phi4313 chomsky

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%3DN


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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%3DN


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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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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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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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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.html


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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)

phi4313 chomsky

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