1997, Semiotica 113(3/4): 223-256.

A discussion of the merits of scientific method as an approach to language study. The segregation of connections to referent & context into epistemological components by scientific philosophy is deemed unnatural. A review & contrast of the development of the structuralist theories of language of Ferdinand de Saussure, Otto Jespersen, Leonard Bloomfield, Louis Hjelmslev, & Zellig S. Harris are presented. The epistemological problem of experience in scientific philosophy discussed by Thomas S. Kuhn & Bruno Latour is also considered. It is argued that the direct connection between referent & context in a philosophical semiotic model allows integration of the many perspectives that influence the interpretation of natural language that a scientific approach does not. It is concluded that the new Chomskyan revolution sustains the myth of scientificity of language study. 41 References.

[T. Rosenberg, LLBA]