On nonobjects of syntactic study

[Marc Girod]

>>>>> "Dan" == Dan Everett <Dan.Everett at MAN.AC.UK> writes:

Dan> The basic thesis is that in a Chomskyan/Cartesian linguistics
Dan> there is in principle no object of study.

Do you mean by "Chomskyan/Cartesian linguistics" linguistics built
upon a layered model of language? With one-way dependencies from upper
layers to lower ones?

I find this kind of a model in Carnap's "Introduction to Semantics",
which I am currently trying to read, following a quote from Karl
Popper.

Anyway, I believe then (with Dan Parvaz, as I understand), that the
problem is then not specific to linguistics, but bound to inherent
limitations of layered models.

I.e. if one wants to exclude from the lower layers (syntax, and
semantics meta-language) everything which depends on the upper ones
(semantics, pragmatics), there isn't anything left.

[Popper also mentioned an other layered model for the functions of
language: expressive/ stimulative/ descriptive/ argumentative -- but
this is in an orthogonal dimension]

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