PSL:Topics Outline

This page contains an outline of topics in the Philosophy and Science of Language.

=Philosophy and Science of Language= Are they two distict things or are they converging towards a unified understanding of language?

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE

 * A Presuppositions of Language
 * 1) Possibility of private language
 * 2) Innate ideas
 * a) Possibility of thought (Fodor)
 * b) Common features of all known languages
 * i Structural features, modes of of representation (Chomsky)
 * ii Metaphysical features: role of particulars, possibility of feature-placing languages (Strawson)

NATURE OF LANGUAGE

 * A) Grammar
 * 1) Deep structure and surface structure
 * 2 Deep structure and logical form
 * B) Language and other symbolic systems
 * C) Language and interpretation: translatibility, analycity

SEMIOTICS

 * A) Syntax
 * 1) Formal Logic
 * B) Semantics
 * 1) Theories of Meaning --->>-.x connection---y connection
 * a) Meaning and Truth
 * b) names, descriptions, and indexical signs-->>z connection
 * c) Subjects and predicatesz connection
 * i) z conected = sense and reference, denotatiom and connotation

PRAGMATICS

 * A) types of implication -->>>>.x connection
 * 1) Speech act theories>>>--y connection

RELATED AREAS OF PHILOSOPHY

 * Logic and Philosophical logic.
 * Philosophy of Mind.
 * Epistemology
 * Moral philosophy
 * Linguistics

Science of Language
The science of language has been characterized by each scientific sub-discipline making its own attempt to get a handle on part of the phenomenon of human language. This distributed effort has led to a critical need for inter-disciplinary cooperation towards the end of assembling a single coherent understanding of language. An additional challenge for scientific study of language is unification of scientific approaches with the existing philosophical traditions for language studies.

Some key issues in the scientific study of language:
 * History of Linguistics: Saussure, nature of language.
 * Data collection- catalogs of languages and behavioral studies of how humans use language
 * Biological origins of human language- can paleoanthropology chart the origins of human language?
 * How do languages evolve?- co-evolution with brains and other anatomical structures and language changes that depend on or influence changes in other aspects human cultures.
 * Language and the brain - how do brain functions make it possible for children to learn to use language?
 * Psychology of language- how does the capacity for human language behavior relate to other cognitive functions?
 * Mathematical and computer models of language- to what extent can human language be understood in terms of formal models and formal systems?
 * Artificial Intelligence- Can human language behavior be replicated in man-made devices?