Tradition of Western philosophy Language is a true species property, unique to the

human species in its essentials

2 aspects

Attempt within contemporary

science to approach
traditional questions

Plato-s problem
Perception problem
Production problem

Ability can improve with non change in

The problem of creative aspect of knowledge
language inn explained in terms of
analogy Knowledge in not ability There exist 2 concepts of ability

What was retained was a system of knowledge

The cognitive system of mind/brain

Spanish: when the object of the verb is animate, the object must be preceded by the preposition
“a”

English: it appears in the normal preverbal position

Causative construction
Spanish: the subject of embedded complement clause appears in adjoined prepositional phrase

At the most general level, in English, Italian and Spanish At a lower level of generality, English
it s possible to form causative construction by differs from Spanish and Italian in that
embedding a clause as complement to the causative
verb. English> the subject of the Spanish and Italian> it becomes prepositional a-
embedded clause remains phrase
in its normal position

At a finer level Spanish differs from Italian in

that an animate object must be preceded by
the preposition “a”

The source of knowledge might lie in the child’s environment or in the biological determined resources of the mind\brain
Interaction of these factors provides the system of knowledge
We have 3 factors to consider
1 Genetically determined principles 2 genetically determined general 3 The linguistic experience of the child growing up in a
of the language faculty learning mechanisms speech community

The element “se” is a clitic, form that can’t

stand alone , but must attach to some verb There is a rule of Spanish that moves se from the
normal position of direct object afeitar yielding in the
present case
Suppose that we combine the causative and reflexive
construction
Since se is a clitic, it must move
to attach to a verb

The rule that attaches a clitic to a verb has a parameter ( normal one for all
that admits 2 values Spanish dialects )

If the subject of the complement is los muchachos we

should expect

Problem: if 4b is a fine sentence, the result of
adding a los muchachos to it yields with no
interpretation
The sentence is completely unacceptable in
Spanish and Italian
Adding the phrase a los muchachos to the
causative-reflexive construction changes
it’s status quite considerably, the same if
we add a quién

This examples give rise to Plato’s problem The system of knowledge that bas développer in thé mine/Brain
How does the child learning Spanish knows such facts? of the speaker assigns no interpretation to these sentences

Acquisition of rules of sound The child approaches language with and intuitive understanding of su y concepts suce as
physical objects, volition, intention, goals and so on
Vocabulary acquisition
 Language faculty Language

Data> language faculty> language> structures expressions

Martian scientiste John M. Discovers that people produces sentences

and combine them into mora complex structures
(declarative sentences)

Than he discovers that speaker

forms interrogative sentences
like
Rule R

Rule R-Q
No rule that refers simply to the linear order of
words of a sentence will work

The rules of a language are structure

dependent

How pronouns are used and interpred?

They comes into two forms And they have 2 different uses

Isolated form Clitic form Free pronouns Bound pronoun

A pronoun mus be free in its domain Binding theory

Data> language faculty> language> structures expressions Universal grammar

Discovers that people produces sentences

and combine them into mora complex structures
(declarative sentences)
 Two levels of inquiry into languages
Descriptive level Explanatory level

Verbs {V} Verb phrase {VP}

Nouns {N} Noun phrase {NP}
Universal grammar permits curtains categories of lexical items
Adjectives {A} adjective phrase {AP}
for each of these, provides a projection of which it is the head Adpositions {P} Adpositional phrase {PP}

Each of these has a head and its complement

The head is a lexical

The complement in
category of the
each case is an NP
appropriate type
In each the head precede its complement

XP= X-YP general structure of In Spanish the value The order of the head and its complement e is
the phrase parameter is head first one of the parameter of universal grammar

In such languages the basic structure of Some languages exhibit the verb- In a subject-verb-object clause there is subject-
the clause is NP-VP and the verb moves subject-object order object asymmetry
to the beginning of the clause

In Spanish is actually more

The rule that moves the verbal complicated, because it-s the
element to the front is a general entire verbal phrase which
option permitted by universal moves to the front
grammar

Principles of phrase structure facilitate task of learning languages, because all that must be done is to set the value of the head
parameter and others like it, these principles also facilitate the task of perceiving and understanding.

“Se” is identified as a clitic

Pronominal system Projection principle requires that the lexical

Binding of the reflexive “se”
Basic phrase structure
parameter in Spanish is
head first
properties of each lexical item must be preserves at
every level of representation
Afeitar must be represented at every level and is a
transitive verb requiring an object

It leaves behind a trace

Causative reflexives

7 is the underlying structure of 6

where the clause C is the complement
of the causative verb Hizo

All the conditions of phrase structure In 6 it attaches to afeitar forming afeitarse

are satisfied and the head parameter This form moves to the front of its clause, a property
is satisfied well of causative construction

The preposition “a” is inserted before the NP los muchachos, the clictic se use be In both Spanish and English the
bound and must have an antecedent which determines its reference reflexive anaphoric in the construction
must be bound within the minimal
domain of a subject
Al element that must be bound as anaphor
A pronoun must be free in the minimal domain of a subject Lo and el constitute a single discontinuous pronoun

The clitic se must attach to a verb, but in a

causative construction it can attach either to
a verb of which it is the object, or to the
causative itself

The existence of empty categories is interesting.

