"That which is expressed in language we cannot express in language." (Wittgenstein, Tractatus 4.121)
"Language is the essence of the human being."
(Hans-Georg Gadamer)
"True language, deep language,
must open the conscience" (Nietzsche)
"Our intelligence is linguistic"
(José Antonio Marina)
Language, Thought and Reality
There are several problems of linguistics and its relation to thought and reality. The most prominent of these are the following:
The innatism-empiricism duality. Plato's problem
One of the great philosophical issues of all time is the question of the nature of knowledge. Where does knowledge come from? How is it acquired? Starting with Bertrand Russell, a knowledge of a certain domain that is not easily explained in terms of direct learning from reality, at a purely external level, so that one needs to appeal to some other factor of an internal or mental type to justify it, is called "Plato's problem".
For Plato, ideas belong to a higher realm, are eternal, perfect and prior to objects. Objects are imperfect manifestations of these ideas, in a process of a descending type. In linguistics, Plato's problem is the problem of language acquisition by the child:
The prodigious speed with which children learn something as complex as the mother tongue, with neither the child's intelligence nor his or her social or cultural background playing a relevant role. And even when the verbal stimulation (linguistic input) from parents or educators is poor or disorderly.
Why is the child able to understand and speak despite being subjected to only a small proportion of all possible language sentences?
Why is a child able to learn any language in the world? A Japanese child educated in Spain would learn Spanish as easily as any native Spanish child. And vice versa: a Spanish child educated in Japan would learn Japanese as easily as a native Japanese.
The extreme views on the subject of language acquisition are innatism and empiricism:
According to innatism, speaking, thinking and understanding are acts associated with innate mental, cerebral or genetic faculties. Leibniz was a staunch advocate of innatism, almost aligned to the Platonic conception.
According to empiricism, children learn to speak because they imitate adults. Or, according to Richard Dawkins' terminology, because adults transmit memes (cultural units of imitation) to children.
According to John Locke, the father of empiricism, the human mind is a tabula rasa in which all knowledge is inscribed from birth, through the principle of association. According to linguists Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, language is an acquired cultural function, not an instinctive one.
The main advocate of linguistic empiricism was Leonard Bloomfield, a position he reflected mainly in his work "Language" (1933). He criticized innatism because it does not allow the establishment of causal laws.
The finite-infinite duality. Descartes' problem
The so-called "Descartes problem" is the paradox that the grammar of a language is finite and yet the language is potentially infinite. That is, from a finite set of lexical units and rules of composition, a speaker can generate infinite sentences interpretable by listeners, whether or not they have heard them before. We do not simply repeat sentences we have already heard, but create them according to the needs of the moment. And, conversely, we understand sentences produced by others, despite not having heard them before.
Language is infinite. It can refer to everything and can apprehend everything: everything there is and even what there is not, constructing imaginary or symbolic worlds. Every linguistic act is a creative act. Moreover, human language possesses reflexivity or metalinguistic capacity: we can say anything about the language itself. It is semantic universality.
The natural-artificial duality. Greenberg's problem
The so-called "Greenberg problem" is the problem of the possible existence of a root or primordial language that gave rise to all other languages. Proponents of this hypothesis are called "universalists". Joseph Greenberg was a linguist who did important typological work starting in the 1960's and who discovered that all the languages of the world shared a series of universals.
The idea that all languages, despite their variety, possess a common core was already postulated by philosophers such as Plato, Descartes, Roger Bacon and Wilhelm von Humboldt.
Greenberg's problem also has to do with the deep or shallow nature of language. That is, whether human language derives from something deep, a priori, natural (and even spiritual) or whether the origin of language is something superficial, a posteriori, artificial, arbitrary and conventional due to the communicative need of human beings.
For empiricists, languages are artificial. For innatists, languages are natural. Innatists are universalists.
For Heraclitus, language has a divine origin. For Democritus, language is arbitrary, conventional. Plato and Aristotle are considered the highest representatives of these two antagonistic positions (natural and artificial, respectively).
For the modists (speculative grammarians of the 13th century), all languages have one and the same essence. And each part of speech is characterized by representing a part of reality.
For the followers of the Port Royal school (17th century), there are linguistic universals [see Addendum].
For Ferdinand de Saussure, language is a system of interrelated signs. And the linguistic sign is something arbitrary, linear and discrete.
For Wilhelm von Humboldt, language is a phenomenon that reflects a particular view of the world. However, underlying all languages is a system that has a universal character. Language cannot be taught, but awakened inwardly.
For Franz Bopp (co-founder of the school of comparative grammar), all languages come from a common language older than Sanskrit. Language is a living organism. Language deserves to be studied in its own right, as an object and means of knowledge, and not only as a means of access to knowledge.
For August Schleiser, language is a product of nature, a natural organism, which evolves like any other organism. Therefore, linguistics is not a human science, but a natural science.
