STRUCTURE AND CREATIVITY: THE USE OF TRANSFORMATIONAL‐GENERATIVE MODELS IN ACTION THEORY*

Abstract

In recent years concepts drawn from linguistics have been used increasingly in social and political theory. Such concepts as deep structure, surface structure, transformation rules, etc., are borrowed from Chomsky's theory of transformational‐generative grammar. This paper examines two instances of this “linguistic drift” in action theory‐the work of Marshall Edelson on personality and Terrence Turner on kinship and socialization. Analysis shows that in these instances the analogies with the linguistic concepts are not very rigorous. The author makes some tentative statements about the current status and prospects of such research programs.