Grammar and Philosophy

Abstract

One who speaks his native language fluently and correctly has acquired over a period of time that mastery of the language which he now has. During this period he was exposed, no doubt, to many sentences produced by others and to some correction of sentences he produced himself. But his mastery of the language does not consist merely in his being able to reproduce the sentences produced by others and, in their corrected forms, the sentences earlier produced by himself. It consists in his being able also to produce indefinitely many new sentences, knowing what they mean, and in being able to understand indefinitely many new sentences which are produced to him. It consists also in his being able to distinguish between sentences of his language which are fully ‘correct’ and literally significant sentences — however elaborate or stylistically unusual they may be — and sentences which deviate, in various ways or degrees, from full ‘correctness’ or literal significance; and perhaps to remark, with more or less explicitness, on how the sentences which deviate from correctness do so deviate.

It will be obvious to any auditor of Professor Chomsky’s John Locke lectures, delivered in Oxford this summer after the present paper was written, that he has moved from, or modified, some of the positions here attributed to him on the basis of his publications. However, with occasional qualifications, I have allowed the attributions to stand; the written, checkable word provides a firmer basis for discussion than the spoken, uncheckable word.