LINGUISTICS: A Review/Essay of “The Language Instinct: The Real Story of Modern Linguistics” by Steven Pinker (1994) © H. J. Spencer [20Jan.2022] <6,200 words; 11 pages>. (original) (raw)
Related papers
Another view of The Language Instinct
HONG KONG JOURNAL OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS, 1996
Steven Pinker would no doubt be flattered to be mentioned alongside Copernicus, Darwin and Einstein, although he would also point out that such credit, if due, should go to Chomsky. His book The Language Instinct (henceforth Ll) is, after all, a popular exposition of the Chomksyan approach to the human language faculty, and in particular its innate component. Readers should be warned that this is a partisan introduction to the field; alternative approaches such as Greenbergian language typology (described on p. 236 as "some laundry list of facts") are not accorded much space.
2007
This book presents a comprehensive survey of the various subfields of linguistics, as envisaged from a cognitive grammar perspective. It is divided into two parts; the first half is the ''basic specifications'': issues related to psycholinguistics, acquisition, language and the brain, and evolution of language. The second part elaborates on the ''building blocks'' of language, namely words, sentences, meaning, et cetera ending finally with ''a crash course in cognitive grammar''. Broadly, the book provides some critical insights into the existing rationalist trend in linguistics-the generative approach-and suggests alternatives to developing ''psychologically realistic'' grammatical models. One underlying theme of the book is the relevance of interdisciplinary research and its benefits for linguistic theorizing. As the author notes in her introduction, that though linguistics is often defined as 'the branch of cognitive science dealing with language', ''most linguists hasten to add, it is an 'independent branch', by which they mean that language can, and should, be studied in its own terms, without reference to psychological or neurological concepts and theories'' (p. 1). This problem, as the author laments, becomes more telling with generativist linguists' obsession with linguistic competence rather than performance. This lopsidedness begets linguistic theories which are neither psychologically nor biologically real, thus endangering the (apparently) more desirable course of the discipline toward becoming an empirical science-a science whose theories base on actual usage of language, rather than being motivated by formal elegance.
The Biological Nature of Human Language
Biolinguistics, 2010
Biolinguistics aims to shed light on the specifically biological nature of human language, focusing on five foundational questions: (1) What are the properties of the language phenotype? (2) How does language ability grow and mature in individuals? (3) How is language put to use? (4) How is language implemented in the brain? (5) What evolutionary processes led to the emergence of language? These foundational questions are used here to frame a discussion of important issues in the study of language, exploring whether our linguistic capacity is the result of direct selective pressure or due to developmental or biophysical constraints, and assessing whether the neural/computational components entering into language are unique to human language or shared with other cognitive systems, leading to a discussion of advances in theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics, comparative animal behavior and psychology, genetics/genomics, disciplines that can now place these longstanding questions in a new light, while raising challenges for future research.
Appeared in "International Journal of Language Studies" Vol. 6 n 4 (October, 2012). 154-182. Pre-publication version.
Edited by Anna Maria di Sciullo and Cedric Boeckx Oxford: Oxford University Press 2011. ISBN 978-0-19-955327-3 (Hbk) 978-0-19-955328-0 (Pbk) One of the most fascinating but at the same time still not very thoroughly investigated fields is the "Biolinguistic enterprise" of human language faculty as opposed to other means of communication between say animals or computers and humans. Anna Maria di Sciullo and Cedric Boeckx, the editors of the present issue, belong to the founders of the new type of interdisciplinary research that seeks to explore "the basic properties of human language and to investigate how it matures in the individual, how it is put to use in thought and communication, what brain circuits implement it, what combination of genes supports it, and how it emerged in our species." (General preface).
The Faculty of Language: What Is It, Who Has It, and How Did It Evolve
We argue that an understanding of the faculty of language requires substantial interdisciplinary cooperation. We suggest how current developments in linguistics can be profitably wedded to work in evolutionary biology, anthropology, psychology, and neuroscience. We submit that a distinction should be made between the faculty of language in the broad sense (FLB) and in the narrow sense (FLN). FLB includes a sensory-motor system, a conceptual-intentional system, and the computational mechanisms for recursion, providing the capacity to generate an infinite range of expressions from a finite set of elements. We hypothesize that FLN only includes recursion and is the only uniquely human component of the faculty of language. We further argue that FLN may have evolved for reasons other than language, hence comparative studies might look for evidence of such computations outside of the domain of communication (for example, number, navigation, and social relations).
Biological nature of human language
Biolinguistics aims to shed light on the specifically biological nature of human language, focusing on five foundational questions: (1) What are the properties of the language phenotype? (2) How does language ability grow and mature in individuals? (3) How is language put to use? (4) How is language implemented in the brain? (5) What evolutionary processes led to the emergence of language? These foundational questions are used here to frame a discussion of important issues in the study of language, exploring whether our linguistic capacity is the result of direct selective pressure or due to developmental or biophysical constraints, and assessing whether the neural/computational components entering into language are unique to human language or shared with other cognitive systems, leading to a discussion of advances in theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics, comparative animal behavior and psychology, genetics/genomics, disciplines that can now place these longstanding questions in a new light, while raising challenges for future research.