Representation of Language: Philosophical Issues in a Chomskyan Linguistics

By Georges Rey

This book is a defense of a Chomskyan conception of language against philosophical objections that have been raised against it. It also provides, however, a critical examination of some of the glosses on the theory: the assimilation of it to traditional Rationalism; a supposed conflict between being innate and learned; an unclear ontology and the need of a "representational pretense" with regard to it; and, most crucially, a rejection of Chomsky's eliminativism about the role of intentionality not only in his own theories, but in any serious science at all. This last is a fundamentally important issue for linguistics, psychology, and philosophy that an examination of a theory as rich and promising as a Chomskyan linguistics should help illuminate. The book ends with a discussion of some further issues that Chomsky misleadingly associates with his theory: an anti-realism about ordinary thought and talk, and a dismissal of the mind/body problem(s), towards the solution of some of which his theory in fact makes an important contribution.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019885563X
• ISBN13: 9780198855637
• Release Date: September 2020
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 478 Pages
• Weight: 1.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.3"