Bloomfield: A Grammar System

Abstract

Broadly speaking, Saussure’s notion of the linguistic system is taken to be a ‘grammar system’ in structural linguistics. This system of grammar consists of three core parts: phonology, morphology and syntax. Commonly held to be the founding father of structural linguistics in America, Bloomfield developed in ‘A Set of Postulates for the Science of Language’ (1926), for the first time, an analytic system to provide a rigid approach of structural linguistic analysis. Since around 1930s, his works on descriptive methodologies have exerted extensive impact on the description of grammars. He initiated a golden period of linguistics which saw the publication of grammar books, documentation of diverse languages, opening of new university courses, and involvement of linguists in providing training for military purposes. At the very beginning of developing structural linguistics, Bloomfield was eager to sever the links of linguistics with other disciplines because he deemed it crucial to confer an independent scientific status upon linguistics. For example, in the manifesto for Linguistic Society of America, Bloomfield called for the establishment of a separate institution different from ‘the existing societies, Philological, Oriental, Modern Language, Anthropological, Psychological, and what not’ (Bloomfield, 1925, p. 1). By doing this, Bloomfield sought to confirm the scientific status of linguistics. His efforts of formulating linguistic methods in scientific terms and organizing them into a discrete body of practices were well received.