Blurb:

This chapter traces the origin and first developments of Relational Network Theory (RNT), from related ideas of Baudouin de Courtenay, Saussure, Jakobson, Whorf, and Hjelmslev to Sydney Lamb’s early contributions. The descriptive tenets of RNT are set against the backdrop of contemporary trends in linguistics. Specifically, RNT deviated from mainstream accounts in the 50s and 60s by characterizing language structure in connectionist terms, without incorporating a priori generative or otherwise descriptive procedures. Such foundations would eventually allow the theory to meet the requirements of operational, developmental, and neurological plausibility.