode, meaning, and subject matter. Similarities between the two authors were found. In particular both asserted that (a) the study of language must be carried out through the methods of science; (b) the main function of language is to produce practical effects on the world through the mediation of a listener; and (c) a physicalist conception of meaning. Their differences concern the subject matter of their disciplines and their use of different models for the analysis of behavior. Bloomfield’s linguistics and Skinner’s functional analysis of verbal behavior are complementary approaches to language.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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