ENG 330

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE

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LECTURE NOTES
19th June, 2023

Philosophy of language is made up of two words: Philosophy and Language. The

term ‘Philosophy of Language’ is concerned about providing answers to some
questions relating to language, among which are: How do we come about language?
Why are we communicating using language? Does language come from the mind?
Why do we use language to talk? What is the inspiration behind language? What is
the logic behind language? What is the meaning(s) of language? What is the aim of
learning a language? What is the target of language? Why do we need language?
Where did language start from? Why do we use language?

In this course, we are going to deal with language theories, language and thought,
language meaning and also the wisdom behind language.

Philosophy is simply called ‘wisdom’, so, philosophy of language becomes the

‘wisdom of language.’

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
It is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence,
especially considered as an academic discipline. The term ‘philosophy’ means love of
wisdom. It is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand
fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live and their
relationship with the world and each other. Philosophy has three concerns:
1. How the world hangs together.
2. How beliefs can be justified.
3. How to live.

Philosophy is the systematic study of ideas and issues, a reasoned pursuit of

fundamental truth, a quest for a comprehensive understanding of the world, a study
of principles of conduct and much more.

Language, on the other hand, is a system of conventional spoken manual (signs) or

written symbols by means of which human beings, as a member of a social group
and participants in its culture, express themselves.

The functions of language include:

1. Communication
2. The expression of identity
3. Imaginative expressions
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4. Emotional release.

Language is used for identity, that is, people can see through you by the way you
talk and express yourself.

Language is also used for imaginative expressions and literary functions.

Language can be transactional or interactional (Yule, 1996). Language can be used

casually, formally, informally, consultative and in a frozen way (Jooz, 1962).

The way we use language fluctuates everyday (formal, informal, etc.). Language
users are supposed to be flexible in language use.

Language is the expression of ideas by means of speech sounds combined into

words, words combined into sentences – these combinations answering to the
processing of ideas into thoughts. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols
by means of which a social group co-operates.

Philosophy of Language investigates the nature of human language, its origins and
uses the relationship between meaning and truth and how language relates to
human thought and understanding, as well as reality itself.

Philosophy of Language refers to reasoned inquiry into the nature, origins and usage
of language. It is the field in which philosophical questions about language are
discussed, and where the concept of language, languages, language ability and the
language we speak are viewed philosophically.

According to Kutas (2013, p. 12), philosophy of language is concerned with four

central problems:
1. The nature of meaning
2. Language use
3. Language cognition
4. The relationship between language and reality.

Interest in philosophical studies arose because people started to use language and
communicate by language to describe the world and ask questions. It was only a
matter of time when language itself became the subject of interest.

PHILOSOPHY OF LANGUAGE AND OTHER DISCIPLINES

Philosophy treats all languages as one and looks for what is common among them.
Philosophy of language is the field in which philosophical questions about the
structure of language, the meaning of terms and sentences, the relationship
between language and world, language and thought, language use and
communication through language use are discussed.

Philosophy of language is related to ‘logic’. This relationship is at the syntactic level.

Logic is an enquiry into logical forms or propositions which is the syntactical level of

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questioning language in philosophy. Logic displays a formal or artificial language
which is often contrasted with human language.

Philosophy of language also interacts with epistemology. It is a branch of applied

epistemology and its main questions are: how do we know what an utterance or text
means? Then, we arrive at the knowledge through interpretation. In interpreting a
text, we discover its meaning or its content. The question then is how do we do it?
How do we decode or interpret meaning from something? It seems clear that some
of the information we need to interpret text is linguistic in nature. We need to be
able to identify (at least some of) the words uttered and what they mean in the
language in which they are uttered.

Philosophy of language is also interested in the nature of meaning and seeks to

explain what it means to mean something. Topics in this study include: the nature of
synonyms, origin of meaning and how any meaning can ever be known. It is also
interested in investigating the manner in which sentences are composed into a
meaningful whole out of the meaning of its parts.

Philosophy of language also seeks to investigate what speakers and listeners do with
communication and it is used socially. Specific interests may include topics on
language learning, language creation and speech acts.

Speech acts mean performing an action with a language. Philosophy of language is

interested in how the interlocutors use language in communication. Philosophy of
language is also interested in investigating how language relates to the mind of both
speakers and listeners, speakers and interpreters, and how language and meaning
relate to truth and world. Philosophers tend to be less concerned with which
sentences are actually true, and more with what kinds of meaning can be true or
false.

