Formalism

Behaviorism
Mentalism
Supervised By: Dr. Bakhtiar
Prepared By: Ayub Mustafa
 Outline

 Formalism
 Formalism and Chomsky
 Behaviorism
 Behaviorism Principles
 Mentalism
 Mentalism and Chomsky
 Basic Tenets
 Language Acquisition Device
 References
 Formalism:
Formalism or formal linguistics is the study of the abstract forms of language
and their internal relations. It fixes on the forms of languages as evidence of
the universals without considering how these forms function in
communication and the ways of social life in different communities.
In linguistics, the term formalism is used in a variety of meanings which relate
to formal linguistics in different ways. In common usage, it is merely
synonymous with a grammatical model or a syntactic model: a method for
analyzing sentence structures.
Representative: Noam Chomsky, Transformational-generative grammar
Form is concerned with syntactic structure up to the sentence level, i.e. the
arrangement of morphemes and words into the larger units of group, clause,
and finally, sentence.
 Formalism and Chomsky (1/3)

 Chomsky (1957) attacked structuralism and his

linguistic theories created a revolution in linguistic
enquiry and proved to be a turning point in 20th century
linguistics.

 Chomsky's theories still focused on the formal properties

of the language and he was the first to focus on another
level of linguistic enquiry - syntax.
  Formalism and Chomsky (2/3)
 Chomsky starts from the observation that although different
groups of people speak different languages, all human
languages are similarly governed by common rules, or
principles, that are universal.

 Chomsky believed that language is a rule governed system.

Any language has an finite set of rules, knowledge of which
enabled the native speaker to produce an infinite number of
sentences.

 The linguist's task is to discover this finite set of rule which

had a generative, productive power
(transformational/generative linguistics).
 Formalism and Chomsky (3/3)

 Chomsky made the distinction between a native speaker's

competence (knowledge of linguistic rules that enabled the
NS to produce grammatically correct sentences) and
performance (actual use/production of language by the
native speaker).

 He believed that the task of the linguist is to discover and

analyze competence and not performance since the latter was
contaminated and impure. This distinguished his theory from
structuralists who focused only on spoken language.
 Branches of Formalism
1. Structuralism is a school of thought which was developed first in Europe by
Ferdinand de Saussure in his book 'Course in General Linguistics' in 1916. According
to structuralism, language is a system of interconnected units.
•The structuralist principle states that language is a self-contained relational structure,
the elements of which derive their existence and their value from their distribution
and oppositions in texts or discourse.
2. Generativism is a school of linguistic thought that emphasizes the role of grammar in
language. Generative grammar is a type of grammar that describes how sentences are formed
in a language. Noam Chomsky, a prominent linguist, developed the theory of generative
grammar. According to Chomsky.. there are two levels of representation in generative
grammar: surface structure and deep structure.
Surface structure is the level at which phonemes (sounds) are combined to form words, and
deep structure is the level at which meaning is encoded.
Generative grammarians seek to describe the rules that govern sentence formation in a
language.
 Behaviorism
 Behaviorism is a systematic approach to the understanding of
human and animal behavior.
 It assumes that the behavior of a human or animal is a consequence of that
individual's history, including especially reinforcement and punishment,
together with the individual’s current motivational state and controlling
stimuli.
 behaviorists give importance to inheritance in determining behavior, and
also on environmental factors.
 Behaviorism combines elements of philosophy, methodology, and
psychological theory.
 Behaviourism emphasizes the study of observable behavior rather
than mental processes or internal structures.
 Behaviorism Principles

 Conditioning: Learning is seen as a process of developing connections between

a stimulus and a response. This process is called conditioning.

 Habit formation: An individual responds to a stimulus by behaving in a

particular way. If the behaviour is reinforced (i.e. rewards or punishment) then
the likelihood of that behaviour occurring on a subsequent occasion will be
increased or decreased. As the behaviour is reinforced, habits are formed.

