Linguistic necessity and linguistic theory Rostislav Pazukhin, Katowice: Uniwersytet Sl;aski 1983. 128 pp. Zl; 95.00 (original) (raw)

Classical Thoughts on Language: A Review of the Greek and Roman Linguistics

JOURNAL OF CREATIVE WRITING, 2022

In the early development of linguistic science in Europe, western philosophers paid much attention to the observation of differences between an individual’s speech and the neighboring people, looking at dialectical or language differences. According to Robins (1997), the initiation of European linguistics thoughts can be tracked from the Greeks. In his famous book entitled ‘A Short History of Linguistics’, Robins (1997) began his discussion by presuming that humans are biologically endowed with language faculty which enable them to acquire their first language. They then learn foreign languages and stimulate linguistic self-consciousness by contacts with the community and foreign speakers. Since then, the study of how language system develops is overlooked, since it is considered as humans’ natural linguistics ability. Robins used the term ‘linguistics science’ to approach the study of how language is diverse and changes with an influence of close interaction between language use and the speech community. He asserted that cultures influence the power of language. Folk linguistics is thus fostered and transmitted into linguistics science through the generation of communities along with cultural variations. Although Robins indicated that the study of linguistics is grounded by the significant exploration of the European frameworks, he insisted that the history of linguistics in Europe does not entail any European superiority in the linguistics field in comparison to the lack of knowledge we may have on the established Sanskrit work of the Indians. Hence, this paper aims to review the two main classical thoughts established in the development of language.

“Ancient Philosophers on Language” (in collaboration with P. Kotzia).

The Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, eds. G. Giannakis, V. Bubenik, E. Crespo, Ch. Golston, A. Lianeri, S. Luraghi, St. Matthaios, vol. 1, pp. 124-133. Leiden & Boston: Brill., 2014

Linguistics and philosophy (2016 pre-print)

Final version available in: K. Allan (ed.). Routledge Handbook of Linguistics, London: Routledge, pp. 516-531, 2016

Philosophy and the study of language are intimately connected, to the extent that it is impossible to say from which point in human intellectual history the study of meaning in natural language can be regarded as an independent enterprise. Natural language syntax, semantics and pragmatics are now considered to be sub-disciplines of theoretical linguistics, surrounded by the acolytes in the domains of language acquisition, language disorders, language processing (psycholinguistics and neuroscience of language), all using empirical, including experimental, methods in addition to rationalistic inquiry. However, philosophical problems associated with the structure of language as well as with meaning in language and in discourse still remain, and arguably will always remain, the backbone of syntax and semantics, and a trigger for progress in theorizing. It is impossible to summarise the impressively rich tradition of thinking about language in the history of philosophy. One would have to start with Presocratics in the 6 th and 7 th centuries BCE in Ancient Greece (see e.g. Curd 2012) and cover two and a half millennia of intensive questioning and argumentation over the relations between language, reality, truth, and the human mind. Or, one could try to delve into the history before the Greeks, then move through the landmarks of Plato, Aristotle, and the later Stoics into the current era (see e.g. . In this brief introduction we shall focus on much later debates, starting from the period when discussions about topics that are currently in the focus of debates originated, that is late 19 th century, marked by Frege's insights into an ideal language for describing knowledge and the origin of modern logic that is now used as a metalanguage for theorizing about meaning in natural human languages. From formal approaches within analytical philosophy I shall move to the 'language-as-use' paradigm of the ordinarylanguage philosophy, followed by the more recent debates on meaning as it is to be understood for the purpose of formal representation and linguistic theory. In the process, I shall address some of the core areas that philosophers of language have been drawn to such as reference and referring or propositional attitude reports. Next, I move to the topic of the role of intentions and inferences, and finish with a brief attempt to place 'linguistics and philosophy' on the map of language sciences and research on language in the 21 st century.

Aristotle's footprints in the linguist's garden

Language Sciences, 2004

For Aristotle, language is (A) a symbolic system that represents (B) the world of our experience as it is contained within the mind. He believed (C) that the world is external to human beings, who are all capable of (D) perceiving the same things within it. Finally, (E) Aristotle was only interested in form as a corollary of function. (A-E) have given rise to different developments in linguistics. (A) is a premise for all linguists, but has been developed, perhaps to its limits, in post-Fregean semantics. Since the last quarter of the 20th century, (B) has been pursued by cognitive linguists. (C) was taken up by the speculative grammarians of the late middle ages. The rationalists of the 17th and 18th centuries took up (D), revising the interpretation of their speculative precursors to seek universal grammar in the rational minds of the human beings perceiving the world around them. Chomsky reinterprets the rationalist doctrine to seek universal grammar in the human mind while eschewing the relevance of human perception of anything other than linguistic input. Functional linguistics has picked up on (E). So, todayÕs formal linguists, cognitivists, functionalists, and Chomskyites may often be at odds with each other, but all tread in AristotleÕs footprints.

A Brief way on Philosophy of Language: from Plato to Port-Royal Grammar

This paper outline a brief philosophical way of the nature of human language, from Plato (427-347 BC) to Port-Royal grammar. Plato (427-347 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC) present the question of the correctness of the names. In the middle Ages, the nature of language spread over by several schools of thought very heterogeneous and appear the first grammars. In the 12th century, the speculative grammar presents a strictly scientific basis for language: deductive and universal. In the early modern, specifically with the Renaissance, modern thought arises and there is the resumption of the classical tradition and the expansion of the literature, arts, culture and a new philosophical and ethical conception. In the 17th century, the language studies focused on the modern languages of Europe. The publication of the Port-Royal grammar becomes the greatest exponent of Cartesian rationalism, reflecting the prescriptivism of traditional grammar.