Leonard Bloomfield
American linguist who led the development of structural linguistics in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s.
During the 1930s and 1940s, structural linguistics in the United States was advanced under the leadership of Leonard Bloomfield, an American linguist.[1] American distributionalism has Bloomfield as its acknowledged originator.[1]
Quick Facts
- Born
- 1 April 1887
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, US
- Died
- 18 April 1949
- Place of death
- New Haven, Connecticut, US
- Education
- Harvard College
- University of Wisconsin
- University of Chicago
- University of Leipzig
- University of Göttingen
- Thesis year
- 1909
- Workplaces
- University of Cincinnati, University of Illinois, Ohio State University, University of Chicago, Yale University
- Fields
- Linguistics, ethnolinguistics
Facts from the source article.
Life and work
Bloomfield was instructor in German at the University of Cincinnati from 1909 to 1910.[2] Bloomfield undertook linguistic field work on Plains Cree during the summer of 1925 as Assistant Ethnologist with the Geological Survey of Canada.[2] Chicago, Illinois was the birthplace of Leonard Bloomfield on April 1, 1887; his parents were Carola and Sigmund Bloomfield, who were Jewish.[3] From 1903 to 1906, Bloomfield was a student at Harvard College, where he earned an A.B. degree.[4]
Bloomfield decided to make linguistics his career after encountering Indo-Europeanist Eduard Prokosch at the University of Wisconsin.[4] In 1913 and 1914, Bloomfield pursued additional education at the University of Leipzig and the University of Göttingen, studying under prominent Indo-Europeanists such as August Leskien, Karl Brugmann, and Hermann Oldenberg.[5] A severe stroke in May 1946 brought Bloomfield's career to a close.[2]
What the cited sources add
A source on Harrisian distributionalism states that Bloomfield laid the foundations for the distributional methodology.[6] The same source explains that Harrisian distributionalism explicates Bloomfield's affirmation that the form of an utterance and the meaning it conveys are two aspects of the same thing.[6]
References
- Wikipedia, "Leonard Bloomfield" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Flack, "Roman Jakobson and the Transition of German Thought to the Structuralist Paradigm", Acta Structuralica, 2016, p. 1–15; ""Harrisian distributionalism is usually represented as a prime exemplar of the alleged striving of 'Bloomfieldians' to eliminate meaning from linguistics. In fact, it explicates Leonard Bloomfield's affirmation that the; Bloomfield, Leonard, 1933 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Leonard Bloomfield" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bloch, Bernard, 1949, p. 88; Hockett, Charles, 1987, p. 40; Born, Renate (2005), 'Bloomfield, Leonard', in Strazny, Philip (ed.), "Encyclopedia of Linguistics", New York: Fitzroy Dearborn (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Leonard Bloomfield" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Depres, Leon, 1987, p. 11, Fn. 1; Hall, Robert, 1990, pp. 5–6 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Leonard Bloomfield" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hall, Robert, 1990, pp. 7–8 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Leonard Bloomfield" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hall, Robert, 1990, p. 16; Rogers, David, 1987; Hall, Robert, 1990, pp. 13–14 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- ""Harrisian distributionalism is usually represented as a prime exemplar of the alleged striving of 'Bloomfieldians' to eliminate meaning from linguistics. In fact, it explicates Leonard Bloomfield's affirmation that the. facts only, no text reused. zelligharris.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Leonard Bloomfield (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Scientists & Inventors
Elsewhere in Historical Figures
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced
