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encountered before), the fact that the English language contains
an infinite number of well formed sentences, and the fact that there
is no clear limit on the length of certain types of sentences - all, ac–
cording to Chomsky, must be taken into consideration in any ade–
quate set of rules for a language, and any adequate characterization
of linguistic competence must represent the mastery of such rules.
Further, any adequate conception of the mind, one that would account
for the capacity to master these rules, shows tha t cognitive processes
are autonomous. This means that we cannot look at these processes
as mere reactions to environmental changes. The basic insight that
the functioning of the mind is not determined by environmental stimuli
is implicit
in
Plato, and is made explicit by Descartes. But Chomsky
succeeds in transforming what was for Descartes a piece of philosoph–
ical speculation into a scientific hypothesis that can be tested by em–
pirical evidence; and what looks at first glance like a murky meta–
physical issue about mind and matter becomes a verifiable hypothesis.
Chomsky's conception of language has far-reaching consequences.
First, as suggested above, it involves the reorientation of the study of
languages to discover common elements rather than differences, for
if
the conception of language as a biological phenomenon is to stand
up, then similarities will havli to
be
found. An analogous reorienta–
tion took place in anthropology.
It
was once very fashionable in
anthropology to assert the relativity of values, thus denying that there
are any fundamental principles of conduct invariant across cultures–
principles that might
be
regarded as given innately. This view went
hand in hand with an emphasis on overt forms of behavior as against
abstract theoretical frameworks. More recently it became clear that
to understand a culture one must look not only at its customs but
also at the underlying principles of behavior, which, given the variations
in economic and geographic settings as well as the differences in sci–
entific knowledge, will be manifested in different cultures in a variety
of ways as the same concept is applied to superficially different situa–
tions. Once anthropologists began to look for underlying elements, they
were able to discover a number of principles seemingly acceptable to
all cultures. Just so, in linguistics, Chomsky notes the common rules
underlying all languages instead of considering merely their surface
variety.
It
was necessary here to show how these systems of rules can
be
assigned mathematically precise properties. This study became known
as mathematical linguistics, and it is important to understand that
the development of the discipline is related to Chomsky's claim that
the study of language can tell us important things about the human
