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What language is “mentalese”?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2003

Dan I. Slobin
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650 slobin@socrates.berkeley.edu http://ihd.berkeley.edu

Abstract

Carruthers’ “mentalese expressions” take the form of English sentences, thus suggesting an isomorphism between thought and language that ignores linguistic diversity. Furthermore, complex syntax is not the only linguistic means of combining information from various domain-specific modules into domain-general expressions, nor is such syntax the preferred means of encoding basic experiences in all languages. The analysis seems to rest on an unacknowledged version of linguistic determinism.

Type
Brief Report
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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