THE NATURE OF LANGUAGE

One of the most fundamental questions asked in Philosophy of Language is ‘What is
language?’ Language is the mere manipulations and the use of symbols in order to
draw attention to signify contents, in which case, humans would not be the sole
possessors of language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing).

Linguistics is the field of study that asks questions like: what distinguishes one
particular language from another? What is it that makes English ‘English’? What is
the difference between English and other languages?

Chomsky (1928) defines linguistics and emphasises the role of grammar and syntax
(the rules that govern the structure of sentence as a characteristic of any language).
He believes that humans are born with an innate understanding of what he calls
‘universal grammar’ (an innate set of linguistic principles shared by all humans) and
a child’s exposure to a particular language triggers this antecedent knowledge.
Chomsky begins with the study of internal language, what he calls ‘I-language’,
which are based upon certain rules that generate grammar, supported in part by the

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conviction that there is no clear, general and principled differences between one
language and the next and which may apply across all fields of languages.
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10th July, 2023

LANGAUGE THEORIES
Language is purely a human and non-intrinsic method of communicating ideas,
emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols. The
importance of the role of language in the learning process cannot be over-estimated.
Language plays a key role in unifying a vast and complex notion and in providing
individuals with outlets for developing diverse skills and abilities. Language is a
means by which thoughts are organised, refined and expressed. Language helps in
the formation of concepts, analysis of complex ideas and to focus attention on ideas
which would otherwise be difficult to comprehend.

NOAM CHOMSKY’S MENTALIST THEORY

Chomsky’s view of competence deals primarily with abstract grammatical knowledge.
He held that linguistic theory is concerned primarily with an ideal speaker and
listener in a completely homogeneous speech community which knows its language
perfectly and is unaffected by such grammatically irrelevant conditions as memory
limitations, distractions, shift of attention and interests and errors in applying its
knowledge of the language in actual performance. According to Chomsky,
rudimentary forms of language is stressed in human brain. Language is competency
that is unique for man. We perceive language as the ability to comprehend and
speak ideas; even when two persons possess the same knowledge, observable
differences are noted in their capacity to express the knowledge.

He emphatically argues that the mind possesses a distinguished factor that could be
termed, as ‘the language factor and it has well-defined structure system.’ The value
of language cannot be fulfilled merely by familiarizing with few words or sentences.
He often asked questions like, ‘Does language influence thoughts or does it influence
it through established authority over language?’ But he considers the two to be
mutually complimentary. When a structure is taught, the purpose should be
constructed in the child’s mind as an idea, this means what is to be retained in the
mind is not mere word or sentence but the idea constructed, e.g. when describing a
dog as an animal to a child, we must be able to identify to him that it has four legs
(different from that of a lion), it barks, it has a tail and fur, etc.

Chomsky considered language as a highly abstract generative phenomenon. He

stated that human beings are born biologically equipped to learn a language and
proposed his theory of Language Acquisition Device (LAD). LAD is an inborn
mechanism or process that facilitates learning of language. In his view, to study a
language is to study a part of human nature, manifested in the human mind. One of
the fundamental aspect of human language according to Chomsky is its creative
nature. He argues that some things specific about human language must be innate,
i.e. available to us by virtue of being human.

Reasons for Mentalist Theory

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According to Chomsky, language learning is of inborn nature and therefore, it is not
a habit of structure, and language learning and development are a biological process
having nothing to do with the result of social learning. For this reason, human
knowledge is embodied with LAD (Language Acquisition Device) at birth and
developed via structural process, ideas which are all mental. In other words,
language acquisition is innately determined.

Features of Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

1. The power to differentiate each sound from the other, i.e. the sounds we use
while communicating.
2. The capacity to organise the linguistic intervention into different classes, that
can easily be redefined afterwards.
3. Knowledge specifying possible linguistic system and rejecting the impossible
and inadmissible ones.
4. Data selecting ability, its constant evaluation in an advanced linguistic system
and of the linguistic data that are encountered.

LAD is peculiar to only human beings who use language, whereas other animals do
not. All human beings learn their language successfully. They have to possess some
internal capacity for language learning which other animals do not own.

