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General term for variously developed branches of V Vpioneered
above all by E.Sapir (1884±1939) and L.Bloomfield (1887±1949). Although the
various schools cannot be clearly distinguished from one another, a distinction
is made between two general phases: the so-called µBloomfield Era,¶
andV
V with Z.Harris as chief representative. Common to all
branches are certain scientific prerequisites which decisively influenced the
specific methodological orientation of American structuralism. At first.
an interest in dying Native American languages brought about interdisciplinary
research in linguistics and anthropology. The occupation with culturally distant
and as yet completely unresearched languages, which existed only orally, was a
significant catalyst for the paroleoriented, purely descriptive methods of
American structuralism
V
. The works of E.Sapir and F.Boas
are significant ( u
). The theoretical and methodological format
came to be determined in large part by the principles of behaviorist
psychology
V. Following the natural sciences, this direction of
research reduces the object of its investigation to sensorally perceptible data
and draws on observations made in animal experiments to explain human
behavior. This restriction to an exact analysis of objectively experienced data
meant that the problem of meaning was deemed an extralinguistic
phenomenon, whereas
and were subject to a strictly
formal analysis, based on the V
V ofV
and VVu
. Methodologically, American
structuralism is characterized by empirical
V and inductive
procedures, in which only the identification and arrangement of linguistic
elements are relevant for grammatical description.
( VV V V
).
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