Saussure's influence was restricted to American linguistics which was dominated by the advocates of Wilhelm Wundt's psychological approach to language, especially Leonard Bloomfield (1887–1949). The Bloomfieldian school rejected Saussure's and other structuralists' sociological or even anti-psychological (e.g. Louis Hjelmslev, Lucien Tesnière) approaches to the theory of language. Problematically, the post-Bloomfieldian school was nicknamed 'American structuralism', confusing. Although Bloomfield denounced Wundt's Völkerpsychologie and opted for behavioural psychology in his 1933 textbook Language, he and other American linguists stuck to Wundt's practice of analysing the grammatical object as part of the verb phrase. Since this practice is not semantically motivated, they argued for the disconnectedness of syntax from semantics, thus fully rejecting structuralism.
Saussure's influence was restricted to American linguistics which was dominated by the advocates of Wilhelm Wundt's psychological approach to language especially Leonard Bloomfield (1887–1949) The Bloomfieldian school rejected Saussure's and other structuralists' sociological or even anti-psychological (e.g Louis Hjelmslev, Lucien Tesnière) approaches to the theory of language. Problematically, the post-Bloomfieldian school was nicknamed 'American structuralism', confusing. Although Bloomfield denounced Wundt's Völkerpsychologie and opted for behavioural psychology in his 1933 textbook Language, he and other American linguists stuck to Wundt's practice of analysing the grammatical object as part of the verb phrase. Since this practice is not semantically motivated, they argued for the disconnectedness of syntax from semantics, thus fully rejecting structuralism.