BEHAVIOURIST THEORY BY B. F. SKINNER

One of the leading scholars of language acquisition theory with behaviourist
approach. He believes that behaviour explains the speaker’s verbal activity as an
effect of the environment contingencies. According to Skinner, reinforcement of
appropriate grammar and language will therefore, lead to a child’s acquisition of
language and grammar. According to Skinner, a child acquires verbal behaviour
when relatively on patterned vocalisation, selectively reinforced, gradually assume
forms, which produce appropriate consequences in a given verbal community. He
considers communication of knowledge or fact as just a process of making new
response available to the speakers. A basic assumption of the theory was that all
language including private, internal discourse is a behaviour that develops in the
same manner as other skills. He believes that a sentence is merely part of a
behaviour chain, each element of which provides a conditional stimulus for the
production of the succeeding elements. The probability of a verbal response is
contingent on four things:
1. Reinforcement
2. Stimulus control
3. Deprivation
4. Adverse stimulation

The interaction of these items listed above in a child’s environment would lead to a
particular association, the basics of all language. He proposed that language could
be categorised by the way it is reinforced.

Key Points or Highlights of Behaviourist Theory

1. It accounted for language development by means of influence.
2. Behaviourist theory is also known as behavioural psychology.

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3. It also states that all behaviours are learned through interaction with the
environment, through a process called ‘conditioning’.
4. Behaviour is simply a response to stimuli.
5. It emphasises the role of environmental factors in influencing behaviour: to
the mere exclusion of innate or inherited factor.

Limitations of Behaviourist Theory

1. Language is based on a set of structure or rules which could not be worked
out by simply imitating individual utterances.
2. The mistakes made by children reveal that they are not simply imitations but
active working out and application of rules, e.g. a child who says ‘drinked’
instead of ‘drank’ is not copying an adult but rather over-applying rules. The
child has discovered that past tense of verbs are formed by adding ‘-d’ or ‘-t’
to the base form. This mistake occurs because they are irregular verbs which
do not behave in this way. Some forms are often referred to as intelligent
mistakes or virtuous error.
3. Children are unable to repeat what the adults say, especially if the adult
utterance is what the child has not started to use. Behaviourist theory
stresses the fact that human and animal learning is a process of habit
formation.

Tenets of Behaviourist Theory

1. It dwells on spoken language: The primary medium of language is oral.
Speech is language because there are many languages without autography
(written form).
2. Behavioural theory is the habit formation theory of language teaching and
learning.
3. The stimulus-response chain: Stimulus-response is a pure case of
conditioning. It emphasises conditioning and building from simplest condition,
response to more and more complex behaviour.
4. All learning is the establishment of habits as a result of reinforcement and
reward.

JEAN PIAGET’S COGNITIVE THEORY OF LANGUAGE LEARNING

Jean Piaget emphasised the importance of social interaction to intellectual
development. He saw interaction as the key to how we overcome the instability of
the symbols we individually construct. The scholar suggests that children move
through stages of mental development. His theory focuses not only on
understanding how children acquire language but also the nature of intelligence. He
suggests that there are four (4) stages in cognitive development of a child:
1. Sensor Motor Stage: From birth to two years (0 – 2 years)
2. Pre-Operational Stage: From two to seven years (2 – 7 years)
3. Concrete Operational Stage: From seven to eleven (7 – 11 years)
4. Formal Operational Stage: From 12 years (12 and above)

The cognitive theory describes the cognitive development of children. These

cognitive development involves change in cognitive process and abilities. In Piaget’s

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view, any cognitive development involves process based upon action and later
progressed into change in mental operation.

1. SENSORY MOTOR STAGE

The major characteristics and developments here are:
a. Infants know words through movement and sensation.
b. Children learn about words through basic actions such as sucking, looking and
listening.
c. Infants learn that things continue to exist even though they cannot be seen.
d. During the earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers
acquire knowledge through sensory experience and manipulative objects.
e. A child’s entire experience at the earliest period of this stage occurs through
basic reflexes, senses and motor response.

2. PRE-OPERATIONAL STAGE
The major characteristics and developments here are:
a. Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to
represent objects.
b. Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from
the perspective of others.
c. While children are getting better with language and thinking, they still tend to
think about things in very concrete terms.
The foundation of language development may have been laid during the previous
stage but the emergence of language is one of the major hallmark of the pre-
operational stage.

3. CONCRETE OPERATIONAL STAGE

The major characteristics and development at this stage are:
a. During this stage, children begin to think logically about concrete events.
b. They begin to understand the concept of conversation.
c. Their thinking becomes more logical and organised.
d. Children begin to use inductive logic and reasoning from specific information
to a general principle.

