It demonstrates that human languages all have a certain structure, so it must be...

mcguire · on June 22, 2016

I think you misunderstood my question. Here's my understanding of Chomskyian linguistics:

1. You have a certain concept you wish to express.

2. You apply a generative grammar to the concept, producing a linguistic statement.

3. You express the statement in a linguistic performance.

4. I perceive the linguistic performance.

5. ¿I reverse the generative grammar to produce the concept?

6. I understand the concept.

My understanding is that Chomsky is only interested in steps 2 and 5 (and that he is explicitly uninterested in 3 and 4). But how does step 5 work?

foobarqux · on June 23, 2016

I don't think much is understood about how linear externalizations of language are deserialized into symbolic structures, what those structures are, and how those are symbol structures are mapped into mental representations.