The Emerging Connection

Abstract

The preceding chapters have so far thrashed out some of the deepest problems and puzzles that lie at the heart of the connection between grammar, mind and computation. It has been shown that virtually all the problems and puzzles spring from quite a number of apparently harmless assumptions about the nature of the relationship between a mental grammar and computation. If this is so, it appears that the elimination of these assumptions along with a consequent sharpening of the suppositions that a linguistic theory is based on can perhaps clear up much of the mess. It may be noted that many of the suppositions pass for methodological pillars on which the superstructure of linguistic theory is built, and for that reason, it becomes difficult to impugn a set of suppositions that support linguistic inquiry at a relatively preliminary stage of development. This is, in a certain sense, a justifiable stance in that any rational inquiry has to proceed with a basic set of assumptions and presuppositions. However, if it turns out that the methodological base itself is constituted by shaky structures, it would be worthwhile re-examining the foundational assumptions supporting the methodological base. But in doing so, one needs to be cautious about any step one may consider taking to make sure that this concern does not become simply tangential to the efforts to pull the theoretical cart.