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8/14/2019 Phi4313 Chomsky
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PHI 4313:Philosophy of Language:
Humboldt & the Continental European Heritage :
http://images.google.com.hk/imgres?imgurl=www.funglode.org/instcolaboradoras/imagenes/LogoFOG.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.funglode.org/menu/instituciones/internacionales/default.htm&h=311&w=379&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dortega%2By%2Bgasset%26start%3D40%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Dzh-TW%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26oe%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN8/14/2019 Phi4313 Chomsky
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Main figures discussed
Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1835)
Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913)
Roman Jakobson (1896-1982)
Noam Chomsky (1928- )
http://images.google.com.hk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/human-rights/images/Noam_Chomsky.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.lse.ac.uk/Depts/human-rights/Chomsky.htm&h=1440&w=2160&sz=194&tbnid=Ip8ZeJzS8PEJ:&tbnh=100&tbnw=150&start=3&prev=/images%3Fq%3DNoam%2BChomsky%26hl%3Dzh-TW%26lr%3D%26sa%3DNhttp://images.google.com.hk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.phenomenologycenter.org/images/jakobson.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.phenomenologycenter.org/images/&h=446&w=310&sz=68&tbnid=dmb_-r-6SXwJ:&tbnh=123&tbnw=86&start=5&prev=/images%3Fq%3Droman%2Bjakobson%26hl%3Dzh-TW%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN8/14/2019 Phi4313 Chomsky
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Biology, then and now
Mathematics
Physics
Linguistics the new science
As a Tool of expression?
As a Social Institution, means of communication As Intellectual competence
As World-views, as Mans means of discerning the world
House of Being(Haus des Seins)?
Language as a system
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Quotations from Chomsky (1)
Erzeugung(17) -> generative grammar. Spracherzeugung(20)
[die Sprache] muss daher von endlichen Mitteln einen unendlichen Gebrauchmachen.(17) The fact that every language makes infinite use of finite means(W. von Humboldt) has long been understood. (LM 127)
The generative grammar internalizedby someone who has acquired a language
defines what in Saussurean terms we may call langue.(10) Concept of Internalization(CIL 11, 112; LM 119, 170)
For Humboldt, as for many others before and since, a worddoes not stand directlyfor a thing, but rather for a concept. There can, accordingly, be a multiplicity ofexpressions for the same objects, each representing a way in which this object has
been conceived through workings of the process ofSpracherzeugung
(20)
Consequently, a language should not be regarded merely, or primarily, as ameans of communication, and the instrumentaluse of language is derivativeand subsidiary.(21)
Schopenhauer: (PP-II-620) Polyglottism, neben seinen vielen mittelbarenNutzen, auch ein direktes Bildungsmitteldes Geistes ist.
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Quotations from Chomsky (2)
The notions deep structureand surface structureare intended as explications ofthe Humboldtian notions inner formof a sentenceand outer formof a sentence(the
general notion formis probably more properly to be related to the notion generative
grammaritself. The terminology is suggested by the usage familiar in contemporary
analytic philosophy [cf., for example, Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations 168
(Oxford, 1953)]. C.F. Hockett has also used these terms [A course in modern linguistics,Ch. 29 (New York, 1958)] in roughly the same sense.(Topics in the Theory of
Generative Grammar, 1966, p.16)
It is, however, important to be aware of the fact that the concept generative grammar
itself is no very great innovation. The fact that every language makes infinite use of
finite means
(Wilhelm von Humboldt) has long been understood. Modern work ingenerative grammar is simply an attempt to give an explicit account of howthe finite
meansare put to infinite usein particular languages and to discover the deeper
properties that define human languagein general..(Language & Mind,127)
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Quotations from Chomsky (3)
reservation against empiricism
The childs ultimate knowledge of language obviously extends far beyond the datapresented to him. In other words, the theoryhe has in some way developed has a
predictive scopeof which the data on which it is based constitute a negligible part.
(Language & Mind,171)
Until quite recently, no one, to my knowledge, was aware of this phenomenon
I also think, and have argued elsewhere, that the empiricistdoctrines that have beenprevalent in linguistics, philosophy, and psychology in recent years, if formulated in a
fairly precise way, can be refuted by careful study of languagethese conclusions are
relevant to philosophy, both in its classical and modern varieties.(Language & Mind,
172)
It seems to me that present theories of transformational generative grammar provide abasis for extending and deepening our understanding of linguistic structure. In any
event, whether or not this hope is ultimately justified, it seems clear that to pursue the
goals of 1 in any serious way, it is necessary to go far beyond the restricted
framework of modem taxonomic linguistics and the narrowly-conceivedempiricism from
which it springs.(CIL 113)
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Quotations from Chomsky (4)
Linguistic creativity Rule governed creativity
Rule changing creativity (ironic, poetic, metaphoric and philosophic-speceulative
use of language)
Sapir:All grammar leaks.
