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In defense of public languages

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Abstract

My modest aim in this note is to sketch three interrelated critiques of public languages, and to respond to them. All are broadly Chomskyan, and all support the same conclusion: that, insofar as they even exist, the study of public languages is not a viable scientific project. (Related critiques of semantics, understood as involving word–world relations, will be touched on as well).

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  1. The University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada

    Robert J. Stainton

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  1. Robert J. Stainton
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Correspondence to Robert J. Stainton.

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Stainton, R.J. In defense of public languages. Linguist and Philos 34, 479–488 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-011-9104-7

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