Naturalized Rationalism: A Study On The Philosophical Foundation Of Chomsky’s View Of Language

Chomsky lived in the era when empiricism prevailed,the Structural Linguistics Theory and Behavioral Language Learning Theory took up a dominant position in the field of linguistics at that time,and their views of language were both founded on empiricism.In the late 1950 s,Chomsky founded his Generative Linguistic Theory on the basis of critical reflection on the empirical language view.The advent of this theory is considered as one of the greatest contributions in the field of theoretical linguistic research in the 20 th century,and is hailed by linguistic circles as "Chomskyan Revolution".Since its foundation,Chomsky has constantly innovated his Generative Linguistic Theory.In the process,Chomsky has deepened his understanding of language as well as its essence,forming a view of innate language different from other linguistic schools.According to Chomsky’s view of innate language,human beings are born with the capability to acquire languages;language acquisition mechanism-language faculty is inherent in human brain.There is universal grammar in language faculty,and universal grammar is an innate principle of human language organization,rendering it possible for human beings to acquire languages.Language acquisition is the development process of language faculty from initial state to steady state while being inspired by external experiences.Chomsky’s Generative Linguistic Theory is closely associated with philosophy,and his view of language is founded on a profound philosophical foundation.However,the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language has been puzzling the academic circles in and abroad China for quite some time.Some scholars have interpreted it as idealism,while others have interpreted it as materialism.It is difficult to reach a unified consensus.This paper attempts to specifically discuss the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language through deeply studying and reflecting on Chomsky’s language philosophical thought,his Generative linguistic Theory,and Marx’s language philosophical thought,demonstrating that the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language is naturalized rationalism---rationalism transformed by naturalism,which is the unification of naturalism and rationalism.It surpasses the traditional empiricism and rationalism.Focusing on the basic problem concerning the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language,this paper conducts studies from the following points of view:In Chapter Ⅰ ,this paper puts Chomsky’s linguistic revolution in the historical context of linguistic development,and carries out an overall discussion on his view of innate language.Chomsky’s Generative Linguistic Theory was established based on the reflection and criticism of the Structural Linguistic Theory and Behavioral Language Learning Theory.The Structural Linguistic Theory describes language phenomena directly observed through analyzing language materials,while the Behavioral Language Learning Theory holds that children’s language learning results from stimulus-response and intensive training.Chomsky opposes the views of language of the above two theories,considering that language research should be preferentially used to explain the language principles behind the language phenomena.Driven by this motivation,Chomsky founded the Generative Linguistic Theory.Since its foundation,Chomsky has constantly deepened his understanding of language and its essence with the Generative Linguistic Theory developing,forming a view of innate language different from other linguistic schools.In Chapter Ⅱ,this paper,from the perspective of language philosophy,makes a special examination and reflection on the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language.Chomsky seeks the intrinsic unification of naturalism and rationalism through criticizing and inheriting analytical philosophy,and inheriting and developing the tradition of rationalism philosophy."Naturalized rationalism" constitutes the profound philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language.On the one hand,Chomsky proposed the methodology naturalism by inheriting the proposition of naturalism in analytical philosophy,thus establishing the naturalism in his philosophical foundation of view of language.On the other hand,Chomsky criticized the empirical tradition of analytical philosophy,critically reflecting upon Quine’s Behavioral Language Learning Theory founded on the philosophical foundation of empiricism,and stuck to the philosophical position of rationalism,inheriting the rationalism tradition represented by Descartes and Kant and proposing the innate view of language and the theory of universal grammar.In this way did he establish the rationalism in his philosophical foundation of view of language.On this basis,Chomsky seeked the intrinsic unification of naturalism and rationalism,developed the tradition of rationalism,and "processed" and transformed the tradition of rationalism in light of naturalism,making the traditional rationalism a new theoryNaturalized Rationalism,which explores the problems of language and epistemology.Naturalized Rationalism is established as the philosophical foundation of his view of language.In Chapter Ⅲ,this paper conducts a special discussion on the rationalism side in the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language by examining and reflecting upon Chomsky’s Universal Grammar Theory and formal analytic methods.The philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language is naturalized rationalism.The naturalism side and the rationalism side jointly constitute the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language.Therein,the rationalism side is the dominant side,which is of greater significance and plays a decisive role in wholly grasping the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language.Chomsky’s universal grammar theory and formal analytic methods embody the rationalism side of the philosophical foundation of his view of language.According to Chomsky’s universal grammar theory,there are innate principles of language organization in human brains,namely universal grammar,which render it possible for human beings to acquire languages,including principles and parameters.The process of children’s acquisition of mother tongue is the process of setting parameter values in the light of universal grammar.Chomsky analyzes the structure of natural languages by the formal analytic method of modern mathematical logic,and successfully explains how sentences are transformed from deep structure to surface structure and finally generated,by applying deductive method to the description of phrase structure grammar.In Chapter Ⅳ,this paper conducts a special discussion on the naturalism side in the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language by launching an in-depth study on Chomsky’s naturalistic "processing" and transformation of rationalism tradition at the level of rational source,methodology and mental research,as well as the naturalization of rationalism achieved thereby.After Descartes’ dualism collapsed,Chomsky,in an attempt to unify "body-mind" again,launches naturalistic "processing" and transformation at the levels of rational source,methodology and mental research,thus achieving the naturalization of rationalism,endowing the traditional rationalism with scientific connotation and naturalistic connotation,and setting the naturalism side for the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language.Finally,on the basis of natural science,via language,Chomsky achieves the re-unification of "body-mind" through connecting language faculty,a part of human organ,with mind.In chapter Ⅴ,this paper compares and reflects the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language and Marx’s view of language,revealing the similarities and differences between them.The commonality between "naturalized rationalism",the philosophical foundation of Chomsky’s view of language,and "view of practice",the philosophical foundation of Marx’s view of language,lies in transcending the tradition of empiricism and the tradition of rationalism.Thus,the two views of language are more abundant in connotation,overcoming the theoretical deficiency of two traditional views of language based on the philosophical foundation of empiricism and rationalism.In the meanwhile,there also exist essential differences between Chomsky’s and Marx’s views of language,resulting in their different understandings of the emergence and development of language,and the essence and nature of language.