Rationalism vs. Empiricism re Language Acquisition

[Tom Roeper]

Christina---
  I am not sure you are posing the question the right way.  Here is what
Chomsky has said to me: there are no completely empiricist theories
because everyone has to assume some kind of innate structure for
the reception of data.  The question is only how much and how far
it could be specifically for language.  Recently Chomsky has
emphasized the notion of interfaces which means that the
relation is complex but specified.  I enclose a recent paper of
mine that distinguishes between interfaces and interactions that
might be helpful.

Tom Roeper

On Thu, Jul 16, 2009 at 6:58 AM, Christina Behme <christina.behme at dal.ca>wrote:

>
> Good day,
>
> as part of my dissertation I deal with the question if empiricist or
> rationalist
> theories of language acquisition are more plausible. In the literature I
> consulted I found little agreement about what a 'rationalist' (also
> ?nativist?) or 'empiricist' is. Further, it was claimed that language
> acquisition researchers do not always agree on whether a particular
> statement
> is ?rationalist? or ?empiricist?. I was wondering if you could be so
> kind and take a moment of your time to help me finding out whether or not
> researchers who currently work in the field of language acquisition do
> indeed
> disagree on this issue. I have selected a few quotes and ask you if you
> could
> for each decide if it's from a rationalist or from an empiricist. This is
> not a
> 'test', I merely want to find out if there is indeed wide ranging
> disagreement.
> Thus, any answer you give is a correct answer (this also includes:
> 'neither' or
> 'I can't decide' or....). Second, could you please also indicate for each
> quote
> if you agree or disagree with it 'in principle'. If you disagree, can you
> please briefly state why you disagree.
>
> If you want to respond please do not post your answer to the list but send
> it
> directly to me: christina.behme at dal.ca. You can also contact me at this
> address
> if you
> have any questions.
>
> Thank you very much for your help
> Christina Behme.
>
> Here are the quotes:
>
> 1. "...knowledge which can be acquired without any process of reasoning,
> such
> as languages... and in general any subject which rests on experience alone"
>
> 2. "... when we learn a language, we connect the letters or the
> pronunciation
> of certain words, which are material things, with their meaning, which are
> thoughts, so that when we later hear the same words, we conceive the same
> things, and when we conceive the same things, we remember the same words"
>
> 3. "Among different languages, even where we suspect the least connexion or
> communication, it is found, that the words, expressive of ideas, the most
> compounded, do yet nearly correspond to each other: a certain proof that
> the
> simple ideas, comprehended in the compound ones were bound together by some
> universal principle, which had an equal influence on all mankind"
>
> 4. "[t]here are only two things to learn in any language: the meaning of
> words
> and grammar"
>
> 5. "...besides the vast number of different figures that do really exist,
> in
> the coherent masses of matter, the stock that the mind has in its power, by
> varying the idea of space, and thereby making still new compositions, by
> repeating its own ideas, and joining them as it pleases, is perfectly
> inexhaustible. And so it can multiply figures in infinitum."
>
> 6. "When for example on hearing that the word ?K-I-N-G? signifies supreme
> power, I commit this to my memory and then subsequently recall the meaning
> by
> means of my memory, it must be intellectual memory that makes this possible
> For
> there is no relationship between the four letters (K-I-N-G), which would
> enable
> me to derive the meaning from the letters. It is intellectual memory that
> enables me to recall what the letters stand for"
>
> 7. "... knowledge of things is not to be derived from [language]. No; they
> mustbe studied and investigated in themselves"
>
>
> >
>


-- 
Tom Roeper
Dept of Lingiustics
UMass South College
Amherst, Mass. 01003 ISA
413 256 0390

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