LING 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Body Plan, Reverse Engineering, Universal Grammar
Document Summary
The language that i speak is a manifestation of a system in my head: mentalism: the object of study is a mental capacity (noam chomsky) Grammars (i-language) abstract, well de ned objects partially historical objects. Naturalism: the structure of this object can be inferred from an analysis of the (linguistic) behavior of speakers. Reverse engineering problem (black box) analyze the relationship between the input and the output of the black box we produce language and perceive language: We make explicit hypotheses about what goes on inside the black box. Formalism: hypotheses about the structure of this object are explicit formal models supposed to predict speakers" (linguistic) behavior. Terminology: competence vs performance what you know what you do. The wiring of the brain that allows english. The structure of the relevant parts of brain matter. Performance: language use performance does not have to be affected by competence. Grammar (g): the structure of the black box.
