LINGUISTIC

PHILOSOPHY
Prepared by:
Group 7
Chavez, Vincent
Escoto, Mark Arthur
Rosete, Rocendo
Santos, Hans Czaynrie
Yumol, Elmo Nino
Linguistic
Philosophy

Linguistic philosophy is the view that many or

all philosophical problems can be solved (or
dissolved) by paying closer attention to language,
either by reforming language or by understanding
the everyday language that we presently use
better.
NOAM CHOMSKY
• One of the most famous linguists of the twentieth century, based his
linguistic works on certain philosophical doctrines.
• Transformational Generative Grammar
• He opposes the behaviourist psychology in favour of innatism for
explaining the acquisition of language. He claims that it becomes
possible for human child to learn a language for the linguistic faculty
with which the child is born, and that the use of language for an
adult is mostly a mental exercise
• According to him, the part of language which is innate to human
being would be called Universal Grammar
Theory on the Nature of Learner
1.Plato’s Problem

Innatism
■ He believed in the innateness of language.
■ Bertrand Russell summarizes it: “How comes it that human
beings, whose contacts with the world are brief and personal
and limited, are nevertheless able to know as much as they do
know?” Being born with this knowledge from the get-go
would naturally solve this little quandary and consequently
he viewed language as innate.
2. Cartesian Linguistics,
by Descartes
■ In his opinion, language acquisition was 
a simple and easy process, barely worthy of his attention.
Like Plato he believed in the innateness of language because
he thought it reflected the general rationality of human
beings.
■  This “Cartesian” movement, according to Chomsky (who
we’ll get to later), noted the creativity involved in everyday
language and presented the idea that there were 
universal principles behind every language.
3. Locke’s Tabula Rasa

■ He rejected
the idea that there was an innate logic beh
ind language
.
■  This is the idea that all knowledge comes
from outside ourselves through sensory
experience rather than through innate
knowledge that we have at birth.
4.Skinner’s Theory of
Behaviorism

■ According to behaviorism, a radical variant of which was

put forward by Skinner, all behavior is no more than a
response to external stimuli and there’s no innate
programming within a human being to learn a
language at birth.
■ In his concept of what he called “operant conditioning,” 
language learning grew out of a process of reinforcement a
nd punishment
 whereby individuals are conditioned into saying the right
thing. 
■ Feedback is important to language learners
5. Chomsky’s Universal
Grammar

■ The theory that Chomsky proposed would be called 

Universal Grammar and it would assert nearly the
exact opposite of what Skinner had offered in his
theory. Where Skinner saw all learning coming from
external stimuli, Chomsky saw an innate device for
language acquisition. What Skinner understood to be
conditioning according to particular events Chomsky,
understood to be the result of the 
universal elements that structure all languages.
Theory on the Nature of Learning
1. Language was a skill that had to be used
and practised but she had to wait until she
learned it well
2. Language was for communication but her
speaking had to wait until she was ready
3. Learning was a cumulative process
4. Effort was the key to successful learning.
Goal of Education
1. Teach learners to use language that is correct, precise,
grammatical, coherent, accurate.
2. Help student expand their vocabularies
3. Teach the learner how to communicate clearly.
4. Caution the learners of the verbal and non-verbal barriers of
communication.
5. Teach the learners to speak as many languages as they can.
What to teach?

1. Clear ■ Viewing
Communication 2. Three ways to
■ Speaking communicate
■ Listening ■ Verbal
■ writing ■ Non-Verbal
■ reading ■ Paraverbal
Why to teach?

■To develop the communication

skills of the learner.
■To develop in the learner the skill
to send messages clearly and
receive messages correctly.
How to teach?

■ Teach language and communication

through experential way
■ Make the classroom a place for the
interplay of minds and hearts.
■ Facilitate dialogue among learners
because in the exchange of words
there is also an exchange of ideas.
Listening in dialogue is listening more to meaning than
to words. In true listening, we reach behind the words,
see through them, to find the person who is being
revealed. Listening is a search to find the treasure of the
true person as revealed verbally and non-verbally.
– John Powell