On a certain tension in linguistics : Noam Chomsky and Roy Harris
Date
1993
Authors
Williams, Kenneth Evan
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Abstract
This thesis is about a certain kind of tension existing between two quite divergent concepts of language: that of the American linguist, Noam Chomsky, and that of the British linguist, Roy Harris. According to one conception, language is considered to be a cognitive capacity-the 'language faculty'. The methodological approach of this view is to abstract some notion of language away from language use by way of the competence / performance distinction and other idealisations. Language is then conceived to be a formal mechanism, consisting of a system of rules and principles, instantiated in the brain. The general form of this mechanism (universal grammar) is said to be biologically innate and when exposed to some linguistic environment, virtually causes intact human beings to acquire one or more languages. The other conception also considers language to be a cognitive capacity which, no doubt, depends upon the brain, among other factors. However, according to this particular conception, certain obvious everyday aspects of language-e.g. that it is very much a diverse form of social interaction, that it is a complex normative practice, etc.-are thought to be paramount. This view holds that it is a mistake for any study of language to artificially contrive a distinction between some abstract notion of language, on the one hand, and language use, on the other, and then estrange the one from the other, treating the abstraction as fundamental. The former vision is that of Noam Chomsky and the latter vision is that of the Oxford linguist Roy Harris; and they are seen by their respective advocates as being mutually incompatible (in principle) in their aims for linguistic analysis. But what is most interesting about these two ostensibly incompatible conceptions of language and linguistics is that some of what they both stand for seems to make sense-this, of course, intensifies the tension.
I am to some extent inventing this 'tension', as I call it, between Chomsky and Harris, since there is currently no dialectic debate in the discipline in which they are involved in scholarly exchange. And yet they have both widely published their respective views on language and its investigation, which are largely in radical disagreement. But in spite of this lack of dialectical connexion between Chomsky and Harris, there are definitely substantive issues here involving contrasting sets of ideas worthy of examination. Notwithstanding this divergence, however, aspects of both of their views seem reasonable and considered together, in contrast, may provide some greater understanding of linguistic communication. This thesis is aimed at examining this contrast.
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UN SDG 4: Quality Education