Reflections on Chomsky

Philosophical essays to celebrate Chomsky's contributionsThis collection of writings was compiled to honor the leading linguist Noam Chomsky. Reflections on Chomsky celebrates the linguist's contributions to the study of language, beginning in the 1950s. Essay contributors to the volume include: Sylvain Bromberger, Tyler Burge, Martin Davies, Michael Dummett, Jerry Fodor, James Higginbotham, Norbert Hornstein, Hilary Putnam and Crispin Wright. The writings examine the factuality of linguistics, the psychological reality of grammar, the nature of a semantic theory, the proper object of linguistic inquiry, and other topics.

Introduction vi Acknowledgements xi List of Contributors xii Why Should the Mind be Modular? 1 Jerry A. Fodor Meaning and the Mental: the Problem of Semantics after Chomsky 23 Norbert Hornstein Logical Form and Linguistic Theory 41 Jaakko Hintikka Types and Tokens in Linguistics 58 Sylvain Bromberger How Not to Become Confused about Linguistics 90 Alexander George When is a Grammar Psychologically Real? 111 Christopher Peacocke Tacit Knowledge and Subdoxastic States 131 Martin Davies Knowledge of Reference 153 James Higginbotham Wherein is Language Social? 175 Tyler Burge Language and Communication 192 Michael Dummett Model Theory and the ‘Factuality’ of Semantics 213 Hilary Putnam Wittgenstein’s Rule-following Considerations and the Central Project of Theoretical Linguistics 233 Crispin Wright Select Bibliography of Works by Noam Chomsky 265 Index 269