On nature and language PDF
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OnNatureandLanguage InthisnewandoutstandingbookNoamChomskydevelops histhinkingontherelationbetweenlanguage,mind,andbrain, integratingcurrentresearchinlinguisticsintotheburgeoningfield ofneuroscience.Thevolumebeginswithalucidintroductionbythe editorsAdrianaBellettiandLuigiRizzi.Thisisfollowedbysomeof Chomsky’srecentwritingsonthesethemes,togetherwitha penetratinginterviewinwhichChomskyprovidestheclearestand mostelegantintroductiontocurrenttheoryavailable.Itshouldmake hisMinimalistProgramaccessibletoall.Thevolumeconcludeswith anessayontheroleofintellectualsinsocietyandgovernment.On NatureandLanguageisasignificantlandmarkinthedevelopmentof linguistictheory.Itwillbewelcomedbystudentsandresearchers intheoreticallinguistics,neurolinguistics,cognitivescience,and politics,aswellasanyoneinterestedinthedevelopmentof Chomsky’sthought. noamchomskyisInstituteProfessorattheDepartmentof LinguisticsandPhilosophy,MassachusettsInstituteof Technology. adrianabellettiisProfessorofLinguisticsattheUniversityof Siena. luigirizziisProfessorofLinguisticsattheUniversityofSiena. On Nature and Language noam chomsky withanessayon “TheSecularPriesthoodandthe Perilsof Democracy” Editedby adriana belletti and luigi rizzi Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge , United Kingdom Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521815482 © Noam Chomsky, Adriana Belletti, Luigi Rizzi 2002 This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. 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Contents Preface vii 1 Editors’introduction:someconceptsand issuesinlinguistictheory 1 2 Perspectivesonlanguageandmind 45 3 Languageandthebrain 61 4 Aninterviewonminimalism 92 5 Thesecularpriesthoodandthe perilsofdemocracy 162 Notes 187 Referencestochapters1–4 191 Index 201 v Preface InvitedbytheUniversityofSiena,NoamChomskyspentthemonth ofNovember1999attheCertosadiPontignano,afourteenth-century monasteryandnowaresearchfacilityoftheUniversity.Itwasanex- traordinarilyintenseandexcitingmonth,inwhichfacultyandstudents oftheUniversityofSienahadauniqueopportunitytocomeinclose contact with different aspects of Chomsky’s work, discuss science andpoliticswithhim,exchangeandsharpenideasandprojects,and interactwithhiminmanyways.Thetextscollectedinthisvolumeare relatedtoactivitiesthattookplaceinconnectionwiththisvisit. Thefirstchapterprovidesanintroductiontosomebasiccon- ceptsoflinguistictheoryandtosomeelementsofthehistoryofthe fieldwhicharecrucialforunderstandingcertaintheoreticalquestions addressedinthefollowingchapters. The second chapter is related to a particular occasion. Chomsky’ssojourninSienawasorganizedtwentyyearsafterhisvisit to the Scuola Normale Superiore of Pisa, an event which, through thememorablePisaLectures,hasprofoundlyinfluencedthefieldof theoreticallinguisticseversince.Inconnectionwiththisanniversary, Chomskyreceived,onOctober27,1999,the“Perfezionamentohonoris vii Preface causa,”thehonorarydegreedeliveredbytheScuolaNormaleSuperiore. In that occasion, he gave the Galileo Lecture “Perspectives on Lan- guageandMind,”whichtracescentralideasofcurrentscientificlin- guisticsandofthemoderncognitivesciencestotheirrootsinclassical thought, starting with Galileo Galilei’sfamous praise of the “mar- velousinvention,”alphabeticwriting,whichallowsustocommuni- cate with other people, no matter how distant in space and time. TheGalileoLectureispublishedhereasthesecondchapter. The third chapter is focused on the relations of the study of languagewiththebrainsciences;itaddressesinparticulartheperspec- tivesforanintegrationandunificationoftheabstractcomputational models,developedbythecognitivesciences,withthestudyofthephys- icalsubstrateoflanguageandcognitioninthebrain.Apreliminary versionofthistextwasreadbyChomskyasaplenarylectureatthe meeting of the European Conference on Cognitive Science (Santa Maria della Scala, Siena, October 30, 1999); the same issues were also addressed in a somewhat more general setting in the public lecture “Language and the Rest of the World” (University of Siena, November16,1999). Thefourthchapterpresents,intheformofaninterview,adis- cussion on the historical roots, concepts, and ramifications of the MinimalistProgram,theapproachtolanguagewhichtookshapeun- dertheimpulseofChomsky’sideasinthecourseofthe1990s,and which has progressively acquired a prominent place in theoretical linguistics. Chomskyalsogaveasecondpubliclectureentitled“TheSecular Priesthood and the Perils of Democracy” (University of Siena, November18,1999),andbearingontheothermajorfocusofhisinter- estsandactivities:theresponsibilityofthemediaandotherintellec- tualorganizationsinmodernsociety.Thetextcorrespondingtothis viii Preface lectureispublishedhereasthefifthchapter.Thesametopicwasalso addressed by Chomsky in other talks and seminars, particularly in connectionwithhisrecentvolumeTheNewMilitaryHumanism. In the course of his sojourn in Siena, Chomsky also gave a seriesofinformalseminarsonthelatesttechnicaldevelopmentsof theMinimalistProgram,andreportedonthistopicattheworkshops connectedtotheresearchprogram“ForaStructuralCartographyof SyntacticConfigurationsandSemanticTypes”(CertosadiPontignano, November25–27,1999). Thecommondenominatorunitingthefirstfourchaptersofthis bookistheideaofstudyinglanguageasanaturalobject,acognitive capacitythatispartofthebiologicalendowmentofourspecies,phys- icallyrepresentedinthehumanbrainandaccessibletostudywithin theguidelinesofthenaturalsciences.Withinthisperspective,intro- ducedbyChomsky’searlywritingsandthendevelopedbyagrowing scientificcommunity,theoreticallinguisticsgaveacrucialcontribu- tion to triggering and shaping the so-called cognitive revolution in thesecondpartofthetwentiethcentury.Basedonaboutfortyyears ofscientificinquiryonlanguage,theMinimalistProgramnowdevel- opsthisapproachbyputtingatthecenteroftheresearchagendaa remarkablepropertyoflanguagedesign:itseleganceandconcisionin accomplishingthefundamentaltaskofconnectingsoundsandmean- ingsoveranunboundeddomain.Muchoftheinterviewpresentedin thefourthchapterisdevotedtoelucidatingthisaspectofcurrentre- search,andexploringanalogieswithotherelegantsystemsuncovered byscientificinquiryinotherdomainsofthenaturalworld. The second and third chapters of this book are immediately accessible to non-specialists. The fourth chapter, while essentially non-technical, refers to certain concepts of modern theoretical lin- guisticsandtoaspectsoftherecenthistoryofthisfield.Theaimof ix
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