Empirical Linguistics of
Zellig S. Harris
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Source material on the work of Zellig Harris in language, information, applied mathematics, and the foundations of linguistics.
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Ongoing research and applications in linguistics, informatics, computer science, mathematics, philosophy of science, and social change.
Major Contributions
- Overview
- Formal methods of analysis
Linguistics as an empirical science, with applications in natural language processing, parsing, and generation. - Theory of science
sublanguages
With applications in the organization and management of information in medicine, science, and technology. - Theory of Information
With applications in data processing, information extraction, information retrieval, knowledge acquisition and machine learning. - Universal theory of
language
With applications in language comparison and classification, language learning in children and adults, and an account of the origin and evolution of language. - A Grammar of English on Mathematical
Principles
Published by Wiley Publishing.
Une grammaire de l'anglais selon des principes mathématiques
French translation of first two chapters (unpublished).
The Bampton Lectures
Four seminal lectures on the theory of language and information:
- Shows how words carry meaning and how sentences carry information.
- Explains the properties of language, with a plausible account of its origin and development (which we may be just beginning).
- Indicates what is needed to know a language, and that child language requires no special explanatory principles.
The Paris Lectures
Lecture Notes on English Transformational Grammar
Université de Paris VIII, 1974
(Transl. 1976 by Maurice Gross: Notes du course de syntaxe,
Paris: Editions du Seuil.)
Cover
Table of
contents
1. Overview
2. Operators
3. The
reductions
4. The
grammar in terms of the variants
Selected
Computer Applications
Book of Ongoing Research
The Legacy of Zellig Harris: Language
and Information into the 21st Century
John
Benjamins Publishing Company, 2002
Conferences
The Legacy of Zellig Harris: Language and Information into the
21st Century
University of Pennsylvania, January 2003
L’héritage de Zellig Sabbetai Harris
Duino-Aurisina, 20–22 juin 2014
Book Reviews
- String analysis of sentence structure—Karel Pala (1964)
- Aspects of the theory of syntax, by N. Chomsky—H. Hiż (1967)
- A Leonard Bloomfield anthology—Z. Harris (1973)
- A grammar of English on Mathematical Principles—B. Nevin (1982)
- Language and Information—B. Nevin (1988)
- The Form of Information in Science—S. Johnson (1989)
- A Theory of Language and Information —T. Langendoen (1994)
- The Transformation of Capitalist Society—B. Nevin (1997)
- The Legacy of Zellig Harris, vol. 1—J. Goldsmith (Language 2002)
- The Legacy of Zellig Harris, vol. 2—J. Goldsmith (Language book notice, 2002)
- Zellig
Harris: From American linguistics to socialist Zionism, by
Robert F. Barsky—B. Nevin (2011)
Bibliographies
Other Resources
On empirical linguistic methodology and results
- Zellig Harris's methodology of language and information—Ryckman
- A minimalist program for linguistics—Nevin
- Structural semantics—Hoenigswald
- Congrammaticality, batteries of transformations, and grammatical categories—Hiż
- Harris on the structure of language—Corcoran
- On the failure of Generative Grammar—Gross
- Consequences of the metalanguage being included in the language—Gross
- Grammar and information: an investigation in linguistic metatheory—Ryckman
- Cross-reference in a scientific sublanguage—Gottfried
- Some informational properties of prepositions—Ryckman & Gottfried
- Reflections on references to mathematics in the work of Zellig Harris—Tr. of Lentin (1990)
- Le « sens » et l’ « information » chez Harris—Leeman
- Les
grammaires de Harris et leurs questions
(Langages, 25e année, n°99, 1990)
- Présentation—Daladier
- La genèse de l'analyse des transformations et de la métalangue—Tr. of Harris (2002b)
- De la structure d'une langue aux structures de l'information dans le discours et dans les sous-langages scientifiques—Ryckman
- Sur la notion harrissienne de transformation et son application au français—Maurice Gross
- Aspects constructifs des grammaires de Zellig Harris—Daladier
- Quelques réflexions sur les références mathématiques dans l'oeuvre de Zellig Harris—Lentin
- Une représentation applicative des énoncés et de leurs dérivations—Daladier
- L'inconsistance de la théorie des opérateurs de Harris: de la fin des grammaires finitistes à une typologie inductive—Daladier (published in Perspectives Harrissiennes)
- An embodied grammar of words—Nevin
Grammaire incarnée de mots—Nevin & Chachu (translation prepared for Perspectives Harrissiennes) - Freeing linguistics from computationalism—Nevin (published in Perspectives Harrissiennes)
- A letter from Zellig Harris to André Lentin: Explanatory notes. Nevin (HL 2020), Harris (1991)
By Zellig Harris
Some of these are available in Papers in structural and transformational linguistics (1970) or Papers on syntax (1981).
- The background of transformational and metalanguage analysis—Harris (2002b); original English text of Harris (1990)
- La genèse de l'analyse des transformations et de la métalangue—Tr. of Harris (2002b)
- Transfer Grammar (1954)
- Distributional Structure (1954)
- Co-occurrence and transformation in linguistic structure (1957)
- Transformations in linguistic structure (1964)
- Summary of transformational primitives for Claris French paper (ms) (ca. 1968)
- New views on language (1972)
- A theory of language structure (1976)
- Operator-Grammar of English (1978)
- Grammar on mathematical principles (1978)
- The interrogative in a syntactic framework (1978)
- Mathematical analysis of language (1982)
- Discourse and Sublanguage (1982)
- On grammars of science (1985)
- Language and Information (1988)
- Science sublanguages and the prospects for a global language of science— (1988, with Mattick)
- The structure of science information (2002[1987])
History
- Founding of the Linguistics Department at Penn—University of Pennsylvania Archive
- The background of transformational and metalanguage analysis—Harris (2002b); original English text of Harris (1990)
- Harris the revolutionary: Phonemic theory—Nevin
- Noam and Zellig—Nevin
- More concerning the roots of transformational generative grammar—Nevin
- On the possible origin of lexicon-grammar tables: speculations from an unpublished manuscript of Zellig Harris—Nakamura
Wikipedia
In Remembrance
The Research Community
Linguists continuing and extending Harris's work
Social change
- Frame of Reference for Social Change (FoR). Beginning in the early 1940s, Harris collaborated with colleagues in diverse science fields to apply a modern scientific analysis to problems of how best to foster the emergence of successors to capitalist structures, processes, and expectations, not conceived a priori but emergent, initially in niches that are socially necessary but difficult to exploit for profit. In this framework, individual and group political actions can be more coherent. A collection of photocopied FoR writings was deposited by Seymour Melman in the Columbia University Library and at the University of Pennsylvania in the Van Pelt Library.
- Book manuscript. To avoid entrapment in the conceptual frameworks and presuppositions of radical-left political and sociological thought, which presuppose (and therefore perpetuate) capitalist constructs, the FoR workers developed a new terminology and forms of analysis. A book was submitted for publication to Victor Gollancz in London. A notoriously interventionist editor, he returned it with the direction "Now write it in English," that is, using familiar concepts and terminology.
- The direction of social change. Harris circulated this rewritten manuscript to publishers. Certain further developments of the text are indicated but not yet completed, especially in the later chapters.
- The transformation of capitalist society. After Harris's death in 1992, a complete manuscript was prepared for publication by Murray Eden, Seymour Melman, and William Evan. The publisher changed the title. It was published posthumously in 1997.