Transcript Slayt 1 - Mersin University Linguistics Department

İDB 408 LINGUISTIC
PHILOSOPHY
2010/2011 Spring Term
Instructor: Dr. Filiz Ç. Yıldırım
What is Philosophy?
Philosophy : From Greek terms
Phileo : “I am searching”, and
Sophia: “Knowledge, wisdom”
Phileosophia: “The search for wisdom”
 Philosophy is a critical way of thinking:
Questioning on previously obtained information
 Philosophy provides essential knowledge for
reasoning on almost every discussion topic

2
Emergence of Philosophy
Humanbeings are curious about their existence
in the universe.
 They ask questions about the universe and the
position of entities in it.

3
Topics of Philosophical Thought
What is the truth? Why do we define s.t. as true
or false? → analytic/logical philosophy
 Is the existence of knowledge possible? How do
we know? What is the source of true
knowledge? → epistemologic philosophy
 Are there differences between wrong and right
behaviours? How do we decide whether a
behaviour is wrong or right? What is the source
of morality? → ethical philosophy

4
Topics of Philosophical Thought
What is reality? What is the nature of real
things? Are there entities which exist
independently of our perception? What are the
concepts of time and space? What is the nature
of thought? What is to be an individual? →
metaphysical philosophy
 How can we define ‘beauty’? What are the
differences between beautiful things? Is the
notion of ‘beauty’ relative? Are there any
boundaries of ‘beauty’? → aesthetical
philosophy

5
Topics of Philosophical Thought
What is religion? Does God really exist? Is God
an assumption arising from the fears of people?
→ teological philosophy
 What kinds of relations are there between
entities, time and space?

6
Differences between Philosophy and
Science

Their research topics may differ:

Philosophy considers supernatural elements, but science
does not.

Their methods are different:

Philosophy bases its conclusions on logical analyses, but
science bases them on facts.
 Philosophy takes all of the aspects of an entity into
consideration, but science considers only the parts which
are related to the study subject.
7
Differences between Philosophy and
Science

Philosophy brings about subjective conclusions, but
science the objective ones.
 Science reaches to definite results, but philosophy
reaches to indefinite results.
 Philosophical knowledge seeks to find the core of an
entity, but sciences do not take this into consideration.
 Philosophical knowledge is common; it covers various
facts from the same type. But science conducts studies
on separate facts.
8
Philosophy-Linguistics Connection

Anyone who is interested in linguistics will
come across information originating from
philosophy:

General philosophical issues, concepts and terms
 Ideas originating from seperate individuals or schools of
thought
9
Philosophy-Linguistics Connection

It is not surprising to find philosophy in
linguistics:

Linguistics has considered as a seperate field of study
for the last hundred years.
 The basis of present-day linguistic studies is grounded
from the philosophical ideas which date from decades
ago.
 The basic questions about language were originally
asked by philosophers.
10
Philosophy-Linguistics Connection

These philosophy-based questions were about;

What language is, and
What constitutes the nature of language and meaning.


Every scholar who sees language as the basis of human
communication will encounter the mentioned questions
about language.
11
Philosophy-Linguistics Connection
Language is an important tool for a
philosopher.
 The
discussions
on
philosophical
methodology was about language itself in
analytic philosophy: This was called as
Meta-philosophy.

12
Analytic Philosophy
There had been a great deal of development on
analytic philosophy and linguistics during 20th
century.
 Analytic Philosophy: an approach to the subjects
and problems of philosophy which relies on
detailed analysis:


Complex notions are broken down into smaller
components. So, a better understanding occurs.
13
Analytic Philosophy

Early analytic philosophy was concerned with
propositions (Frege&Russell):

Linguistic turn has begun.
 The
emergence
of
(Strawson&Austin)
‘linguistic
philosophy’
14
Continental Philosophy
The present-day literary criticism was
introduced.
 Rhetoric and argument had been debated on
(Foucault, Lyotard&Derrida)
 The idea of a fixed, certain meaning is rejected.

 Interpretation
and negotiation on language,
 The emergence of critical theories
15
The Analytic Approach and The Present-day
Linguistics

Natural language is an interesting and important
study subject in its own right:

Describing natural languages

Only assumptions can be made on natural
languages:

Generalisations will be controversial,
 Many differing ideas and opposing theories
16
Natural Language

An analytic approach divides natural language
in three parts:

Phonological
 Semantic
 Syntactic

Totally seperate and independent from each
other × constitute the grammar of the language
17
Grammatical Rules

Grammar is generative

Two types of grammatical rules:

Generative rules: deep structures, semantics (logical
from)
 Transformational rules: surface structures, structure and
word order
18
What comes next?

Similar ideas in philosophy (Russell &
Wittgenstein)

The contribution of philosophical thinking to the
current ideas about the grammar of natural
language
19