Citation:
Chomsky, N. (2002). New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. (Original work published 2000)
Summary:
Chomsky explains that we can at least partly explain the semantic dimensions of language by invoking a relation of reference between words and things. Semantics can be understood as part of syntax or "properties and arrangements of the symbolic objects" (174). Still, he remains skeptical as to whether there is any relation between the speaker and the words he or she speaks. Language comes from a "language organ" and is as much biological as it is social. While having knowledge of a language is social, the ability to use language is biological.
Response:
I'm often been curious as to why there isn't more interdisciplinary work between psychology, linguistics, and composition. It seems obvious to me that language is a biological process, but I think that in our discipline we get so overwhelmed with the conversations of our discipline that we refuse to go outside it, or at least hesitate. Just because our languaging biolocial processes develop socially doesn't mean that we don't need to consider both as we study language. I like the idea of language as a bodily system though it does seem a bit counter-intuitive considering that most of the bodily systems we think about occur without socialization. If we weren't socialized, I'm pretty sure our circulatory and digestive systems would still work.
Connections/Questions:
I'm intrigued by the idea that part of the meaning making process is the mode of the language. This idea connects well with Manovich who discusses the hierarchical differences in meaning making through the organization of databases verses narratives. Manovich implies that databases and narratives are a form of language (the database is a semiotic version of the language of culture), but I wonder how much the narrative and database form language. Our minds work with the language through the medium of our biology, but then they also work through the organizational structures we use to build the knowledge (connection to Berthoff here).
