Re: Language Games and Semantic Domains

Re: http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.ai.conceptual-graphs/2986

On the question of what is precise and what is vague, we have Chomsky's discussion
of the Relation-Ship (not the Razor-Sharp) between Externalized Language (E-language)
and Internalized Language (I-language).  For example:

| It should be noted that familiar characterizations of "language" as a code or a game
| point correctly toward I-language, not the artificial construct E-language.  A code
| is not a set of representations but rather a specific system of rules that assigns
| coded representations to message-representations.  Two codes may be different,
| although extensionally identical in the message-code pairings that they provide.
| Similarly, a game is not a set of moves but rather the rule system that underlies
| them.  The Saussurean concept of ''langue'', although far too narrow in conception,
| might be interpreted as appropriate in this respect.  The same is true of Quine's
| definition of a language as a "complex of present dispositions to verbal behavior"
| insofar as it focuses on some internal state rather than E-language, although it
| is unacceptable for other reasons.  Thus, two individuals who speak the same
| language may differ radically in their dispositions to verbal behavior, and if
| dispositions are characterized in terms of probability of response under given
| conditions, then it is impossible to identify languages in these terms;  and
| again, the fundamental question of the use and understanding of new sentences
| is left without any explanation.  Perhaps the clearest account is Jespersen's
| in terms of the "notion of structure" that guides the speaker "in framing
| sentences of his own ...," these being "free expressions".  (pp. 31-32)
|
| Noam Chomsky (1986), ''Knowledge of Language : Its Nature, Origin, and Use'',
| Praeger Publishers, New York, NY.

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