Modern Linguistics

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Modern Linguistics Human Nature????????
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Topics

• The Nature / Nurture Issue
• The Argument for Mental Grammar
• The Argument for Innate Knowledge
• The Argument for the Construction of Experience
• Mental Capacities other than Language Music
• Final Thoughts
• Suggested Readings / References

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The Nature / Nurture Issue?? / ????

• How did a person acquire his/her personal traits?
• How much from nature? How much nurture?
• Two extreme positions
• 1. Humans born as genetically programmed machines
• Suggested in, e.g., irresistible desires.
• Uselessness of education

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• 2. Humans born as tabula rasa (??)
• Suggested in, e.g., effective education
• Utmost significance of education
• Cf. Steven Pinkers (2002) criticism of tabula
  rasa as a modern myth
• A reasonable middle-way
• Partly nature and partly nurture
• But how much each?
• What is the nature part?
• What is the nurture part?
• Significance of the answers
• E.g. social and educational policies

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• Language as a means of exploring human nature
• The central place of language in human life
• Some scholars
• Homo sapiens (??), the rational or knowing
  species, is above all Homo loquens (???), the
  talking species.
• What does human nature (mind) have to be like to
  account for the fact that we can all speak and
  understand a language?

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• The hero - Noam Chomsky (???? 1928 - )
• Language and mind
• Psychological interpretation of linguistics
• Generative grammar (????) as the pioneer of
  modern linguistic theories
• Huge impact on the Cognitive Revolution (????)
• Politics . . .
• Truly extraordinary importance as revealed in
  citation records
• Most cited living scholar during 198092
• 8th most cited scholar in human history!

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• Three fundamental arguments
• The Argument for Mental Grammar (????)
• The expressive variety of language use implies
  that a language users brain contains a set of
  unconscious grammatical principles.
• The Argument for Innate Knowledge (?????)
• The way children learn to talk implies that the
  human brain contains a genetically determined
  specialization for language.

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• The Argument for the Construction of Experience
  (????)
• The experience of spoken language is actively
  constructed by the hearers mental grammar.
• Similar mental capacities other than language
• Music (to be discussed briefly)
• Vision, thought, social organization (suggested
  reference)

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The Argument for Mental Grammar (????)

• The expressive variety of language use implies
  that a language users brain contains a set of
  unconscious grammatical principles.
• An obvious fact of daily life
• We can understand / use novel sentences that
  weve never encountered / used before.
• But why?

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• The expressive variety of language, e.g.
• Calvin did two calculations.
• Calvin did three calculations.
• Calvin did four calculations.
• . . .
• Calvin did twenty-three million, forty-five
  thousand, six hundred seventy-eight calculations.
• . . .
• Calvin did one vigintillion calculations.
• (1063 in US/French usage 10120 in
  British/German)
• . . .

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• Another example
• Suppose very conservatively that therere 104
  nouns in English.
• Construct sentences with the form An X is not a
  Y by putting these nouns for X and Y
• A numeral is not a numeral.
• A numeral is not a number.
• A numeral is not a nursery.
• . . .
• A number is not a number.
• A number is not a numeral.
• A number is not a nursery.
• . . .

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• Therere 104 x104 108 of them. A further twist
• If a numeral is not a numeral, then a numeral is
  not a numeral.
• If a numeral is not a numeral, then a numeral is
  not a number.
• If a numeral is not a numeral, then a numeral is
  not a nursery.
• . . .
• If a number is not a number, then a number is not
  a number.
• . . .
• Therere 108 x 108 1016 of them. And its easy
  to go on similar processes.

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• And . . . therere still many many many other
  sentences we encounter / use in daily life!
• So, apart from storing individual words, the
  brain must have stored patterns of sentences
  (??)
• Calvin did N calculations.
• An X is not a Y.
• If an X is not a Y, then a Z is not a W.
• But these kinds of fixed patterns are not enough.
  Consider
  
  
  
  
  

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• Bill thinks that Amy is a genius.
• Calvin suspects that Bill thinks that Amy is a
  genius.
• Douglas says that Calvin suspects that Bill
  thinks that Amy is a genius.
• . . .
• They can be derived from these patterns
• X Verbs that Y is a Z.
• W Verbs that X Verbs that Y is a Z.
• T Verbs that W Verbs that X Verbs that Y is a Z.
• . . .

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• Likewise, we cannot store all these patterns in
  our brains. Rather, a more basic pattern is
  involved
• X Verbs that S. (where S is any declarative
  sentence)
• It is a pattern of pattern and can be applied
  recursively (???).
• Recall the list
• Bill thinks that Amy is a genius.
• Calvin suspects that Bill thinks that Amy is a
  genius.
• Douglas says that Calvin suspects that Bill
  thinks that Amy is a genius.
• . . .

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• Recursive patterns are in fact common
• Bens father is a linguist.
• Bens fathers older brother is a linguist.
• Bens fathers older brothers best friend is a
  linguist.
• . . .
• This is the house that Jack built.
• This is the refrigerator that sits in the house
  that Jack built.
• This is the cheese that fell out of the
  refrigerator that sits in the house that Jack
  built.
• . . .

Which recursive pattern is involved?
Which recursive pattern is involved?
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• So, in order to be able to use / understand novel
  sentences, we have to store in our brains a
  mental grammar (????)
• A lexicon collection of words
• The patterns of sentences of our language (rules
  of language)
• Remarks
• The notion of mental grammar is the central
  theoretical construct of modern linguistics.
• Note the distinction between two senses of
  mental grammar
• Brain structure vs. theory of brain structure

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• On introspection, only some scraps of school
  grammar are found. Where is the mental grammar?
  How can it be used without our awareness of using
  it?
• What is our first inference about human nature?
• There exist sophisticated unconscious mental
  structures responsible for human linguistic
  abilities.