 Importance of environment: Learning is a result of environmental rather than

genetic factors. The child is born as a clean slate and the environment writes its
messages on this clean slate.
It denies the existence of mind.
Behaviorists insist that everything that
is described as the product of simple
physical process.

Behaviorists thinks that when we born

our mind is “tabula rasa” that is the
mind is like a blank slate the moment
we are born
Behaviourism is the theory that scientific enquiry into
behaviour should consist only of what can be observed, such
as stimuli and responses.
The theory of behaviorism is derived from psychological theory founded by
J.B. Watson. The followers of this theory are Bloomfield, Skinner and
Several Others. The main principle of the theory was mainly on analyzing
human behaviors in observable stimulus - respond within interaction.
 Mentalism
Mentalism is the belief that the mind is important for determining human
behavior. It came up as a reaction against behaviorism.
Mentalists explain that man was born with innate capacity for acquiring language
and we only need to start it. Chomsky was one of the main figures who presented
this theory about 1957.He considered Linguistics part of psychology .He glorifies
the role of mind. Chomsky’s basic claim is that the grammars for human
language are too complex and abstract to be learned on the basis of the type of
experience to which children have access(O,Grady William and etal,1987;494).
Chomsky thinks that what we call the mind can be best described in terms a set of abstract
structure whose physical basis is as yet relatively unknown. This power enable him learning a
language. Mind is just like a mirror reflects the average of learning. Competence is in the mind
of ideal speaker-hearer. Learning and anything acquired is related to mind .This process
possessed by the individual and developed in him as part of his maturation (competence-
performance).Competence is the system of knowledge of language which can be formed in the
mind of a person and it can be used to produce and develop gramatical utterances
(Corder ,1973:93).
Everybody learns a language, not because they are subjected to a
similar conditioning process, but because they possess an inborn
capacity which permits them to acquire a language as a normal
Maturational Process". In 1965 in a book titled "Aspects of the
Theory of Syntax", Chomsky claimed that there are innate
properties of language because a child masters his native language
in a very short time in spite of the highly abstract nature of rules.
Basic Tenets
 The idea of Chomsky that all children are born with Language Acquisition
Device (Hadley 2001 pg 58).
 Language learning depends on biological mechanisms.
 Children are innately programmed to learn language.
 Each language has its own “parameter settings”.
 The principles that children discover represent their “core grammar”
which relates to general principles that correspond to all languages.
 All human brain contains language universals that direct language
acquisition ( Horwitz 2008)
 Language Acqusition Device

Chomsky called this innate knowledge as Language Acquisition Device (LAD). He also insisted that every
normal human being is born into a society with a language faculty called LAD, which embodies the nature and
the structure of human language. LAD is what counts for language acquisition where in environment has got no
importance for the learning process at all. The language faculty contains innate knowledge of various linguistic
rules, constraints and principles; this innate knowledge constitutes the 'initial state' of the language faculty.

Chomsky called this innate knowledge as Language Acquisition Device (LAD). He also insisted that every
normal human being is born into a society with a language faculty called LAD, which embodies the nature and
the structure of human language. LAD is what counts for language acquisition where in environment has got no
importance for the learning process at all. The language faculty contains innate knowledge of various linguistic
rules, constraints and principles; this innate knowledge constitutes the 'initial state' of the language faculty.
 References
Hayes, S.C. and Brownstein, A.J., 1986. Mentalism, behavior-behavior relations, and a behavior-analytic view of the
purposes of science. The Behavior Analyst, 9, pp.175-190.

Burgos, J.E. and Killeen, P.R., 2019. Suing for peace in the war against mentalism. Perspectives on Behavior
Science, 42, pp.241-266.

Lyons John,(1981),Language and LinguistuicsCambridge university pressCambridge

O,Grady William and etal (1987),Contemporary

https://dbpedia.org/page/Formalism_(linguistics)#
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic Structures, The Hague/Paris: Mouton.