The Science of Language

by Chomsky, Noam; McGilvray, James

• ISBN13: 9781107602403
• ISBN10: 1107602408
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-30
• Publisher: Cambridge Univ Pr

Summary

In this previously unpublished series of interviews, Chomsky discusses his iconoclastic and important ideas concerning language, human nature and politics.

Author Biography

Noam Chomsky is Institute Professor (retired) in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. James Mcgilvray is Professor of Philosophy at McGill University, Montral.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
The science of language and mind
Language, function, communication: language and the use of language	p. 11
On a formal theory of language and its accommodation to biology; the distinctive nature of human concepts	p. 21
Representation and computation	p. 31
More on human concepts	p. 33
Reflections on the study of language	p. 36
Parameters, canalization, innateness, Universal Grammar	p. 39
Development, master/control genes, etc.	p. 46
Perfection and design (interview 20 January 2009)	p. 50
Universal Grammar and simplicity	p. 59
On the intellectual ailments of some scientists	p. 65
The place of language in the mind	p. 69
Chomsky's intellectual contributions	p. 76
Simplicity and its role in Chomsky's work	p. 80
Chomsky and Nelson Goodman	p. 86
Human nature and its study
Chomsky on human nature and human understanding	p. 95
Human nature and evolution: thoughts on sociobiology and evolutionary psychology	p. 103
Human nature again	p. 108
Morality and universalization	p. 113
Optimism and grounds for it	p. 118
Language, agency, common sense, and science	p. 124
Philosophers and their roles	p. 129
Biophysical limitations on understanding	p. 132
Epistemology and biological limits	p. 133
Studies of mind and behavior and their limitations	p. 138
Linguistics and politics	p. 152
Appendices
I-concepts, I-beliefs, and I-language	p. 153
The several uses of "function"	p. 157
On what is distinctive about human nature (and how to deal with the distinction)	p. 176
Chomsky on natural science	p. 183
Of concepts and misguided theories of them, and why human concepts are unique	p. 186
Semantics and how to do it	p. 206
Hierarchy, structure, domination, c-command, etc.	p. 232
Variation, parameters, and canalization	p. 239
Simplicity	p. 243
Hume on the missing shade of blue and related matters	p. 247
Syntax, semantics, pragmatics, non-Chomskyan and Chomskyan	p. 250
An internalist picture of how concepts 'work'	p. 255
Commentaries	p. 2621
Bibliography	p. 303
Index
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