Abstract
Edited correspondence between Ullin T Place and Noam Chomsky, which occurred in 1993–1994, is presented. The principal topics are (a) deep versus surface structure; (b) computer modeling of the brain; (c) the evolutionary origins of language; (d) behaviorism; and (e) a dispositional account of language. This correspondence includes Chomsky’s denial that he ever characterized deep structure as innate; Chomsky’s critique of computer modeling (both traditional and connectionist) of the brain; Place’s critique of Chomsky’s alleged failure to provide an adequate account of the evolutionary origins of language, and Chomsky’s response that such accounts are “pop-Darwinian fairy tales”; and Place’s arguments for, and Chomsky’s against, the relevance of behaviorism to linguistic theory, especially the relevance of a behavioral approach to language that is buttressed by a dispositional account of sentence construction.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Armstrong, D. M., Martin, C. B., Place, U. T, & Crane, T (Eds.). (1996). Dispositions: A debate. London: Routledge.
Armstrong, D. M., & Place, U. T. (1991). A debate on dispositions: Their nature and their role in causation. Conceptus, Band 25, No. 66, 3–44.
Block, N. (1990). The computer model of the mind. In D. N. Osherson & E. E. Smith (Eds.), Thinking: An invitation to cognitive science (Vol. 3, pp. 247–289). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Broadbent, D. E. (1991, December). Planning and opportunism. Address to the London Conference of the British Psychological Society, City University, London.
Chomsky, N. (1959). Review of B. E Skinner’s Verbal Behavior. Language, 35, 26–58.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1972). Language and mind (enlarged ed.). New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. (Original work published 1968)
Chomsky, N. (1973). For reasons of state. London: Fontana.
Chomsky, N. (1980). Rules and representations. New York: Columbia University Press.
Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of language: Its nature, origin and use. New York: Praeger.
Chomsky, N. (1987). The Chomsky reader. New York: Pantheon.
Chomsky, N. (1988a). Language and politics. Cheektowaga, NY: Black Rose Books.
Chomsky, N. (1988b). Language and problems of knowledge: The Managua lectures. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1993). Language and thought. Wakefield, RI: Moyer Bell.
Chomsky, N. (1997). Language and mind: Current thoughts on ancient problems (part 1). Available on line at kcn.ru/tat_en/science/fccl/papers/chomskyl.htm.
Chomsky, N. (2000). New horizons in the study of language and mind. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Chomsky, N., & Halle, M. (1968). The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper and Row.
Churchland, P. M. (1988). Matter and consciousness (rev. ed.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Edelman, G. M. (1987). Neural Darwinism: The theory of neuronal group selection. New York: Basic Books.
Frege, G. (1956). The thought: A logical enquiry (A. Quinton and M. Quinton, Trans.). Mind, 65, 289–311. (Original work published 1918)
Gehrz, R. D., Black, D. C., & Solomon, P. M. (1984). The formation of stellar systems from interstellar molecular clouds. Science, 224, 823–830.
Helm, G. (1993, June). Computers can think! A strange proof and its implications for cognitive science. Paper presented to the Conference on Connectionism and the Philosophy of Mind, Bled, Slovenia.
Herrnstein, R. J., Loveland, D. H., & Cable, C. (1976). Natural concepts in pigeons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behaviour Processes, 2, 285–302.
Humphrey, G. (1951). Thinking: An introduction to its experimental psychology. London: Methuen.
Jordan, M. I. (1986). Attractor dynamics and parallelism in a connectionist sequential machine. Proceedings of the eighth annual meeting of the Cognitive Science Society. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Lashley, K. S. (1930). Basic neural mechanisms in behavior. Psychological Review, 37, 1–24.
Lashley, K. S. (1938). The mechanism of vision: XV. Preliminary studies of the rat’s capacity for detail vision. Journal of General Psychology, 18, 123–193.
Lewontin, R. C. (1990). The evolution of cognition. In D. N. Osherson & E. E. Smith (Eds.), Thinking: An invitation to cognitive science (Vol. 3, pp. 229–246). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Lycan, W. G. (1990). Mind and cognition: A reader. Oxford: Blackwell.
Matthews, P H. (1993). Grammatical theory in the United States from Bloomfield to Chomsky. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Moerk, E. L. (1983). The mother of Eve as a first language teacher. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Pearce, J. M. (1988). Stimulus generalization and the acquisition of categories by pigeons. In L. Weiskrantz (Ed.), Thought without language (pp. 132–155). Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Pearce, J. M. (1989). The acquisition of an artificial category by pigeons. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 41B, 381–406.
Pinker, S. (1994). The language instinct. New York: William Morrow.
Pinker, S., & Bloom, P. (1990). Natural language and natural selection. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 13, 707–784.
Place, U. T. (1956). Is consciousness a brain process? British Journal of Psychology, 47, 44–50.
Place, U. T. (1987). Causal laws, dispositional properties and causal explanations. Synthesis Philosophica, 2(3), 149–160.
Place, U. T. (1991). On the social relativity of truth and the analytic/synthetic distinction. Human Studies, 14, 265–285.
Place, U. T. (1992). Eliminative connectionism: Its implications for a return to an empiricist/behaviorist linguistics. Behavior and Philosophy, 20, 21–35.
Place, U. T (1996a). Intentionality as the mark of the dispositional. Dialectica, 50, 91–120.
Place, U. T. (1996b). Linguistic behaviorism as a philosophy of empirical science. In W. O’Donohue & R. F. Kitchener (Eds.), The philosophy of psychology (pp. 126–140). London: Sage.
Reeke, G. N., & Edelman, G. M. (1988). Real brains and artificial intelligence. Daedalus, 117, 143–173.
Ryle, G. (1949). The concept of mind. London: Hutchinson.
Schoneberger, T. (1996, May). Chomsky in retreat. Paper presented at the 22nd annual convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis, San Francisco.
Skinner, B. F. (1957). Verbal behavior. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Skinner, B. F. (1969). Contingencies of reinforcement: A theoretical analysis. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Skinner, B. F. (1971). Beyond freedom and dignity. New York: Bantam/Vintage.
Wundt, W. (1907). Uber ausfragexperimente uber dis methoden zur psychologie des denkens. Psychologische, 3, 301–360.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chomsky, N., Place, U.T. & Schoneberger, T. The Chomsky-Place Correspondence 1993–1994. Analysis Verbal Behav 17, 7–38 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392953
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392953