Problems vs Mysteries
Our minds are fixed biological systems with their intrinsic scope and limits. Wecan distinguish between problems, which lie within these limits and can be
approached by human science with some hope of success, and what we might call
mysteries, questions that simply lie beyond the reach of our minds, structuredand organized as they are.(Rules & Representations, page 6.)
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Piaget and Apel on ChomskyPiaget:
Bloomfield: Baconian-inductive model
Chomsky: Keplerian-deductive model Chomsky: Within the empirical bounds just stated, we are free to
construct theories of innate structures and to test them in terms of theirempirical consequences.(LM: 170)
Apel:
Descartes
Res extensa => Newton
Res cogitans => Chomsky (the Newton of res cogitans)
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Chomsky Critics
George Lakoff Cognitive Linguistics / core-periphery distinction
Charles Fillmorecase grammar
William SY Wang
Bresnan, Joan: "He revolutionized linguistics but did it in a divisiveway," says former student Joan Bresnan, now a respected linguist atStanford University, in California. He's a polarizer. He's createdwarring schools.http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/3761/profile.html
Mason, Timothy, Could Chomsky be wrong?http://www.timothyjpmason.com/WebPages/LangTeach/CounterChomsky.htm
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/3761/profile.htmlhttp://www.timothyjpmason.com/WebPages/LangTeach/CounterChomsky.htmhttp://www.timothyjpmason.com/WebPages/LangTeach/CounterChomsky.htmhttp://www.timothyjpmason.com/WebPages/LangTeach/CounterChomsky.htmhttp://www.timothyjpmason.com/WebPages/LangTeach/CounterChomsky.htmhttp://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/3761/profile.html8/14/2019 Phi4313 Chomsky
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Chomsky criticizes Saussure from a Humboldtian aspect
Saussure, like Whitney [], regards langue as basically a store of signswiththeir grammatical properties, that is, a store of word-like elements, fixedphrases and, perhaps, certain limited phrase types (though it is possible thathis rather obscure concept of "mecanisme de la langue" was intended to gobeyond this - cf. Godel, 1957,250). He was thus quite unable to come to gripswiththe recursive processes underlying sentence formation, and he appearsto regard sentence formation as a matter of parole rather than langue, of freeand voluntary creation rather than systematic rule [])There is no place in his scheme for "rule-governed creativity" of the kindinvolved in the ordinary everyday use of language. At the same time, theinfluence of Humboldtian holism(but now restricted to inventories andparadigmatic sets, rather than to the full-scale generative processes thatconstitute Form) is apparent in the central role of the notions "terme" and
"valeur" in the Saussurian system.Modern linguistics is much under the influence of Saussure's conception oflangue as an inventory of elements(Saussure, 1916, 154, and elsewhere,frequently) and his preoccupation with systems of elements rather than thesystems of ruleswhich were the focus of attention in traditional grammar andin the general linguistics of Humboldt.
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Chomsky and Kant
Descartes and Cudworth believed the mind to be endowed withthe principles of Euclidian geometry as an a priori property. Wesee a presented irregular figure as a (possibly distorted) triangle,straight line, circle, and so forth, because our minds producethese figures as exemplars, just as the intelligible essences of
things
are produced by
the innate cognoscitive power
.
InKants phrase, objects conform to our modes ofcognition. (Rules and Representations, page 246)Tracing the development of such ideas, we arrive at Kantsrather similar concept of the conformity of objects to our mode ofcognition, the mind provides the means for an analysis of data asexperience, and provides as well a general schematismthatdelimits the cognitive structures developed on the basis ofexperience.(Reflections on Language, p7)
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Schopenhauer: On Language and WordsLearning of several languages is not an indirect, but direct, means of acquiringculture
When one knows many languages, just as many times is one a man (So vieleSprache Einer kann, so viele Mal ist er ein Mensch / Quot linguas quis callet, tothomines valet)Charles V (1500-1558)
For every word in a given language there is not the exact equivalent in everyother
Nuances
linguistic valueaccording to Saussure
Dictionary entries of a word in a different language like shifted circles
Learning of foreign languages
we learn not merely words, but gain concepts and ideas,
ie. concept spheres arise where there were previously none
Learning Latin: remoulded and recast
connections and references, previously not known, are discovered
we thus obtain a more comprehensive view of everything
in every language we think differentlythrough the study of each new language,our thinking undergoes a fresh modificationand that polyglottism with its manyindirectuses is, therefore, a direct means of mental culture
Polyglottism (bilingualism vs triangulation) (Grice, Holenstein, Kwan)