Mind and Language (1):114-131 (2020)
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Abstract |
Sentences that are ungrammatical and yet intelligible are instances of what I call perfectly thinkable thoughts. I argue that the existence of perfectly thinkable thoughts is revealing in regard to the question of why syntactic islands should exist. If language is an instrument of thought as understood in the biolinguistics tradition, then a uniquely human subset of thoughts is generated in narrow syntax, which suggests that island constraints cannot be rooted in narrow syntax alone and thus must reflect interface conditions imposed on the output of the computational system and its mapping to external systems.
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Keywords | islands locality narrow syntax language as an instrument of thought perfectly thinkable thoughts |
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Reprint years | 2020, 2022 |
DOI | 10.1111/mila.12305 |
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References found in this work BETA
Concepts, Meanings and Truth: First Nature, Second Nature and Hard Work.Paul M. Pietroski - 2010 - Mind and Language 25 (3):247-278.
The Creative Aspect of Language Use and the Implications for Linguistic Science.Eran Asoulin - 2013 - Biolinguistics 7:228-248.
What is a Concept, That a Person May Grasp It?Ray Jackendoff - 1989 - Mind and Language 4 (1-2):68-102.
Narrow Syntax and the Language of Thought.Wolfram Hinzen - 2013 - Philosophical Psychology 26 (1):1-23.
The Dewey Lectures 2013: What Kind of Creatures Are We? Lecture I: What Is Language?Noam Chomsky - 2013 - Journal of Philosophy 110 (12):645-662.
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Citations of this work BETA
Language and Scientific Explanation: Where Does Semantics Fit In?Eran Asoulin - 2020 - Berlin, Germany: Language Science Press.
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