Nick Enfield

Bloomfield and stimulus-response

In the days of behaviorism (now coming back it seems), Bloomfield (1933, Chapter 2) writes about the function of language. He sets up with an example: “Suppose that Jack and Jill are walking down a lane. Jill is hungry. She sees an apple in a tree. She makes a noise with her larynx, tongue, and lips. Jack vaults the fence, climbs the tree, takes the apple, brings it to Jill, and places it in her hand. Jill eats the apple.” He points out that the speech Jill produces is a link in a chain of events. In his example, language allows a speaker’s stimulus to result in a hearer’s response. Or as Bloomfield put it: “Language enables one person to make a reaction when another person has the stimulus.”