Re: Universal grammar

groups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
[...]
The search for the fundamental building blocks of natural language
keeps grabbing handfuls of air.

A very keen observation.

The search for universals has come full circle and it has become a
canon of Cognitive Linguistics that to capture the wealth of semantic
detail parametrizing language, only the actual language in use
suffices.

I am not sure if there was ever a goal of cognitive scientists to
find universals. They do want a representation of knowledge with
which they can do logical reasoning (deduction, induction, etc).

I have the impression that the OP uses the word "universal"
somewhat different from linguists. I think what he really
meant was "language-neutral representation". He is really
asking in the wrong group.

No-one has been able to find a universal representation for meaning,
any more than they have been able to find other universals.

No one has found a representation that is compact enough for
general knowledege. In other words, to understand a simple
English sentence one basically has to know the world.

But you are right. I think the issue is very closely related to that of
a general theorem prover in maths.

No, they are not related.

(I have probably missed it -- where did the OP said they were related?)

Actually, I didn't think it wasstill considered possible to build
a general theorem prover in maths.

Correct.

(and I am personally convinced that is for the same reason we
have not been able to find universals of language or meaning.)

And the reason is?

Tak
--
----------------------------------------------------------------+-----
Tak To takto@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
--------------------------------------------------------------------^^
[taode takto ~{LU5B~}] NB: trim the xx to get my real email addr

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: i do hope this isnt a wind-up....a language with 3 vowels and 8 consonants....
    ... very beginning of language, when it was just emerging from the ... isn't a disbelief in universals irrational? ... they have a low average age at death. ... Bear in mind term "innumerate" is approximate. ...
    (uk.politics.misc)
  • Re: i do hope this isnt a wind-up....a language with 3 vowels and 8 consonants....
    ... very beginning of language, when it was just emerging from the ... isn't a disbelief in universals irrational? ... Clearer is the proxy of age heaping, but it's less relevant to your question ... Age heaping is the tendency of innumerate people to round ...
    (uk.politics.misc)
  • Re: Universal grammar
    ... The original question was actually about linguistic grammar universals, ... not language universals. ... canon of Cognitive Linguistics that to capture the wealth of semantic ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Universal grammar
    ... not language universals. ... I wouldn't spend too much time looking for those grammatical universals ... connectionism as generative grammar. ... still considered possible to build a general theorem prover in maths ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: unnatural languages
    ... multiple generations of monolingual speakers) and excludes Esperanto ... language besides Esperanto as their dominant language and have never ... Now, the question is, what constitutes a community. ... Until we know what all the universals are, ...
    (sci.lang)