Bulgarian polemics on American Generativism 1950s-1970s: a peek through the Iron curtain

Authors

  • Tzvetomira Venkova Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.15.2.7

Keywords:

generativism, Bulgarian generativism, Marxist criticism of generative grammar, linguistic historiography,, first Bulgarian generativists

Abstract

The paper discusses the attitude of Bulgarian linguistic circles towards American generative grammar at its birth and establishment in the period from the 1950s to the 1970s. Bulgarian treatment of generativism is analysed by following the two opposing lines in it: the hegemonic ideologically-biased rejection and its polemic support. An attempt is made to disregard the heat of discussions and rather focus on the underlying grounds of the criticism. The philosophical-ideological motivation of the polemics is considered, as well as the key topics of generative grammar, upheld by its proponents. In general, the analysis tends to the study of the processes of intellectual and cultural transfer in modern linguistics.

Author Biography

Tzvetomira Venkova, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski, Sofia, Bulgaria

Tzvetomira Venkova, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English and American Studies, St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, Bulgaria. She teaches courses in English syntax, computational linguistics and grammar analysis. Her research interests include English and Bulgarian syntax with special emphasis on modern generative grammars and on comparative syntactic studies, as well as computational applications of syntactic models, corpus linguistics, disambiguation models, and sociolinguistic aspects of grammar. Tzvetomira is an Alexander von Humboldt fellow (2005) and scholarship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service (1999).

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English Studies at NBU, Volume 1, Issue 2, 2015

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Published

2015-12-31

How to Cite

Venkova, T. (2015). Bulgarian polemics on American Generativism 1950s-1970s: a peek through the Iron curtain. English Studies at NBU, 1(2), 101–114. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.15.2.7

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2 (2015)

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