Introduction to Linguistics Spring 2004

Fujiwara/Gregory

Steven Pinker - The Language Instinct

Chapter 3 - Mentalese

1. According to Pinker, what is the most central question to understanding the language instinct?

2. What is the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and why does Pinker think it is wrong? Discuss Pinker's critique of Whorf's conclusions.

3. Pinker provides examples of Whorf's conclusions about color terms and the Hopi concept of time, as well as examples of the Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax and Blooms conclusions about Chinese speakers and the ability to "entertain hypothetical false worlds." What do these examples show us about the complex relationship between language and thought?

4. Pinker argues that linguistic determinism is a "conventional absurdity and provides a range of experimental studies to support this statement. Discuss Pinker's arguments in support of the idea that thought (mentalese) precedes language.

5. How does the Turing machine and the "physical symbol system hypothesis" contribute to our understanding of the relationship between language and thought?

6. What evidence does Pinker give that English or another language is "hopelessly unsuited to serve as our internal medium of computation?"

7. In what way must the language of thought (mentalese) be both more complex and simpler than language?