Paradigm Shift in the Schools of European Structuralism: From Pre-Structuralism to Post-Structuralism

Abstract

The present article aims to review the paradigm shift, a concept proposed by Thomas Kuhn (1962), and how its manifestation in the developments of language studies contributed to the advent of different structural schools of European linguistics. To further explore the topic, this article begins by identifying the actual meaning of Kuhn’s paradigm shift and how it influenced other disciplines of science. Second, the history of structuralism is discussed and reviewed from two different perspectives, pre stage and the post stage of structuralism. The revolutions throughout the history of structuralism, primarily in the European context, led to paradigmatic shifts and the emergence of several influential and prominent structural schools, namely European structuralism, the Prague Linguistic Circle, and the London school of linguistics.