Diver’s Theory

Diver’s “Theory” (1995) is the most comprehensive and, in fact, the final statement by the founder of the Columbia School of that school’s contribution to an understanding of the essential nature of language. The unifying idea that runs through this statement is Diver’s insistence that a theory of language consist of a set of conclusions drawn from a body of individual analytical successes, that it not be a collection of a priori categories and speculations. Diver’s anti-apriorism opens the way to understanding the workings of language in terms of innovative and language-specific categories, and it brings the normal practice of linguistics into line with that of other natural sciences.