Pullum’s philosophy of linguistics: towards a unified framework

Abstract Geoffrey Pullum has produced countless contributions to linguistic theory over his 50-year career in the field. Given this exceptional scientific achievement, his philosophical work often goes underappreciated. In this article, I discuss and critique three themes from Pullum’s philosophy of linguistics, namely, cardinality neutrality, model-theoretic syntax and normativity in language. I conclude by showing how these seemingly disparate elements might indeed be connected in terms of a normative constructivist approach to linguistics.

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Publication Details

Journal
Journal of Linguistics
Published
2024-12-20
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022226724000240
Primary Topic
Historical Linguistics and Language Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Pullum’s philosophy of linguistics: towards a unified framework

Ryan M. Nefdt
Journal of Linguistics
Historical Linguistics and Language Studies
article

Pullum’s philosophy of linguistics: towards a unified framework

Ryan M. Nefdt
article en

Abstract

Abstract Geoffrey Pullum has produced countless contributions to linguistic theory over his 50-year career in the field. Given this exceptional scientific achievement, his philosophical work often goes underappreciated. In this article, I discuss and critique three themes from Pullum’s philosophy of linguistics, namely, cardinality neutrality, model-theoretic syntax and normativity in language. I conclude by showing how these seemingly disparate elements might indeed be connected in terms of a normative constructivist approach to linguistics.

Journal of Linguistics
University of Cape Town (ZA), University of Bristol (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 59%
Historical Linguistics and Language Studies
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