Knowledge of the property of empty categories is part of the framework that the human mind brings to the
problem of language acquisition
 the actual use of language involves elements of the mind/ what’s the speaker perceives or produces may not precisely respect the
brain that go beyond the language faculty properties of the language faculty taken in isolation

in such cases the speaker think about the

expression and after a period of reflection a
conclusion spring to mind about the meaning of
the expression

1 task= identify the words and assign

them to their categories

2 task= the mind uses the principles of phrase

structure to determine the general structure of
the expression

-word “quiere” is a verb that takes a clausola complement

-verb “examinar” is C2 Examinar requires an object and by the projection principle this
object must appear in the mental representation
- “ver” is a verb that takes a clausola complement
Pronoun
Empty categories
Trace of some element {t1}

Subject is also not physically present {t2} T2 follows the vein C3

Operators= bind variables that function as the

referential expressions and receive the semantic role
assigned within the clause

T1 is bound by nos
Now the traces are bound T2 is the variable bound by the operator al que

T1 is bound by the operator al que

T2 by nos

Interpretation assigned to {2} is determined by a series of Examples of this sort don-t exist in English because it lacks clitic
mental computation carried out by the language faculty pronouns and other relevant propertied of Spanish
in accordance with its fixed principles

Binding principles require that the reflexive anaphor himself be bound

in the minimal domain of a subject and that pronouns be free in this
domain
Suppose case theory

Finitive Overt
2 kinds of clauses Case may be
Infinitival Hidden

NP can‘ t appear in a position that is assigned The infinitival clause C is the complement of Hizo-caused
no case
 Differences between English and Spanish
English Spanish
The verb cause can assign case to the NP subject the This property lacks in Spanish
teacher of the embedded clause crossing the clause
boundary

Permits the verb expect to assign case freely Spanish doesn’t

across the clausal boundary

VP examinarlo moves to the front of its clause

NP el professor, subject of examinar, still lack case In languages that lack actual case endings, prepositions are generally
used to indicate case

Spanish males use of vacuous preposition a lacking any semantic

content, to overcome the lack of case on el professor

Preposition a functions as a case marker

Spanish uses this vacuous preposition when the object of verb is human

1 case marking may be inserted

Spanish= in an NP appears in the position
of subject of infinitive it must be assigned
case in some special manner 2 a vacuous preposition may be inserted

Hizo permits the VP of its If a construction doesn’t allows this movement,

complement to move to the we can overcome the violation of case theory in
beginning of its clause this manner

The verb phrase estar enfermo of the complement clause can’t be moved to the front of its clause whit the subject
then receiving the case- marking preposition a

Spanish lacks the device available in English that allows the subject Juan of the embedded clause to receive
accusative case from the main verb believe

Juan is functionis as the subject of the verb conoscer

Parece takes a clausal complement

Parece appears with a finitive clause as its complement

1. First question is logically prior to others.
The task of answering question 1 is basically descriptive, we attempt to construct a grammar that descrive how this
language assigns specific mental representations to each linguistic expression, determining its form and meaning.
Second task, to the level of genuine explanation= w attempt to construct a theory of universal grammar, a theory of the
fixed and invariant principles that constitute the human language faculty and the parameters of variation associated.

2. Special case of Plato’s problem. We succeed in construction the theory of universal grammar, other factors are involved.
Language learning is the process of determining the values of the parameters let unspecified by universal
grammar, of setting the switches that make the network function.
Language learning is not really something that the child does, it is something that happens to the child placed in an appropriate environment,
environment determines the way the parameters of the universal grammar are set.
Capacities that are part of our common human endowment can flourish or can be restricted and suppressed, depending on the conditions
provided for their growth.

3. Has 2 aspects
> perception aspect
> production aspects, called Decarte’s problem. For a person to under stand a linguistic expression, the mind/brrain must determine its
phonetic form and its words and then use the principles of universal grammar and the values of the
parameters to project a structured representation of this expression and determine how its parts are
associated.