4. FORMAL OPERATIONAL STAGE

The major characteristics and development at this formal operational stage are:
a. The adolescent or the young adult begins to think abstractly and reason
about hypothetical questions (e.g. ‘Who is God?’ ‘Where is God?’ ‘Where do I
come from?’ etc.)
b. Abstract thoughts emerge.
c. Teenagers begin to think about moral, philosophical, ethical, social and
political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning.
d. They begin to use deductive logic or reasoning from a general principle to a
specific information.

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17th July, 2023

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FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE HOW CHILDREN LEARN AND GROW
There are four (4) factors, according to Jean Piaget, that influence how children
learn and grow.
1. Schema
2. Assimilation
3. Accommodation
4. Equilibrium

1. SCHEMA
Schema describes both mental and physical actions involved in understanding and
knowing. Schema are categories of knowledge that helps us to interpret and
understand the word. A schema includes both the categories of knowledge and the
process of knowing the knowledge. As experience happens, the new information is
used to modify, add to or change previously existing schema. Schema is also
referred to as frame or script.

Schema is used in psychology, script is also used in psychology and they are used to
describe the mental picture of something, event or a person. Schema means a child
is expected to have a mental picture of something, we take on to the truthful or
factual ones while we erase the ones that are false or dies.

A child is not supposed to learn a language at tender age (0 – 6 years), but they
learn by looking around, voices they hear and faces they see. Hence, it talks and
identifies things or persons according to the picture frame in its schema, about its
immediate environment, e.g. a child that already has a schema of a dog will know
that it has four legs, a tail, paws and furs. Hence, he or she will identify it.

2. ASSIMILATION
This is the process of taking new information into our existing schema. The process
is somewhat subjective because we intend to modify our experience and
information.

3. ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation stage involves modifying existing schema or idea as a result of new
information or experiences. New schemas may also be developed during this
process. It is a learning process that allows us to change our existing ideas in order
to take in new information.

4. EQUILIBRIUM
Piaget believes that all children strive to strike a balance between assimilation and
accommodation which is achieved through a mechanism called ‘equilibrium’. The
equilibrium here refers to the centre between assimilation and accommodation. As
children progress through the stages of cognitive development, it is important to
maintain a balance between applied previous knowledge (assimilation) and changing
…. Equilibrium helps to maintain how children can move from one stage of thought
to the next.

Assignment

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Give at least six characteristics each of behaviourist, mentalist and cognitive theory
of language learning. Also, the differences between behavioural and mentalist,
cognitive and mentalist theory.

Meaning is the expression of the notion, idea, thoughts that are intended in the
mind, to the decoder of a communication from the encoder.
MEANING OF MEANING
Semantics is a branch of linguistics that focuses on the study of meaning. The field
of semantics has its origin from philosophy.
1. I want to eat apple.
2. I want to eat soap.

Both propositions suggest that the speakers want to eat something. It is easy to act
on the first sentence than the second. The structure of expressions are perfect, the
arrangement of both sentence structure are perfect but there is no connection
between ‘soap’ and ‘eat’, i.e. one is not supposed to eat soap but to be used to wash
things. Semantically, it is not correct, syntactically, it is correct based on the word
formation (subject-verb-object) but pragmatically, it is correct to an extent because
the words are performing a function, especially in a particular context, e.g. soap.

Meaning according to Ogden and Richard (1923):

1. Meaning is magic. It appears as something intrinsic to language itself.
2. Meaning consists of the words comprising the entry in the dictionary. The
interesting thing about it is that the word used to describe the other words are in
turn described by words. (Words are building blocks of any language, i.e. we use
words to explain words, to explain, describe and interpret things).

Meaning again is what one wants to express, what it means in carrying out a
linguistic act and it goes further to mean what a speaker intends a listener to
understand. Meaning can be different according to point of view of the decoder.

Meaning is a place of something within a system. The meaning of a word is grasped

in relation to the surrounding, e.g. ‘bar’ in (a) bar soap (b) called to bar (c) kicking
the ball over a bar. The notion of meaning is central to the notion of language.

IDEATIONAL THEORY OF MEANING

This theory was advanced by John Locke. The ideational theory of meaning holds
that the meaning of a word is the idea with which it is regularly associated or for
which it stands. According to the theory, ideas are indication of private and
independent language. The use of words serve to represent ideas. Language is used
to convey ideas. Without ideas, there is nothing the words approve of. Ideas
however, are non-physical, imaginary and transcendental (supernatural).

According to Locke, the use of words serve to represent idea. Language therefore,
was not treated independently of thought but rather it depends on thought for its
expression, i.e. it sees language as an instrument for communication of thoughts.
The theory states that ideas are made concrete through the use of language.
Without words, our ideas will be dead.

