Limiting the Arbitrary
Linguistic naturalism and its opposites in Plato's Cratylus and modern theories of language
The idea that some aspects of language are ‘natural’, while others are arbitrary, artificial or derived, runs all through modern linguistics, from Chomsky’s GB theory and Minimalist program and his concept of E- and I-language, to Greenberg’s search for linguistic universals, Pinker’s views on regular and irregular morphology and the brain, and the markedness-based constraints of Optimality Theory. This book traces the heritage of this linguistic naturalism back to its locus classicus, Plato’s dialogue Cratylus. The first half of the book is a detailed examination of the linguistic arguments in the Cratylus. The second half follows three of the dialogue’s naturalistic themes through subsequent linguistic history — natural grammar and conventional words, from Aristotle to Pinker; natural dialect and artificial language, from Varro to Chomsky; and invisible hierarchies, from Jakobson to Optimality Theory — in search of a way forward beyond these seductive yet spurious and limiting dichotomies.
[Studies in the History of the Language Sciences, 96] 2000. x, 224 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
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Foreword | p. vii
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Introduction
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Natural and Unnatural Language | p. 1
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Part one: cratylus
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1. Nature and Convention: Cratylus 383a1–391d1 | p. 13
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2. Words and Truth: Cratylus 391d2–422e1 | p. 39
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3. Imitation and Essence: Cratylus 422e1–440e1 | p. 59
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Part two: after cratylus
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4. Natural Grammar and Conventional Words, from Aristotle to Pinker | p. 93
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5. Natural Dialect and Artificial Language, from Varro to Chomsky | p. 141
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6. Invisible Hierarchies, from Jakobson to Optimality Theory | p. 169
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Afterword
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Linguistics after Naturalism | p. 201
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Index | p. 217
“[A] must-read for any serious linguist, let alone a linguistic historiographer. [The author's] mission is to challenge linguists to reflect on their own fundamental assumptions and to recognize that there is nothing much new under the sun — and in this he succeeds admirably. The whole is an enjoyable and thought-provoking read.”
Nicola McLelland, Trinity College, Dublin
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Subjects
Philosophy
Main BIC Subject
CF: Linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General