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Leonie Cornips and Karen P. Corrigan (eds.), Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2007

Ralph W. Fasold
Ralph W. Fasold
Affiliation:
Professor of Linguistics, Emeritus, Georgetown University, Alexandria, VA 22301-2451 USA, [email protected]
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Extract

Leonie Cornips and Karen P. Corrigan (eds.), Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2005. Pp. vi, 312. Hb $144.00.

Cornips & Corrigan's Syntax and variation: Reconciling the biological and the social presupposes that we have a biological and a social dimension to linguistics, that the biological dimension is represented by generative syntax, and that the two dimensions require reconciliation. Cornips & Corrigan (C&C) consider this reconciliation possibly to be “the initial phase in the creation of a mature scientific community” (p. 2). These presuppositions should be questioned. In the first place, it is questionable whether linguistics really has a biological dimension, at least if generative syntax is that dimension. Second, it is far from clear that reconciliation is necessary for linguistics to be considered a mature science.

Type
BOOK REVIEWS
Information
Language in Society , Volume 36 , Issue 5 , November 2007 , pp. 771 - 775
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

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References

REFERENCES

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