Glackin, Shane N.
(2019)
So language. Very Prescribe. Wow.
Revista Sofia.
Abstract
The philosophical dispute about linguistic normativity is one battlefield in a larger war over the nature of language as an object of scientific study. For those influenced by Wittgenstein, language involves following – or failing to follow – public, prescriptive rules; for Chomsky and his followers, language is a property of individual minds and brains, and the grammatical judgements of any mature individual speaker – her competence – cannot be, in any linguistic sense, ‘wrong’. As I argue here, the recent ‘doge meme’ internet fad provides surprising evidence for the prescriptivist view. Normative attitudes towards linguistic practices are a ubiquitous feature of those practices, and there is no principled basis on which to regard them as non-linguistic.
Item Type: |
Published Article or Volume
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Creators: |
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Keywords: |
Chomsky; Doge; I-Language; Normativity; Prescriptivism |
Depositing User: |
Dr Shane N. Glackin
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Date Deposited: |
28 Aug 2019 03:04 |
Last Modified: |
28 Aug 2019 03:04 |
Item ID: |
16280 |
Journal or Publication Title: |
Revista Sofia |
Date: |
30 July 2019 |
URI: |
https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/16280 |
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