For Stephen Pearl Andrews, creator of Universology, language is a reflection of the universe. Therefore, it is a natural element.
Proponents of the biblical myth of the Tower of Babel maintain that there was (and is) a mother tongue, also called "green language," the secret and profound language of nature.
According to the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (linguistic relativism), language, besides being a vehicle for expressing thought, conditions our perception of the world. Or, according to Kuhn's terminology, language is a paradigm, a vision of the world. Therefore, there is a direct relationship between the linguistic categories of language and the way in which the world is perceived and interpreted. Therefore, it is not possible to postulate a general linguistic theory in which all the languages of the world can be described by the same linguistic categories.
The behaviorism-mentalism duality
Behaviorism is the science of observable behavior. It studies the structure of causal relationships between stimuli and responses. Human behavior is like a "black box", in which it is only possible to see the external, not the internal. According to the behaviorist psychology of John Broadus Watson and Burrhus Skinner, any psychological study must be based exclusively on observable human behavior. Skinner expounded his theory of linguistic behaviorism in his work "Verbal Behavior" (1957).
At the linguistic level, behaviorism takes the form of empiricism, the mere observation of verbal behaviors, the external observable phenomena:
We can only have access to observable, objective, empirical, external linguistic behavior. It rejects any postulate about states, entities or mental mechanisms that govern such behaviors.
The process of learning a language, like any other learning process, is the result of a series of habits based on the imitation or repetition of specific linguistic stimuli.
Meaning is something unclear, too diffuse, so it cannot be included in a rigorous science of language. Meanings are just patterns of behavior determined by stimulus-responses.
Mentalism is the opposite position to behaviorism. For mentalism, what is important is the inner world, mental states and processes, with external behavior being the reflection of the internal. It is the naturalistic approach to language: the study of the mind as a component of the natural world.
Mentalism was harshly attacked and marginalized for a long time, as it was compared to esotericism. Mentalism eventually evolved into cognitive psychology, the school of psychology that studies cognition, that is, the mental processes or mechanisms involved in the elaboration of knowledge: perception, memory, learning, concept formation, and so on.
The modern conception of linguistics is to consider it as a branch of cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology (or cognitivism) claims the mind as the object of psychology. According to cognitive psychology, thought is prior to spoken language. The external is the manifestation of the internal. Language is the manifestation of thought.
The syntax-semantics duality
Every language has two aspects: semantics and syntax. Semantics is linked to the internal, to the deep, to the meaning, to the mental. Syntax is linked to the external, to the formal, to the superficial.
In a given language, it is evident that there is a semantics and many possible forms of external representation of that semantics (the syntax). The problem of syntax is the problem of choosing a formalism or symbology that best reflects the semantics.
The lexical semantics - structural semantics duality
Lexical semantics is the set of primary concepts handled by a language. Structural semantics is the way in which these concepts are combined.
The problem with structural semantics is that in order to combine primary concepts, other concepts are needed.
The descriptive-explanatory duality
In linguistics there are two currents:
The descriptive stream or school of linguistics is limited to describing language externally by looking for patterns or rules that regulate it.
The explanatory school looks for the reason, the internal and deep cause that gives rise to language.
Within the descriptive aspect, there is the issue of semantic opposites. It refers to two opposite or dual concepts, which appear in all languages. This aspect was already highlighted by Panini (5th century BC), a pioneer of linguistics (or protolinguist) in his study of Sanskrit. This subject was also dealt with by the Greek Dionysius of Thrace (1st century BC).
Humboldt's problem
According to Wilhem von Humboldt, the problem of language is not a particular problem of linguistics, for language occupies a central role. Language is the key to everything. Knowledge does not take place with language, but in language. The problem is to know the deep meaning of language and its relation to knowledge.
Darwin's problem
Darwin's problem is the problem of the origin and evolution of the linguistic faculty in the human species:
The problem of whether language appeared by gradual (or continuous) natural selection or whether it appeared suddenly (or discontinuously). Different hypotheses have been formulated: by the progressive increase of neuronal connections in the brain; by a process of heterochrony (discontinuous changes) in the development of the nervous system, etc.
The problem of how the lexicon and grammar arose, which gives language its infinite potential.
The problem of when language originated. This aspect has been best resolved: about 50,000 years ago humans, when humans had symbolic behavior, such as creating art and burying their dead.
The problem of the analysis-synthesis duality in words. It is the problem of how meaning arose. Words are made up of discrete elements without meaning and joined together give rise to meaning.
The problem of whether language was born orally or with signs.
The problem of whether it arose in one place or in different geographical points.
Linguistics has a deep connection with Darwinism. It is little known that Darwin was inspired by the comparative model of historical linguistics to formulate his theory of evolution [Adler, 1999].
