Fallacies in the Historiography of Generative Linguistics

The paper relates two different fields of research: the historiography of generative linguistics and argumentation theory, a central topic of which is the investigation of fallacies. Relating the two fields is a challenge: Since fallacies seem to be at the heart of the historiography of generative l...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Foundations of science 2019-12, Vol.24 (4), p.775-801
Main Author: Kertész, András
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Argumentation
Case studies
Education
Historiography
Language
Language history
Linguistics
Mathematical Logic and Foundations
Methodology of the Social Sciences
Philosophy
Philosophy of Science
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Summary:The paper relates two different fields of research: the historiography of generative linguistics and argumentation theory, a central topic of which is the investigation of fallacies. Relating the two fields is a challenge: Since fallacies seem to be at the heart of the historiography of generative linguistics, any thorough evaluation of its present state of the art also involves accounting for fallacies. The paper applies Kertész and Rákosi’s p-model of plausible argumentation to a case study on heated discussions in the historiography of generative linguistics. As a result, basic properties of fallacious argumentation are revealed and delimited from plausible argumentation in linguistic historiography. In addition, the paper also draws generalizable conclusions that may affect the historiography of other human sciences as well.
ISSN:1233-1821
1572-8471
DOI:10.1007/s10699-019-09612-9