Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language

Siobhan Chapman; Christopher Routledge

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2009

Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language

Siobhan Chapman and Christopher Routledge

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748631421

Overview
Contents

About this book

This book offers introductory entries on 80 ideas that have shaped the study of language up to the present day. Entries are written by experts in the fields of linguistics and the philosophy of language to reflect the full range of approaches and modes of thought. Each entry includes a brief description of the idea, an account of its development, and its impact on the field of language study. The book is written in an accessible style with clear descriptions of technical terms, guides to further reading, and extensive cross-referencing between entries. A useful additional feature of this book is that it is cross-referenced throughout with Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language (Edinburgh, 2005), revealing significant connections and continuities in the two related disciplines. Ideas covered range from Sense Data, Artificial Intelligence, and Logic, through Generative Semantics, Cognitivism, and Conversation Analysis, to Political Correctness, Deconstruction, and Corpora.

Key Features

The only single-volume reference book to focus specifically on ideas from both linguistics and the philosophy of language
Accessibly written for use at all levels, including undergraduate, postgraduate, academic, and other general readers in the fields of linguistics and the philosophy of language
Extensively cross-referenced both within itself and with Key Thinkers in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language to provide a unique reference resource.

ERRATUM

The publisher and editors of Key Ideas in Linguistics and the Philosophy of Language wish to apologise for the errors of fact which they mistakenly introduced into the entries on Innateness and on Truth Values in this volume, errors which were neither originated nor seen by the authors, respectively Stavroula-Thaleia Kousta and Stephen McLeod. The corrected and author-approved entry on Innateness is printed here.

Innateness

The claim that some aspects of linguistic competence are genetically specified rather than learnt through experience. This claim has been driving research in generative linguistics and language acquisition since the late 1950s.

See also: Acceptability/Grammaticality; Continuity; Mentalism; Transformational-Generative Grammar; Universal Grammar

Key Thinkers: Chomsky, Noam; Descartes, René; Plato

Noam Chomsky proposed that humans possess domain- and species-specific knowledge of the structure of possible languages, which enables children to acquire language with the speed, efficiency and uniformity that they do. This view can be traced back to Platonic philosophy and Cartesian cognitivism. Opponents of this view claim that language acquisition is innately constrained but only by the same mechanisms that underlie general cognitive ability. In other words, although it is uncontroversial that linguistic development is innately constrained, exactly what is innate is still a matter of debate.

The argument that has most forcefully been used in support of the position that we are born with innate knowledge of linguistic constraints and principles is the poverty of the stimulus argument (Chomsky 1980: 34):

1. Language is a complex system that could only be acquired through experience if negative evidence was available (that is, information about what sequences are grammatically illicit).
2. Children only ever have access to positive evidence (information about grammatical sentences).
3. Despite this, children successfully acquire language.

If one accepts these premises, one has to conclude that humans are genetically hard-wired for language: children are born equipped with Universal Grammar (Chomsky 1981), containing information about universal linguistic principles which enable children to form specific hypotheses about the structure of the language they are learning. The proposed existence of a critical period for language (i.e. typical language acquisition is not possible after a certain age) and studies of deaf children who spontaneously develop sign language have been used as further evidence in support of linguistic nativism.

Opponents of linguistic nativism claim that the richness of empirical data actually available to children is vastly underestimated; that general cognitive ability can explain how language is learnt from experience; and that the poverty of the stimulus argument holds only given the generative definition of what language is. The most articulated alternative to the nativist perspective has been provided within connectionist psychology (Elman et al. 1996), where artificial neural networks are trained to reproduce complex linguistic behaviour based solely on past experience with relevant data.

Research on innateness has spurred comparative research with animals in an effort to identify exactly what aspect of linguistic knowledge could be species- and domain-specific. Parallel research in genetics also attempts to specify the genetic basis of language. In 2001, Lai and colleagues suggested that a mutation in the FOXP2 gene is causally involved in language disorders. Despite widespread enthusiasm in the popular press about the 'language gene', the exact role of this gene in relation to language development is far from clear.

Although the innateness question is still unresolved, interdisciplinary research that straddles the gap between linguistics, anthropology, artificial intelligence, genetics and neuroscience has opened up novel, exciting ways in which the question can be empirically addressed.

Primary sources

Chomsky, N. (1980). Rules and Representations. Oxford: Blackwell.

Chomsky, N. (1981). Lectures on Government and Binding: The Pisa Lectures. Holland: Foris Publications.

Further Reading

Elman, J. L., E. A. Bates, M. H. Johnson, A. Karmiloff-Smith, D. Parisi and K. Plunkett (1996). Rethinking Innateness: A connectionist perspective on development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hauser, M. D., N. Chomsky and W. T. Fitch (2002). 'The faculty of language: What is it, who has it, and how did it evolve?' Science 298, 1569-79.

Lai, C. S. L., S. E. Fisher, J. A. Hurst, F. Vargha-Khadem and A. P. Monaco (2001). 'A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in severe speech and language'. Nature 413: 519-23.

Stavroula-Thaleia Kousta

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Notes on Contributors Publicly Available Download PDF	x
Acceptability/Grammaticality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Adequacy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	2
Ambiguity/Vagueness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
Analytic Philosophy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	4
Analytic/Synthetic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	11
Artificial Intelligence Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	14
Behaviourism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Cognitivism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Compositionality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	24
Connotation/Denotation Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
Continuity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	26
Conventional Meaning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	28
Conversation Analysis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Corpora Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	36
Correspondence Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
Creativity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
Deconstruction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
Deduction/Induction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
Definite Descriptions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	54
Descriptivism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	57
(Critical) Discourse Analysis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	58
Distinctive Features Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	65
Emic/Etic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	66
Empiricism/Rationalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Feminism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	74
Generative Phonology Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	77
Generative Semantics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
Glossematics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
Holism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	81
Ideational Theories Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	84
Implicature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	86
Indeterminacy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
Innateness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
Integrationism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Intentionality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	100
Intuition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
Language Games Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	106
Language of Thought Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	110
Langue/Parole Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Linguistic Relativity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	116
Linguistic Variable Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
Logic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	120
Logical Form Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	127
Logical Positivism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
Mentalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
Metaphor Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	131
Minimalism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	134
Modality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	138
Model-theoretic Semantics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	139
Names Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
Nonnatural Meaning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	144
Optimality Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
Ordinary Language Philosophy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Performative Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	155
Phoneme Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	156
Politeness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	157
Political Correctness Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Port-Royal Logic Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
Possible World Semantics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	164
Poststructuralism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	170
Presupposition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Private Language Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	179
Propositional Attitudes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Propositions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	185
Prototype Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	186
Psychoanalysis Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	189
Relevance Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
Sense Data Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Sense/Reference Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
Signs and Semiotics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	205
Situational Semantics Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Speech Act Theory Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	212
Structuralism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
Systemic-Functional Grammar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	225
Transformational-Generative Grammar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	232
Truth Theories Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
Truth Value Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	244
Type/Token Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	246
Universal Grammar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
Use/Mention Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	250
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 272
Illustrations
- Other: 6 B/W illustrations
Keywords: Language & Linguistics

eBook

Published: January 19, 2009
ISBN: 9780748631421