Sydney Lamb
Sydney MacDonald Lamb is an American linguist. He is the Arnold Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Rice University. His scientific contributions have been wide-ranging, including those to historical linguistics, computational linguistics, and the theory of linguistic structure.
Lamb is best known for his development of Relational Network Theory, starting in the early 1960s. The key insight of RNT is that linguistic systems such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics are best described as networks of relationships rather than computational operations upon symbols. Lamb developed a set of graphical formalisms, known as "abstract" and "narrow" relational network notation, for the analysis of linguistic networks based on the system network notation created by Michael Halliday for Systemic Functional Linguistics.
Between the 1960s and 1990s, he further developed RNT by exploring its possible relationships to neurological structures and to thinking processes, especially the hypothesis that the nodes in his relational networks might correspond to cortical columns or minicolumns in the human neocortex.
Lamb is best known for his development of Relational Network Theory, starting in the early 1960s. The key insight of RNT is that linguistic systems such as phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics are best described as networks of relationships rather than computational operations upon symbols. Lamb developed a set of graphical formalisms, known as "abstract" and "narrow" relational network notation, for the analysis of linguistic networks based on the system network notation created by Michael Halliday for Systemic Functional Linguistics.
Between the 1960s and 1990s, he further developed RNT by exploring its possible relationships to neurological structures and to thinking processes, especially the hypothesis that the nodes in his relational networks might correspond to cortical columns or minicolumns in the human neocortex.
