Francis Yunqing Lin is a Chinese linguist and professor at
Beijing International Studies University
Beijing International Studies University (BISU; ; ) is a Types of universities and colleges in China, municipal public college of foreign languages in Chaoyang, Beijing, Chaoyang, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the City of Beijing, and ...
. He is known for his critique of
generative grammar
Generative grammar is a research tradition in linguistics that aims to explain the cognitive basis of language by formulating and testing explicit models of humans' subconscious grammatical knowledge. Generative linguists, or generativists (), ...
.
Critique of universal grammar
In an article, published in
''Lingua'', Lin tries to provide a refutation of
universal grammar based on methodological grounds. He points out that the very method for discovering the grammar makes it impossible to discover any innate linguistic universals.
John J. Kim (from
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...
) and Tong Wu (from
Central China Normal University
Central China Normal University (CCNU) is a public normal university located in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education, and co-funded by the Hubei Provincial People's Government. The university is part of Project ...
) has replied to Lin's views.
Lin has published a reply to Kim's arguments.
References
External links
What is really wrong with universal grammar
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
Linguists from China
Beijing International Studies University people
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Philosophers of linguistics
Philosophers of language
Alumni of the University of Essex
Academic staff of Beihang University
Academic staff of Beijing Normal University
Academics of Goldsmiths, University of London
Chinese computer scientists
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