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.
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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
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392953