Theory of Speech, language, Noam Chomsky, grammar, Szab, structuralist, Searle, the I-language, the E-language
While Noam Chomsky is perhaps better known for his liberal political views and philosophies which support a variety of social causes, such as helping the poor, condemning wars, violence, and poverty, he is also a world renowned linguist. Chomsky has developed interesting theories in speech which would make him one of the most important linguists of the twentieth century, and would set the field of linguistics into debate over the universality of speech. In his theories of speech, which includes generative grammar and the Chomsky hierarchy, he outlines the universality of languages with mathematical and anecdotal evidence which would seem to provide compelling reasons to make people believe they have more in common than would seem.
[...] Ray, Robin. "Linguists Doubt Exception to Universal Grammar." MIT News Apr Massachusets Institute of Technology . Searle, John R. Special Supplement: Chomsky's Revolution in Linguistics." New York Review of Books June Szabó, Zoltán Gendler. "Noam Chomsky." 2004. Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers . [...]
[...] In the simpelest form, the E-language is the language used by entire populations as a homogenous form of communication (Hornstein). According to Chomsky, this is not the interesting part of language as E-language can be seen as just a collection of people sharing similar I-languages (Hornstein). This is not to say that people have the same I-language and thus collectively they form the E-language, but that I-languages overlap with each other to facilitate communication with large groups. With the importance that Chomsky places on I-language, what is seem as quite controversial. [...]
[...] Chomsky thus postulates that there are certain innate principles, a whole system in fact, which combined with certain environmental parameters would produce languages. These rules form chains to produce the desired speech and are categorized in order of increasing expression (Searle). With his set of transitional rules, Chomsky accounts for the different nuances that occur in language. These rules are used in what Chomsky calls the I-language and the language; two different uses of languages which work together to form the fundamentals of language as it is known. [...]
[...] It seems to me as if this theory has a valid theoretical framework and is philosophically valid. However, the problem with such a postulation of speech origin and development is that it lacks empirical study. It seems that Chomsky is more of a philosopher than an actual linguist as he does not make a convincing argument because of the lack of data. Overall, if there were more data to support Chomsky's view, I would be more inclined to believe it. Bibliography Hornstein, Norbert. "Noam Chomsky." 1998. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy . "Linguistic Prescription." Wikipedia.Org . [...]
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