کد مقاله کد نشریه سال انتشار مقاله انگلیسی نسخه تمام متن
935434 923877 2011 14 صفحه PDF دانلود رایگان
عنوان انگلیسی مقاله ISI
On the grounding of syntax and the role of phonology in human cognition
کلمات کلیدی
موضوعات مرتبط
علوم انسانی و اجتماعی علوم انسانی و هنر زبان و زبان شناسی
پیش نمایش صفحه اول مقاله
On the grounding of syntax and the role of phonology in human cognition
چکیده انگلیسی

Chomskyan generative grammar has long been committed to the ‘double-interface’ assumption that the faculty of language (FL) serves two interfaces, PF and LF, and correlatively that expressions have phonological and semantic properties. The paper argues this gives rise to (a) a grounding problem for syntax – i.e. for the interpretable content of syntax – and (b) a problem for the assumption that FL is a generative computation. It is argued these problems are resolved if we think of syntax as grounded exclusively in semantic/conceptual properties. Since this implies that FL is phonology-free, it is argued that FL should not be distinguished from a generative computation describable as ‘the language of thought’ (LOT). The paper explores to what extent this (FL=LOT) thesis is consistent with Chomsky's thinking. Chomsky's recent work can be seen as pointing in that direction but it is not consistent with the double-interface assumption, which he continues to regard as conceptually necessary. In the light of discussion of the issues, the paper concludes with a speculation on the role of phonology in human cognition and its evolution.


► Syntactic objects grounded in both phonology and semantics are uninterpretable.
► Nor could such objects be generated by a natural, universal computation.
► Phonology-free semantically grounded objects are naturalistically generable.
► The language faculty and the language of thought should therefore be identified.
► Phonology allows a form of access to the computation essential to human cognition.

ناشر
Database: Elsevier - ScienceDirect (ساینس دایرکت)
Journal: Lingua - Volume 121, Issue 14, November 2011, Pages 2089–2102
نویسندگان
,