Limiting the arbitrary : linguistic naturalism and its opposites in Plato's Cratylus and modern theories of language / John E. Joseph.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Joseph, John Earl.

Series:

Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Studies in the history of the language sciences ; Series III, v. 96.

Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Series III, Studies in the history of the language sciences, 0304-0720 ; v. 96

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Language and languages--Philosophy.

Language and languages.

Naturalness (Linguistics).

Plato. Cratylus.

Plato.

Physical Description:

viii, 224 p.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, Pa. : John Benjamins Pub. Co., c2000.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

pt. 1. Cratylus

pt. 2. After Cratylus.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-216) and index.

ISBN:

1-283-17460-X

9786613174604

90-272-8372-9

OCLC:

735627743