The document discusses Leonard Bloomfield, a prominent 20th century American linguist who established structural linguistics. It describes how Bloomfield initially developed his linguistic theory within Wilhelm Wundt's conceptualist psychology framework but later adopted behaviorism. Bloomfield analyzed language structure into hierarchical levels of phonemes, morphemes, words, phrases and sentences. He developed theories of phonology, morphology and syntax but less for semantics. Ultimately, structural linguistics declined because behaviorism could not adequately explain semantic theory for natural languages.

1. Lecturer: OFELIA M. SISON
Master of Arts in Education,
Major in English Language Teaching
Panpacific University North Philippines
Urdaneta City, Pangasinan
Professor: MARIA MARTHA MANETTE A. MADRID, Ph. D.

2. Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949) is, together
with Edward Sapir, one of the two most prominent
American linguists of the first half of the twentieth
century. His book Language (Bloomfield, 1933)
was the standard introduction to linguistics for
thirty years following its publication. Together with
his students, particularly Bernard Bloch, Zellig
Harris, and Charles Hockett, Bloomfield
established the school of thought that has come to
be known as American structural linguistics, which
dominated the field until the rise of GENERATIVE
GRAMMAR in the 1960s.

3. Throughout his career, Bloomfield was
concerned with developing a general and
comprehensive theory of language. His
first formulation (Bloomfield, 1914)
embedded that theory within the
conceptualist framework of Wilhelm Wundt
which was the psychology of language.
Wundtian theory had connection with the
notion like association and apperception
as foundation of language.

4. In the early 1920s, however,
Bloomfield abandoned that framework
in favor of BEHAVIORISM theory of
language. In repudiating the existence
of all mentalist constructs, Bloomfield
also repudiated the classical view that
the structure of language reflects the
structure of thought. For Bloomfield,
the structure of language was the
central object of linguistic study, and
hence of cognitive science..

5. Bloomfield maintained that all
linguistic structure could be
determined by the application of
analytic procedures starting with
the smallest units which combine
sound (or ‘vocal features’) and
meaning (or ‘stimulus-reaction
features’), called morphemes
(Bloomfield, 1926: 130).

6. Bloomfield went on to show how to
identify both smaller units (i.e.,
phonemes, defined as minimum units
of ‘distinctive’ vocal features) and
larger ones (words, phrases, and
sentences). Bloomfield developed rich
theories of both MORPHOLOGY and
SYNTAX, much of which was carried
over more or less intact into
generative grammar.

7. In morphology, Bloomfield paid careful
attention to phonological alternations of
various sorts, which led to the
development of the modern theory of
morphophonemics (see especially
Bloomfield, 1939). In syntax, he laid
the foundations of the theory of
constituent structure, including the
rudiments of xbar- 2 theory.
(Bloomfield, 1933: 194-195)

8. Bloomfield generated so much
enthusiasm for syntactic analysis that
his students felt that they were doing
syntax for the first time in the history of
linguistics. (Hockett, 1968: 31)
Bloomfield did not develop his theory
of SEMANTICS to the same extent as
he did his theories of PHONOLOGY,
MORPHOLOGY, and SYNTAX,
contenting himself primarily with
naming the semantic contributions of
various types of linguistic units.

9. Ultimately, American structural
linguistics failed not for its
inadequacies in phonology,
morphology, and syntax, but
because behaviorism does not
provide an adequate basis for the
development of a semantic theory
for natural languages.

10. The theory of behaviorism is
derived from a psychological
theory founded by J.B. Watson.
The followers of this theory are
Bloomfield, Skinner and several
others. The main principle of the
theory was mainly on analyzing
human behaviors in observable
stimulus - respond within
interaction.

11. Behaviorists belief, in language
learning, children obtain the language
through varied babblings and
mutterings which they try to imitate
the words which they heard from the
adults. And as the babbling and any
kind of efforts done by the children
are rewarded, this reward will
reinforce further articulation of
babblings and mutterings.

12. As the children grow, and reach
the age of 4-6, the babblings and
mutterings will develop into
appropriate language to be
applied in social context. And this
language will internalize and
develop into implicit
speech. According to Bloomfield
(1933), language learning is
perceived as a formation of habits.

13. The process of learning is the same
as learning other skills. The theory
was derived from the notion of
stimulus and response. The
behaviorist sees that learners are
exposed to numerous stimuli in the
environment and the contexts they
are in. They will respond to the
stimuli. Through repeated
reinforcement, the habits will form.

