Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics.pdf

Dictionary of language and linguistics 740limiting the object of investigation to physically perceivable or physically measurabledata, linguistic description is reduced to purely surface phenomena. Chomsky supportshis mentalist concept in two ways: first, by assuming a grammar with an underlying deepstructure; and second, with regard to language acquisition and the development oflinguistic competence, by presupposing an inborn (universal) mechanism (‘device’) thatprovides a basis for language development (Cartesian linguistics). The followingobservations of child language acquisition speak against the antimentalist interpretation,namely, that the process of language learning can be explained solely as conditioningthrough drill or, according to the stimulus-response theory, through association andgeneralization: (a) the rapidity with which a child learns to command the grammar ofhis/her language in three to four years; (b) the complexity of the grammar to be learned;(c) the imperfect relationship between input (=the partially defective language dataoffered by the social milieu) and output (=the grammar derived from these data); (d) theuniformity of results in all languages; and (e) the process itself, which has little to do withan individual’s intelligence. These data can only be adequately explained by assuming aninborn language acquisition device, on the basis of which competence ( competencevs performance) develops through experience and the maturation of this basic inbornpsychological structure ( nativism). In this sense, transformational grammarattempts to explain both the process of language acquisition and especially the creativeaspect of language acquisition, that is, the ability of a competent speaker to produce apotentially infinite number of sentences. For a more detailed explanation and critique ofChomsky’s mentalist interpretation, see Putnam (1967).ReferencesChomsky, N. 1959. Verbal behavior. (A discussion of B.F.Skinner, 1957.) Lg 35. 26–58.——1965. Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA.——1968. Language and mind. New York.——1975. Reflections on language. New York.Katz, J.J. 1964. Mentalism in linguistics. Lg 40. 124–37.——1966. The philosophy of language. New York.Lenneberg, E.H. 1967. Biological foundation of language. New York.Matthews, P. 1990. Language as a mental faculty: Chomsky’s progress. In N.E.Collinge (ed.), Anencyclopedia of language. London. 112–38.McNeill, D. 1966. Developmental psycholinguistics. In F.Smith and G.A.Miller (eds), The genesisof language. Cambridge, MA. 15–84.Putnam, H. 1967. The ‘innateness hypothesis’: an explanatory model in linguistics. Synthese 17.12–22.Watt, W.C. 1974. Mentalism in linguistics. Glossa 8. 3–40.language acquisition, psycholinguistics