About the Author
RYAN M. NEFDT is a philosopher of science who works on issues in linguistics, cognitive science, and AI at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of St Andrews, an MSc in Logic from the University of Amsterdam and an MA in
Philosophy from the University of Cape Town. He has held research positions at various institutions such as MIT, Pittsburgh, Edinburgh, Minnesota, Yale, and Michigan and has published in numerous journals including Linguistics & Philosophy, Mind & Language, Biology & Philosophy, Synthese, Philosophy Compass, and the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Early Reviews
Don Ross (Georgia State & Cork, UK)
"Linguistics, a core part of early cognitive science, has increasingly seemed to be the odd discipline out, as its partner fields have become less abstract and theory-led. In this deeply original book, Ryan M. Nefdt brings linguistics back into the party. He doesn’t propose to demote the place of theory. Instead, he shows how linguists can remain proud of their formal rigour, by becoming clearer about the empirical objects they’re studying.”
Edouard Machery (Pittsburgh)
“Ryan M. Nefdt’s book, Language, Science, and Structure: A Journey into the Philosophy of Linguistics, will change the philosophy of linguistics forever, anchoring it squarely in the
philosophy of science. In this rich, tightly argued, and beautifully written book, Nefdt illuminates a wealth of difficult questions about language and defends a realist, structuralist approach to linguistics—an approach that no philosopher of linguistics will be entitled to ignore.”
Geoff Pullum (Edinburgh)
“This is how philosophy of linguistics should be done: a posteriori philosophy of science by a scholar fully conversant with theory and practice in the relevant disciplines, firmly rooted in naturalism, ontological realism, and structural realist philosophy of mathematics. A major advance, important for theoretical linguists as well as philosophers.”