14. According to Ellis (1984), behaviorist
development was developing in
America and Western Europe around
1960s in which accepted that the
language development was a
product of stimulus-response. The
stimulus-response then develops in
the process of imitation, repetition
and reinforcement (Harmer, 2001;
Lightbown and Spada, 1999;
Richards and Rogers, 2001).

15. So, the second language development at
that time played around this acceptance. But
the truth is, there were hardly any empirical
studies of these in the language
development in the classroom. Behaviorist
was generally extrapolating the general
language learning theory base on the
experiment done onto human in the science
laboratory. This lack of proves was actually
one of a factor which led to the next idea in
language learning led by Chomsky in 1959;
as one of the pioneer in developing the
Innatism.

16. As conclusion in connection with
Behaviorism, language learning is:
1. A habit formation resembling the
formation of other habits – language is
learned in the way in which other habits
are learned
2. Nothing more than the acquisition of
new behavior or knowledge – takes place
when experience or practice causes a
change in a person’s knowledge or
behavior

17. 3.An external event involving an
observable change in behavior brought
about by the stimuli coming from the
environment – does not involve any
unobservable change in mental
knowledge since behavior can be
explained without the need to consider
internal mental states or consciousness
4. Addressed to only human beings –
acquire a language as discrete units of
habits, independently trained

18. Structuralism is the idea that many
phenomena do not occur in isolation,
but instead occur in relation to each
other, and that all related phenomena
are part of a whole with a definite, but
not necessarily defined, structure.
This theory can further be explained
through phonology, morphology and
syntax.

19.  Phonology – the study of
sounds in language
 Morphology – the study of the
structure of words that will
eventually form/give the
meaning
 Syntax – the study of the
interrelations of words in the
sentence

20. 1. Variation of pitch, stress,
vowels and consonants
2. Affixation
Example: fire – singular (object)
fire + s - plural
geese – not plural morpheme
duck+s – plural morpheme

21. 3. Reduplication - repetition
Example: bill – as payment
bill – as word
4. Homomorphy - homonym
Example: project (noun)
project (verb)

22. 5. Suppletion – conjugation
Example: dance, dances,
danced, dancing
6. Associational identification-relationship
lies within the
meaning of words
Example: flash, flicker, flare,
flame

23. 7. Initial and final root-forming
morpheme – resemblance in
sound
Example: glow & glare,
bump & lump
8. Derivational – root word
Example: eat = eater, eatable

24. 1. By modulations of pitch and of stress
(intonation)
Example: He ‘failed com’pletely to make
his meaning clear.
*completely is the attribute of failed
2. By crossreferring constructions
(agreement of subject and predicate)
Example: Many fires break out.
*both fires and break are plural

25. 3. By congruence ( agreement in gender,
number and case)
Example: He takes with him his laptop.
*he, him, his – masculine, singular
4. By government or rection (possessive
case)
Example: her hair, hers is long
5. By word order ( subject followed by
predicate)
Example: Many fires/ break out.
subject predicate

26. Bloomfieldian theory of language is
analyzed in terms of hierarchy of
smaller elements: phrases, words and
morphemes. The elements called
“forms”, are all said to have
“meanings”. The most basic meanings
of a language are those associated
with morphemes but these can be
analyzed into smaller phonological
units, called “phonemes”.

27. Thus: phonemes combined to form
morphemes. Associated with each
morpheme is a unit of meaning.
Morphemes combine
phonologically and semantically to
form words; words combine
phonologically and semantically to
form phrases. Phrases in turn
combine to make larger forms; the
maximal phrases or a language
are called sentences.

28. Certainly, if Bloomfieldian
structuralism is, as Chomsky wrote
in 1964, “a kind of pre-Darwinian
taxonomy concerned solely with
the collection and classification of
countless specimens”, it has little
to recommend it. But this
characterization of the work of the
period is not accurate.

29. Indeed it has some features that make
it as attractive theory of linguistic form
as generative grammar conceived.
What is required is not a disparaging
dismissal of Bloomfieldian
structuralism, but a reconstruction of it
using the more sophisticated formal
apparatus of logico-mathematical
linguistics that has recently been
developed as an adjunct to work in
generative grammar.

30.  Bloomfield, L., 1914, An Introduction to the
Study of Language. New York: Henry Holt.
 Bloomfield, L., 1926, ‘A set of postulates for the
science of language.’
 Language2: 153-164.Reprinted in Hockett,
1970, pp. 128-138.
 Bloomfield, L., 1933, Language. New York:
Henry Holt.
 Bloomfield, L., 1935, ‘Linguistic aspects of
science.’

31.  THANK YOU
SALAMAT
AGYAMANAK
MUCHOS GRACIAS