A Note On The Creative Aspect of Language Use - Chomsky PDF
A Note On The Creative Aspect of Language Use - Chomsky PDF
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The Philosophical Review, XCI, No. 3 (July 1982)
Noam Chomsky
1The quotes (1), (2), and (Q) are from my "Form and Meaning in
Natural Language," in Language and Mind, enlarged edition (New York,
1972). This is identified in the preface as "a rather informal lecture given
in January 1969.. ." Virtually all of Drach's reference to Language and
Mind are, in fact, references to this "rather informal lecture," including all
the quotes from this book cited below with the exception of (8). See Drach's
article for exact page references for these and other passages cited below.
Note that Language and Mind post-dates the "decisive shift" Drach claims
to have discovered in my views on the two concepts she discusses: the
creative aspect of language use (CALU) and competence. With regard to
the CALU, she writes: this "decisive shift .. . occurs in Cartesian Linguistics"
(New York, 1966); and she claims that my "definition of 'competence'
underwent a change at about the same time..." The earliest work from
which Drach quotes is "Current Issues in Linguistic Theory," in The Struc-
ture of Language, ed., J. A. Fodor and J. J. M. Katz (Englewood Cliffs,
1964), henceforth CI. Therefore, the period through which "the concept
[of creativity] seems to have run its course," having been used (by implica-
tion, dishonestly) to "gather countless repentant behaviorists to the
Chomskyan fold," was rather brief: about two years. In fact, as we shall see
directly, the elapsed time was null.
423
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NOAM CHOMSKY
424
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CREATIVE ASPECT OF LANGUAGE USE
prise, had not panned out, this verdict: the creative aspect of
language use is as much a mystery as it ever was." This is the
"cheating" to which Drach refers: in early work (1964) I had
claimed that generative grammar had "made [a] contribution
to, or thrown light on" the CALU, but later (1969) I stated
that the CALU remains a "mystery."
We see at once, however, that there is neither contradic-
tion nor deception in these various theses. The CALU does
remain a mystery, as stated in (2). The study of grammar
attempts to answer question (Q) (inter alia) by providing a
substantive version of (1). Insofar as it succeeds in this aim,
we have an account of the mechanisms that enter into the
CALU. In this sense-which has been clear from the
outset-the thesis that Drach formulates as (3) is correct:
there is an "intimate relation" between the CALU and the
'concern of linguistics" to discover the mechanisms of
grammar, though of course grammar is concerned with
competence; and "generative grammar is in some important
way concerned with the CALU." This remains so even
though the CALU remains a mystery (cf. (2)). Evidently,
there is no contradiction here. There would be a contradic-
tion if, in Drach's phrase, "language is what Chomsky says it
is-something that is accounted for in toto by the rules of
transformational grammar," if the CALU had been "said to
be accounted for by his rules and then reestablished as a
mystery." But what I actually said is something quite dif-
ferent: that the rules and principles of grammar "provide the
means" for the CALU, thus shedding light on it, but not
giving anything like a full account of it, and not resolving the
mysteries it poses.
Drach considers this resolution of her various "contradic-
tions," but rejects it, on curious grounds. She cites my obser-
vation that there is no inherent contradiction in the notion of
creativity constrained by rules:2
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NOAM CHOMSKY
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CREATIVE ASPECT OF LANGUAGE USE
427
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NOAM CHOMSKY
Drach omits the first sentence of (5) here italicized. She then
states that the second sentence "seems to be in direct con-
tradiction" to (2). Note that the sentence she omits recapitu-
lates the relevant part of (2). A more accurate version of her
statement, then, would be that the second sentence of (5)
428
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CREATIVE ASPECT OF LANGUAGE USE
429
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NOAM CHOMSKY
430
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CREATIVE ASPECT OF LANGUAGE USE
Note that the passage refers explicitly to language use, that is,
to performance. It immediately follows discussion of the
"distinction that must be made between what the speaker of a
language knows implicitly (what we may call his competence)
and what he does (his performance)." The aim of a "linguistic
grammar" is "to discover and exhibit the mechanisms that
make this achievement possible," namely, achievement of the
CALU, where "make possible" is to be understood as before,
clearly. Drach might have made the point that reference to
performance as an "aspect of linguistic competence" might
have been misleading, despite the immediate clarification
and the preceding discussion of the nature and importance
of the distinction. But it is strange indeed to cite a reference
to the creative aspect of "language use" as a "clinching" ar-
gument that I am referring "not [to] language use," but to
competence, in discussing the CALU.
Comparable misreadings and confusions run through
Drach's entire article. For example, she writes that "It is the
creativity of human language, so eloquently extolled by
Chomsky and, in the eyes of his followers, decisively demon-
strated by his generative-transformational linguistics ... ." It
is difficult to imagine that anyone has taken the CALU to be
"decisively demonstrated by generative-transformational
linguistics"; a reference would have been helpful. To my
knowledge, the CALU has always been presented as in effect
an observation, and far from a novel one. The goal of
"generative-transformational linguistics" was, in the first
place, to exhibit the mechanisms that enter into the CALU,
and, more significantly, to discover the basis in innate en-
dowment for the development of these mechanisms in the
case of particular languages.
To cite another case, related to the latter concern, Drach
431
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NOAM CHOMSKY
432
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CREATIVE ASPECT OF LANGUAGE USE
3Drach claims "that critics have as much trouble pinning Chomsky down
concerning the meaning of his doctrine of innateness as it was difficult to
do so in the case of Descartes," citing no examples or reasons. Putting aside
the interpretation of Descartes, I am unaware of any difficulties in pinning
down the meaning of my views on innateness. Evidently, there is some
element of biological endowment that enables a human, but not a bird or
(so far as is known) a higher ape, to acquire a human language. This
"doctrine of innateness" is certainly not difficult to "pin down," and is in
fact hardly controversial. I also tend to believe, as do many others, that
there are some "special purpose devices" involved in what I think should
properly be called "the growth of grammar." This is, plainly, an empirical
issue, and the "doctrine" (i.e., the belief, for which there is fairly good
evidence) is again not difficult to "pin down." I have also made proposals,
as have many others, about what these devices might be, abstractly charac-
terized as properties (specifically, principles) that it seems plausible to at-
tribute to an innate "language faculty," realized somehow in as yet un-
known physical mechanisms. If the meaning of this "doctrine" is difficult
to "pin down," then the same must be true of similar studies of the visual
system (and in this regard, the reference to Descartes, and to current
research, is quite appropriate, as discussed in detail in references that
Drach cites).
In fact, there is no more difficulty in understanding what Drach calls my
"doctrine of innateness" than there is in understanding the "doctrine" that
the human and insect visual systems develop on the basis of distinct biolog-
ical endowment, or the "doctrine" that the human visual system incorpo-
rates a rigidity principle that is used in visual processing and is somehow
physically realized, etc. The belief that there is something deeply puzzling
here has been frequently expressed, but as yet, no one has succeeded in
explaining what the puzzle or problem might be, or why the puzzle (what-
ever it is) arises peculiarly in the case of language.
433
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NOAM CHOMSKY
4Note that the concept "Cartesian" was explicitly given a rather broad
construal in the work Drach cites. Cf. Cartesian Linguistics, note 3.
434
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