Evolution is an undeniable fact; organisms evolve. There is an analogy between languages and living organisms, for languages are born, evolve, reproduce and die. The problem is that the universal laws of evolution have not been found.
The language-thought duality
The relationship between thought and language has been the subject of controversy throughout history, but especially throughout the 20th century. There have been 4 main theses:
Language as a translation of thought.
Language is nothing more than a code for the translation of thought. Since direct communication of thoughts is not possible, we use language as an intermediary. It is a dualistic hypothesis, which separates thought and language. And it is a hypothesis that goes in the inside-outside sense.
Language as a determinant of thought.
There is a total dependence of thought on language. Linguistic structures completely determine thought, our conception of reality and our reasoning structures.
This is the strong Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, also called "linguistic relativism". Relativism refers to the fact that each linguistic structure determines a different way of interpreting reality. It is also a dualistic hypothesis and goes in the outside-inside direction.
This hypothesis has been criticized in several respects:
Since the hypothesis is enunciable, there can be no complete linguistic determinism.
Language can be used meta-linguistically. This fact cannot be explained if language totally determines thought. To speak of language one must somehow place oneself outside of it.
Not all form is linguistic. There are sensations and perceptions that are, at their level, also formal.
Language conditions thought.
This is the weak Sapir-Whorf version, which states that language conditions or predisposes to certain forms of reasoning and thinking, rather than determining it absolutely.
Language is the same as thought.
There is an intrinsic relationship between thought and language. Language is not a garment or external covering of thought, but is essential to thought. There is no distinction between thought and language. There is no language without thought and no thought without language.
The problem of the relation between language and reality
According to the first Wittgenstein (the one in the Tractatus), there is an isomorphism between language and reality. It is the figurative theory of meaning: a proposition is a figure or representation of a real or hypothetical situation. Between the elements of the proposition and the elements of reality there is an isomorphic relationship. Language and the world are not separate realities. Language belongs to the world.
The second Wittgenstein (the one in Philosophical Investigations) renounces the figurative theory of language by asserting that the meaning of a word is the use made of it. "Do not ask about meaning; ask about use."
For Russell and his theory of logical atomism, language and reality have the same logical form.
The problem of the different linguistic
There are a wide variety of specialized linguistics, or linguistic paradigms, with no common root, including the following:
Applied linguistics. An interdisciplinary field of linguistics that focuses on the study of social problems involving language.
Behaviorist or behaviorist linguistics. It studies external linguistic phenomena.
Cognitive linguistics. An interdisciplinary field between linguistics and cognitive psychology.
Computational linguistics. An interdisciplinary field between linguistics and computer science.
Structural linguistics. Based on Saussure's structuralism.
Functional linguistics. It studies the elements and mechanisms involved in a language as an instrument of communication. The study of a language has explanatory value, not only descriptive.
General (or theoretical) linguistics. It studies such diverse questions as what languages exist, what properties they have in common, what knowledge a person must have to be able to use a language, and how children acquire linguistic competence.
Generative linguistics. It makes use of the concept of generative grammar, the grammar that, with a finite number of rules, can generate (describe) all utterances (finite or infinite) of a language. Transformational generative linguistics makes use of generative grammar together with transformational rules.
Addendum
The general grammar of Port-Royal
The name "general grammar" is given to that grammar which is based on linguistic universals, on universal principles, common to all languages. It is thus a matter of discovering the language of which particular languages are particular cases.
The so-called "Grammar of Port-Royal" of 1660, whose original title is "General and Reasoned Grammar", was written by Claude Lancelot in collaboration with Antoine Arnauld, and is the first historical example of a general grammar. According to this school, the deep structure of all languages is the same, since it is a reflection of the forms of thought and of certain fundamental properties of the mind. And the basic unit of every proposition is the subject-predicate structure.
The example of Port-Royal's grammar was followed by other grammarians, especially in the 18th century, for it was thought that language learning should be based on a general grammar, a grammar common to all languages.
According to Chomsky, Port-Royal's grammar is an antecedent of his own linguistic theory, since it is part of the tendency to institute a universal grammar.
Bibliography
Adler, Stephen G. Darwinism and the linguistic image: language, race, and natural theology in the nineteenth century. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
Belletti, A; Chomsky, N.; Rizzi, L. Sobre la naturaleza y el lenguaje. Cambrige University Press, 2003.
Caravedo, Rocío (editor). La competencia lingüística: (crítica de la génesis y del desarrollo de la teoría de Chomsky). Gredos, 1990.
Cassirer, Ernst. Filosofía de las formas simbólicas. El lenguaje. Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1998.
Pinker, Steven. El instinto del lenguaje. Cómo crea el lenguaje la mente. Alianza Editorial, 2012.
Whorf, Benjamin Lee. Lenguaje, pensamiento y realidad. Círculo de Lectores, 1999.
