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Abstract
Introduction
Materialism and Its Critics
Some Questions of Legitimacy
References
All Topics
Psychology
Cognitive Science

New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind

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The articles explore Chomsky's internalist view of language, emphasizing the individualistic aspect of linguistic knowledge as an internal construct known as "I-language." The paper argues for a naturalistic approach to linguistics, asserting that language should be studied through methodologies of the natural sciences, which reframes traditional mind-body discussions and critiques the reductionist perspectives linking linguistics to neurology.

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This volume is endorsed as "truly exceptional in affording an accessible and readable introduction to Chomsky's broad based and cutting edge theorizing" (Stainton, back cover). Chomsky made undeniably important contributions to modern linguistics but his Minimalist Program and subsequent developments have been severely criticized. Hence a cutting edge account addressing these criticisms would be indeed desirable. The volume promises to cover a wide range of topics relevant to a 21st-century science of language. Twenty-five interviews are grouped in two sections. Part I introduces the reader to Chomsky's thought on the design and function of human language, language evolution, representationalism, the nature of human concepts, optimality and perfection of Universal Grammar, and Chomsky's intellectual contributions. Part II includes discussions of human nature, evolutionary psychology, morality, epistemology, and biological limits on human understanding. In addition McGilvray provides twelve appendices, chapter-by-chapter commentaries, and a glossary. In spite of the impressive table of contents, hope for finding cutting-edge insights and meaningful engagement with long standing criticism fades quickly. Most arguments for domainspecific innate biological endowment, saltational language evolution, semantic internalism, and computational optimality have been proposed for decades and are unsupported by evidence and/or citation of sources. Furthermore, it will be difficult, especially for the lay reader, to follow the presentation because terms are not clearly defined, the conversation meanders through countless obscure, irrelevant digressions, and far-reaching conclusions are often drawn from meager premises.

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Chomsky, Cognitive Science, Naturalism and Internalism
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the grammar of the language. As Chomsky (1986: 6) writes, a good traditional or pedagogical grammar provides a full list of exceptions (irregular verbs, etc.), paradigms and examples of regular constructions […]. But it does not examine the question of how the reader of the grammar uses such information to attain knowledge that is used to form and interpret new expressions, or the question of the nature and elements of this knowledge […] Generative grammar, in contrast, is concerned primarily with the intelligence of the reader, the principles and procedures brought to bear to attain full knowledge of a language.

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Chomsky's Contribution to Linguistics A Review
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International Journal of Linguistics and Culture

Cognition, language faculty, Universal Grammar, Principles and Parameters, Transformational Generative Grammar, Phrase Structure Rules, TransformationsThis review seeks to highlight Chomsky’s major contributions to the field of linguistics. He changed linguists’ conception about the nature of language, from an externalized to internalized approach. This shift also resulted in the language being thought of as a cognitive phenomenon rather than as a set of structures to be analyzed for their correctness or incorrectness. He argued that language is internalized, and not learned. His arguments to prove his stance introduced the concept of language faculty, its workings, Universal Grammar, Principles and Parameters, and Transformational and Generative Grammar. The TGG also significantly overhauled the existent phrase structure rules. These rules were brought to follow binarity principles that dictated that a node cannot have less than or more than two branches. Besides, the concept of U...

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The Linguistic Philosophy of Noam Chomsky
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Philosophy and Progress, 2014

Noam Chomsky, one of the most famous linguists of the twentieth century, based his linguistic works on certain philosophical doctrines. His main contribution to linguistics is Transformational Generative Grammar, which is founded on mentalist philosophy. He opposes the behaviourist psychology in favour of innatism for explaining the acquisition of language. He claims that it becomes possible for human child to learn a language for the linguistic faculty with which the child is born, and that the use of language for an adult is mostly a mental exercise. His ideas brought about a revolution in linguistics, dubbed as Chomskyan Revolution. According to him, the part of language which is innate to human being would be called Universal Grammar. His philosophy holds a strong propensity to rationalism in search of a cognitive foundation. His theory is a continuation of analytic philosophy, which puts language in the centre of philosophical investigation. He would also be identified as an es...

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BETWEEN LINGUISTICS AND PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE: THE DEBATE ON CHOMSKY’S NOTION OF “KNOWLEDGE OF LANGUAGE”
Giorgio Graffi

The paper focuses on the debate as it is dealt with in chapter 4 of Chomsky (1986), where the MIT linguist defends his own view of “knowledge of language”, especially answering some objections by Dummett. In this same chapter Chomsky also discusses some conclusions drawn by Kripke (1982) about the notion of “private language”, following and developing Wittgenstein’s view on the issue: Kripke’s arguments are not directed against Chomsky’s view of language and knowledge of language, but, if they were shown to be tenable, they would undermine the whole theoretical construction of generative grammar, as Chomsky himself (1986: 226) suggests. The paper therefore examines Chomsky’s answers to Kripke and Dummett and tries to give an assessment of the debate. Chomsky’s answers appear as essentially convincing; this does not mean, however, that the issue of what “knowledge of language” is has really found a completely satisfactory answer. This problem is dealt with in the final part of this paper, also referring to some suggestions by a cognitive scientist (Pylyshyn 1980; 1984).

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Ideal linguistics
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Language & Communication, 1988

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Our presentation is about Noam Chomsky’s famous theory, Universal Grammar, also called UG for short. 1
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Critique of linguistic knowledge
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This page intentionally left blank Cartesian Linguistics In this extraordinarily original and profound work, Noam Chomsky discusses themes in the study of language and mind since the end of the sixteenth century in order to explain the motivations and methods that underlie his work in linguistics, the science of mind, and even politics. This edition includes a new and specially written introduction by James McGilvray, contextualizing the work for the twenty-first century. It has been made more accessible to a larger audience; all the French and German in the original edition has been translated, and the notes and bibliography have been brought up to date. The relationship between the original edition (published in 1966) and contemporary biolinguistic work is also explained. This challenging volume is an important contribution to the study of language and mind, and to the history of these studies since the end of the sixteenth century.

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