4. Part of the problem is undertaking such inquiry is that experiments with human subjects are excluded for ethical reasons. Language is a habit
system of dispositions to behaviour, acquired through training and conditioning. Any innovative are result of “analogy”

Decartes problem is the problem of how languages is used in the normal creative fashion.
The issue arise in the context of the mind-body problem “problem of other minds”. Decartes developed a mechanical theory of the universe,
virtually everything that takes place in the universe of our experience can be explained in terms of his mechanical conceptions, in terms of
bodies that interact through direct contacts.
The most striking exception waswhat i called earlier the creative aspect of language use, through introspection each person can perceIve
that he or she has a mind which is quite distinct in its properties from the bodies that constitute the ohysical world. The human may often do
what is incited or inclined to do , but each of us knows from the introspection that we have a choice in the matter over a large range. The
difference between being compelled and being incited and inclined ,is a crucial one, the Cartesians concluded. The distinction would remain
crucial even if it were not manifested in actual behavior. To account for the facts about the world that surpass the possibilities of mechanical
explanation, it is necessary to find some extramechanical principle, what we might call a creative principle. this principle, the Cartesians
argued, belongs to mind, a "'second substance' entirely separate from body, which is subject to mechanical explanation, Decartes suggests
that we may no have 'intelligence enough' to discover the nature of mind,

For the Cartesians , mind is single substance, distinct from body. much of the speculation
and debate pf that period dealt with question of how these 2 substances interact. The mind, Descartes
held, is a 'universal instrument which can serve for all contingencies'. Notice that this claim is not
consistent with his belief that we may not have intelligence enough to discover the nature of mind. The
conclusion that the mind has intrinsic limits is surely the correct one. The Cartesians test for the
existence of other minds have been resurrected in a new guise in recent years, most notably by British
mathematician Alan Turing, who devised what is now called the Turing test, to determine whether a
machine exhibits intelligent behavior.
The mind-body problem can therefore not even be formulated. The problem can
not be solved, because there is no clear way to state it. Our task is, then ,to discover genuine explanatory
theories and to use these discoveries to facilitate inquiry into physical mechanisms with properties
outlined in these theories: we abandoned the whole conception of body as possibly distinct from
something else and use the methods of rational inquiry to learn as much as we can about the world. The
mind-body problem remains the subject of much controversy, debate, and speculation and in this regard
the problem is still much alive. The crucial difference between Cartesian and Newtonian enterprises was
that the latter offered a genuine explanatory theory of the behavior of bodies, where the former offered
no satisfactory account of properties such the creative aspect of language use that lie beyond mechanical
explanation in Descartes's view. When we investigate other organisms, we discover that their capacities
have a certain limits. If a creature has the capacity to perform certain tasks well, then these very
capacities will lead to failure in some other tasks. If we can learn what these capacities are, we can
design problems, that the creature will be unable to solve, because they fall beyond its capacities. We
suppose that humans are part of the natural world, they plainly have the capacity to solve certain
problems. It follows that they lack the capacity to solve other problems. The human mind can not be in
Descartes's terms a " universal instrument which can serve for all contingencies'. In the case of language
faculty ,a physical mechanism in the sense already explained, has certain definite properties , not others.
These are the properties that the theory of universal grammar seeks to formulate and describe. These
properties permit the human mind to acquire a language of a specific type, with curious and surprising
features. Possibly a human could come to understand such a nonhuman language by using other faculties
of the mind, much in the manner in which humans can come to understand many things about the nature
of the physical world through an arduous process of controlled inquiry and experimentation extending
over many generations and with the intervention of individual genius. Other such languages would be
beyond the bounds of possible human thought. To the extent that we can construct 'unlearnable
languages', languages that can not be acquired by the language faculty. The environment is not
irrelevant to growth. Rather, growth is triggered by the environment in numerous ways, stimulated by environmental factors or retarded or distorted if
the requisite factors are lacking. Let us return to
Descartes's problem. One possible reason for the lack of success in solving it or even presenting
sensible ideas about it is that it is not within the range of human intellectual capacities:.it is either to0
difficult'. given the nature of our capacities, or beyond their limits altogether. We are able to devise
theories to deal with strict determinacy and randomness. A martian scientist, with a mind different from
ours, might regard this problem as trivial, and wonder why humans never seem to hit on the obvious way
of solving it. The acquisition of a specific moral and ethical system, wide ranging and often precise in
its consequences, can not simply be the result of 'shaping' and 'control' by the social environment. As
in the case of language, the environment is far too improverished and indeterminate to provide this
system to child, in its full richness and applicability. The course of our own civilization may offer some
insight into the matter. Not long ago, slavery was considered legitimate, even estimable;slave owners
did not regard what they were doing as wrong but saw it as a proof of their high moral values. Their
arguments were not absurd, though we now regard them as morally grotesque. Similarly, the slave
owner is likely to treat his possession with more care and solicitude than the capitalist who merely rents
people for temporary purposes.