'internal grammar'

[Esa Itkonen]

I have to agree with Wolfgang Schulze that, if we use words literally, it
is not the 'internal grammar' that we have to explain, at least in the
first place. Everybody has his/her own view of what the HYPOTHETICAL
'internal grammar' might be like. What has to be explained, first and
foremost, is linguistic BEHAVIOR (which is known by direct observation).
And the first, rather trivial but yet necessary, explanatory step is in
terms of social RULES or conventions, which are known by (intersubjectively
valid) linguistic intuition. We may then try to explain particular
languages qua sets of rules by means of universally valid functional
principles, and the 'internal grammars' (of particular languages) are
(hypothetical) middle terms in this chain of explanations.
Esa Itkonen