5 quotes
Modern linguistics has also failed to deal with the Cartesian observations regarding human language in any serious way.
Cartesian Linguistics (1966)
The deep structure that expresses the meaning is common to all languages, so it is claimed, being a simple reflection of the forms of thought.
Cartesian Linguistics (1966)
The central doctrine of Cartesian linguistics is that the general features of grammatical structure are common to all languages and reflect certain fundamental properties of the mind.
Cartesian Linguistics (1966)
Cartesian linguistics was not concerned simply with descriptive grammar, in this sense, but rather with “grammaire générale,” that is, with the universal principles of language structure.
Cartesian Linguistics (1966)
In summary, it is the diversity of human behavior, its appropriateness to new situations, and man's capacity to innovate – the creative aspect of language use providing the principal indication of this –that leads Descartes to attribute possession of mind to other humans, since he regards this capacity as beyond the limitations of any imaginable mechanism.
Cartesian Linguistics (1966)