for philosophical questions concerning the nature, origins, and usage of natural language
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0answers
61 views
Does the phrase “thinking in a language” have empirical meaning?
In discussions of language learning, multilingualism, and related topics, I hear references to "thinking in a language." Two questions on this stack exchange list have referenced this, namely "What ...
1
vote
0answers
59 views
What is the exact domain of a grammar? [closed]
E.g. transformational grammars or probabilistic grammars deal with language structures, branching, semantic ranging, etc. They are dealing with more or less 'rational', or logical cocepts.
But what ...
0
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2answers
51 views
Do descriptivists differ from prescriptivists in how, or whether, they determine correctness?
Do descriptivists differ from prescriptivists in how they determine whether something is correct? Or do they differ in whether or not they determine whether something is correct?
For example, if 80% ...
-1
votes
3answers
180 views
Can any one experience the World without a language? if yes to what extent, if no, why not?
I am exploring of a possibility of experiencing the world around without a language. By listening, speaking, seeing and reflecting on words made by the alphabets of a language - one experiences the ...
4
votes
1answer
101 views
Could a constructed non-symbolic language be created?
Would the proper term for it really be "non-symbolic language"?
Every language up until now uses symbols at various forms – vowel sounds and consonants are symbols; syllables, which are ...
4
votes
0answers
101 views
Usage of definite articles in Germanic and Romance languages
In the Germanic languages, a generic construction using the definite article with mass nouns is unacceptable. In contrast, Romance languages require the definite article to make the generic ...
5
votes
3answers
204 views
Why can't agreeing be an explicit performative?
I'm having a hard time determining when an utterance passes the thereby-test and thus can be considered to be an explicit performative.
An utterance in the first-person singular indicative ...
5
votes
1answer
204 views
What does the term “ontology” mean vis a vis the study of natural language?
Many of us know that the term "ontology" applies to the a priori philosophical study of the nature of existence. Ontology is a branch of metaphysics (the attempt to coherently characterize reality a ...
3
votes
3answers
215 views
Which languages are used for purposes other than facilitating communication?
Although it seems that most languages are used to facilitate communication, some languages seem to have secondary purposes as well. For instance, expatriates of a nation may continue to speak the ...
1
vote
1answer
47 views
Metrics of evaluating the successfulness of persuasive language
Given a large number of sets of historical documents that are each divided into two subsets: each subset advocating a position in a legal dispute (i.e. one set for a plaintiff and one for a ...
23
votes
8answers
1k views
Why do we have interest in (dying) language preservation?
When we read the news related to dying languages, normally this is painted as bad news and it's really important to preserve the language, see Language at risk of dying out (Guardian) or Digital tools ...
4
votes
0answers
123 views
Where did Peirce publish his triadic model of signs?
A triadic model of signs can be found by various researchers. Probably the most famous illustration is the diagram in Ogden and Richards's The Meaning of Meaning (page 11, digitized here). It is also ...
3
votes
2answers
159 views
Is explanation part of Historical Linguistics?
I am reading John McWhorter’s "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue". One thing called my attention in the book: he spends a great deal of effort trying to show the reader how scholars have thoroughly ...
8
votes
2answers
195 views
Bar-Hillel's critique of machine translation 50 years later
More than fifty years ago, philosopher Yehoshua Bar-Hillel wrote wrote an influential paper about computerized translation entitled: A Demonstration of the Nonfeasibility of Fully Automatic High ...
4
votes
0answers
216 views
What is the origin of the “hierarchy of projections”, the language system or (some) conceptual system?
All languages display some form of the hierarchy of projections, to the extent we understand what this is: in a given clause, roughly, complementizers are higher than inflectional heads are higher ...
13
votes
5answers
588 views
Why is prescriptivism criticized?
Several linguists criticize prescriptivism. Stephen Pinker is probably the one to have made the strongest case against it. But, is their criticism based on a methodological principle (the abstraction ...
