Introducing Chomsky

A Graphic Guide

John Maher, Judy Groves

• Publisher: Icon Books
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781848319677
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Linguistics
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Can it be that the human brain possesses an in-built faculty for language? Noam Chomsky, one of the most brilliant linguists of the 20th century, believes that it does- that there exists a 'universal grammar' common to all languages. Around the world children learn, in very similar ways, languages that seem entirely different. This is possible, Chomsky argues, because all human languages and their grammatical structures are linked in the human brain.Chomsky is controversial and yet highly influential, both in his pioneering work in linguistics and in his unrelenting critique of international power and his commitment to freedom and justice. These two 'Chomskys' are heirs to the Enlightenment tradition, and this book is the ideal introduction to them both.

Introducing Chomsky

Noam Chomsky’s significance as a linguist and social reformer makes him one of the 20th century’s most challenging figures.

YOU HAVE ARGUED THAT THE STRUCTURING PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN LANGUAGE ARE INNATE. THIS IS STILL A CONTROVERSIAL IDEA.
It is. In my view, the human brain has an innate language faculty and part of this biological endowment is a system of principles common to all languages, which is the topic of the theory of “Universal Grammar”.

There are two “Chomskys”. One has introduced new perspectives on language and human creativity; the other has rigorously criticized social injustice and state violence wherever these occur in the world. Both Chomskys can be seen as one and the same heir to the Enlightenment tradition. Let’s begin with Chomsky the linguist.

Being and Language

Language is our humanity. Language is used to understand ourselves and others, to deal with the reality of our world and engage in acts of meaning.

LANGUAGE SEEMS TO DO THE JOB FOR US. IT SEEMS JUST RIGHT.
The task of linguistics is to provide deep account of human language.

The Language Bell

Language is like a bell. It sounds and it means. Sound is the external face of language. It is merely a series of disturbances in the air. The cluster or sequence of sounds,

BONNE NUIT
O-YASUMI NASAI

in Japanese mean nothing in themselves. When language gongs, it comes into contact with the mind. The sound carries internal meanings which are present to the mind (“It’s 6pm. Time to go home”). Thus, we see the interface between how the sound is represented, Phonetic Form (PF), and how the meaning is represented, the Logical Form (LF). Syntax (an intervening structure) connects the two.

What is the nature of the bridge between sound and meaning, and how does a child manage to acquire the syntactic interface?

Language Use

Language is textually complex, ranging from thousands of floating “uh, huh” conversational fillers to massive narratives which encode philosophical thoughts and powerful emotions.

WITH ONE BRIEF SPEECH ACT, WE CAN BE LEGALLY MARRIED, LAUNCH AN OCEAN LINER OR CONDEMN A PERSON TO DEATH.

We each have a highly personal way of using language (idiolect) in a speech community which displays regional characteristics (dialect). Likewise, we are hooked up to multiple stylistic networks.

THE GENDERLECTS OF MAN AND WOMAN.
THE SOCIOLECTS OR DOCTOR AND SPORTS COMMENTATOR.

The changing language of the “I” as it journeys from infancy to old age.

How Do We Know Language?

Speakers of languages constantly cross paths, borrowing and switching. Sometimes new types of makeshift mixed languages occur, like pidgins, which when stabilized, become creoles. Through their channels of speech, writing and sign (deaf-sign), languages traverse great distances throughout time and space.

THEY CAN ENDURE PHYSICAL EXTREMES: INUIT LANGUAGES IN THE COLD NIGHTS OF THE ARCTIC TUNDRA.
ILLONGO IN THE HEAT OF THE VISAYAN ISLANDS IN THE PHILIPPINES.
THERE ARE SOME 5000 MEMBERS IN THE COMPANY OF LANGUAGES WITHIN THE BORDERS OF LESS THAN 200 NATIONS.

All these phenomena share in the form of life known as “language”.

What constitutes our knowledge of language? In order to answer this question, we must take several strides back from what is apparently “present to the mind”.

The Diversity Diversion

Language is so close to our Being that we frequently do not notice it. Bewildered by the differences found in language diversity and people’s ability to use a language, we pay little attention to potential similarities. For example, dialects A and B may be superficially remote – the speakers may be almost unintelligible to each other.

AH WERE REET CHUFFED ME. IT WERE SILING DAAN BUT AH KEPT LAKIN IN T’ GINNEL ANYROAD.
I WAS VERY PLEASED. IT WAS RAINING HEAVILY BUT I KEPT PLAYING IN THE ALLEY ANYHOW.

These speakers in fact share a central core of common rules and processes. They both “know” the same language.

Getting to the Core of Language

The underlying structures of language may be invariant sleepers over long historical eras. The common core of the language very rarely changes.

BUT WHAT STANDPOINT OUGHT WE TO ADOPT TO FIND OUT WHAT CONSTITUTES A PERSON’S KNOWLEDGE OF A LANGUAGE?
ONLY WITH THE PROPER “PSYCHIC DISTANCE” DO WE NOTICE THAT THE SIMILARITIES ARE MARKED AND THE DIVERGENCES MARGINAL.
LANGUAGE, LIKE THE MOVEMENT OF THE PLANETS AND GRAVITATIONAL CONSTANTS, IS TAKEN FOR GRANTED, PEOPLE HAVE NO INTUITION ABOUT THE RULES OF CLASSICAL PHYSICS.

Perhaps literature will forever give far deeper insight into “the full human person” than any model of scientific inquiry can hope to do. Chomsky

How Do We Explain Language?

Too often we prefer transparent explanation, near to the surface. The classical philosophy of the mind – both rationalist and empiricist – is deeply flawed in its assumption that the content of the mind is accessible to introspection.

THE ASPECTS OF THINGS THAT ARE MOST IMPORTANT TO US ARE HIDDEN BECAUSE OF THEIR FAMILIARITY (ONE IS UNABLE TO NOTICE SOMETHING BECAUSE IT IS ALWAYS BEFORE ONE’S EYES).
Analysis of language is not straightforward. It is by no means transparent least of all its definition.
DO WE NOT SHARE LANGU...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introducing Chomsky
• Bibliography
• Acknowledgements
• About the authors
• Index