Lecture 12: Noam Chomsky

1. Lecture 12: Noam Chomsky

2. Today’s Lecture In Today’s lecture we will: Recap our investigation into Epistemology Briefly outline the theories of Rationalism endorsed by Plato and Descartes Explore, outline and critically assess Noam Chomsky’s theory of Knowledge Discuss the consequences of Chomsky’s theory of Knowledge

3. Recap

4. What is Epistemology? • Theory of Knowledge • Epistemology is the investigation into Knowledge • Key questions include: • What is knowledge? • What is the difference between opinion and knowledge? • Does knowledge require certainty? • What are the limits of knowledge? • Is knowledge in fact possible? Epistemology

5. Theories investigated so far: Rationalism: Plato & Descartes Both see knowledge derived from the senses as uncertain and problematic Both agree that True knowledge comes to us through Reason Both posit the existence of innate ideas These innate ideas are prior to experience Recap Plato We possess innate ideas attained by our souls before we were born The Forms are the only things that can Truly be known Descartes We possess innate ideas in our mind (some placed there by God) Deduction can be used to extend this knowledge

6. Noam Chomsky

7. Key Questions: • Is language something we learn? • Or • Is language something innate? • And if so, to what degree? Noam Chomsky

8. A Traditional View of Language My elders did not teach me words by rote, as they taught me my letters afterward. But I myself, when I was unable to communicate all I wished to say to whomever I wished by means of whimperings and grunts and various gestures of my limbs (which I used to reinforce my demands), I myself repeated the sounds already stored in my memory by the mind which you, my god, had given me. When they called some thing by name and pointed it out while they spoke, I saw it and realized that the thing they wished to indicate was called by the name they then uttered. And what they meant was made plain by the gestures of their bodies, by a kind of natural language, common to all nations, which expresses itself through changes of countenance, glances of the eye, gestures and intonations which indicate a disposition and attitude—either to seek or possess, to reject or to avoid. So it was that by frequently hearing words, in different phrases, I gradually identified the objects which the words stood for and, having formed my mouth to repeat these signs, I was thereby able to express my will. Thus I exchanged with those about me the verbal signs by which we express our wishes and advanced deeper into the stormy fellowship of human life, depending all the while upon the authority of my parents and the behest of my elders. Augustine, Confessions: I, 8 Noam Chomsky

9. Noam Chomsky Generative Grammar According to Chomsky, learning a language is only possible if there are “Principles intrinsic to the mind providing invariant structures that are a precondition for linguistic experience” Chomsky argues that there are universal principles inherent in all language These “Principles and Parameters” are known as “language universals” Parameters = Universal Grammar: Basic linguistic options that precede the learning of a language (depends on the language what options are on and off) Surface level of language; E.g. English, Symbols, Intonation, Slang etc. Deep-level structure; E.g. Nouns, Verbs, Sentence Structure, Grammar (General Rules of Language)

10. Chomksy’s Criticism of the traditional view of language: Empirical theories are inadequate Efforts to explain language using “principles of induction, generalization, and data analysis that would account for knowledge of a language”(p. 199) have all failed. “They fail because they are intrinsically incapable of giving rise to the system of rules that underlies the normal use of language.” (ibid.) Noam Chomsky Language Society Experience Reinforcement

11. Noam Chomsky Chomsky’s Alternative If all human language shares a universal structure (Linguistic Universals) “Plausibly” we can assume that linguistic universals are an “Innate mental endowment” (p. 200) Furthermore, this may be true of other forms of human knowledge But how we have this is a complex mystery... Language Society Experience Reinforcement Innate Mental Endowment

12. Johann Georg Hamann (1730-1788) Also criticizes the empirical model of language Walking, Eating, and Language are all things that we need instruction in Does this mean that they are unnatural? Consequently the origin of language is as natural and human as the origin of all our activities, facilities and skills. But despite the fact that every apprentice co-operates with his instruction to learn according to his inclinations, abilities, and opportunities; learning is nevertheless in a real sense as little invention as mere re-cognition. (Hamann, Philological Doubts and Ideas, 41:7-12) To be continued... Noam Chomsky