David E. Johnson Explained

David E. Johnson (born December 21, 1946, in Princeton, New Jersey) is an American linguist. He is the co-inventor of arc pair grammar.

Work

Johnson is best known for his work on relational grammar, especially the development with Paul Postal in 1977 of arc pair grammar.^[1]

In the late 1990s, Johnson and Shalom Lappin published the first detailed critiques of Noam Chomsky's Minimalist program.^{[2] [3]} This work was followed by a lively debate with proponents of minimalism on the scientific status of the program^{[4] [5] [6]}

Sources

• Johnson, David E. (1974/1979). Toward a Theory of Relationally-based Grammar. Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics Series, ed. Jorge Hankamer. NY: Garland Publishing, Inc.
• Newmeyer, Frederick (1980). Linguistics in America. New York: Academic Press.

Notes and References

1. Johnson, David E. and Paul M. Postal (1980). Arc Pair Grammar. Princeton: PUP.
2. Johnson, David E. and Shalom Lappin (1997), "A Critique of the Minimalist Program" in Linguistics and Philosophy 20, 273-333
3. Johnson, David E. and Shalom Lappin (1999). Local Constraints vs Economy. Stanford: CSLI
4. • Lappin, Shalom, Robert Levine and David E. Johnson (2000a). "The Structure of Unscientific Revolutions." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 18, 665-771
5. Lappin, Shalom, Robert Levine and David E. Johnson (2000b). "The Revolution Confused: A Reply to our Critics." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 18, 873-890
6. Lappin, Shalom, Robert Levine and David E. Johnson (2001). "The Revolution Maximally Confused." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19, 901-919