Beyond Explanatory Adequacy

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapter

151 Scopus citations

Abstract

I will assume here an approach to the study of language that takes the object of inquiry to be an internal property of persons, a subcomponent of (mostly) the brain that is dedicated specifically to language: the human “Faculty of Language” (FL), to adapt a traditional term to a new context. This “biolinguistic approach” was controversial when it took shape almost half a century ago, and remains so, but without warrant, in my opinion. A stronger thesis is that the biolinguistic approach has a kind of privileged status, in that every constructive approach to human language and its use presupposes it, or something similar, at least tacitly. That, too, seems to me tenable, but I will not pursue the issue here.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationStructures and beyond
Subtitle of host publicationthe Cartography of Syntactic Structures: Volume 3
PublisherOxford University Press
Pages104-131
Number of pages28
Volume3
ISBN (Electronic)9780197722503
ISBN (Print)9780195171976
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2023

Keywords

  • approach
  • controversial
  • language
  • opinion
  • subcomponent

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Arts and Humanities
  • General Social Sciences

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