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In ideational theory of meaning, words should be seen as sensible, made of ideas,
should be seen as the proper and immediate signification of their corresponding
words. Language is seen as an instrument of thought.

Basic assumptions of the theory of meaning:

1. The idea must be present in the mind of the speaker whenever the
corresponding word or expression is used.
2. The speaker must be producing the expression in order to get the audience to
realise that the idea in question is in the speaker’s mind at that time.
3. For communication to be successful, the expression will have to call up the
same idea in the hearer’s mind.

REFERENTIAL THEORY OF MEANING

The referential theory of meaning is a theory of language or meaning that states
that the meaning of a word or expression lies in what it points out in the world. The
object denoted by the word is called it’s ‘referent’. Expression stands for things or
objects in reality.

In referential theory, words function like labels, sentences, mirrors or state of affairs.
The referential theory is preferred because it is said to be a straightforward way of
denotative meaning. It is devoid of the mystery which characterises the other
theories of mentalists and behaviourists. For example, the word ‘table’ – the
meaning of ‘table’ is a wooden or metallic object which whoever is speaking is
pointing at. This is where we talk of the word ‘table’, the schema of how a table
actually looks like in real life comes to our mind when table is mentioned. The
referential theory holds that for a statement to have meaning in the sense that they
are symbols that stands for something other than itself.

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24th July, 2023

LANGUAGE AND MEANING

Meaning, Signs and Sign System
The ability to convey meaning is the distinctive feature of properties of sign. Any
sign must be capable of manifesting itself in some way in the experience of an
observer. Usually, it has a physical existence of some sort. To be considered a sign,
such a manifestation must do more, for at least some observer than merely call
attention to its own occurrence or existence. This crucial something involves the
meaning of sign.

In ordinary language, a sign is a notice placed for the public to use. In linguistic
usage, it means an intersection or relationship of form and meaning where form is
something mental or cognitive: © @ ♥

A sign may be a word; it could be abstract (not necessarily seen but felt, e.g.
hatred, love, sigh, anger, hunger, happiness, etc.); it could be heard (footstep,
siren, waterfall, whistling, horn, gunshot, hiss, etc.) as is the usual case with words

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which are often spoken than written. A sign is neither form nor meaning but
simultaneously both.

The intersection or relationship of form and meaning.

A form without meaning is not a sign, nor is it a meaning without form. It may be
argued that form and meaning cannot exist apart from one another.

Interpreter

Form Meaning

3 Parts of Sign

The notion of sign is fundamental to understanding human communication.

Communication is the use of signs. In communication, the speaker presents the form
of signs to others, and so invokes their meanings. The relationship between the form
of a sign and its meaning must be part of the knowledge of its interpreters. The
interpreter adds an aspect or dimension of variability to our understanding of signs
because different interpreters may recognise different aspects of meaning in
association with particular forms and different forms in association with particular
meaning. This variability is probably apparent with some of the signs (∞, ©, ♥). For
example, some interpreters may not recognise the form of infinity (∞) and some
may be unfamiliar with the heart sign (♥).

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24th July, 2023

Language is simply defined as a sign system or a system of conventional signs, all

aspects of whose structure – morphology, phonology, syntax, etc. exist ultimately to
serve the sovereign function of conveying meanings. Most sign systems have a
limited extensive range, think for instance, mathematical symbols (θ, >, <, =, –, +,
÷, ×…) or conventions of cartography (signs or art of making maps).

Language is unique in being able to express virtually anything that is conceivable.

This extraordinary expressive power depends heavily on certain crucial properties of
its constitutive signs, notably their arbitrariness and their discreetness.

Types of Signs
1. Iconic Signs
2. Index or Indexical Signs
3. Symbolic Signs

ICONIC SIGNS

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An iconic sign is one whose form has actual characteristics of its meaning. It is one
that bears some resemblance direct or analogical to what it designates. A map is an
iconic sign because its shape has a systematic relationship to what it depicts. The
Roman numerals such as I, II, III, IV, V, VI, etc. are iconic, having in their form a
clear indication of unity (one), duality (two) and triality (three). Some traffic signs
are iconic such as the traffic lights (amber (ready), green (go), red (stop)) and also
those for roads: narrow, bridge, zebra crossing, hurdle for bumps (painted in yellow
and black), men at work, caution, etc. Some linguistic signs are termed
onomatopoeic, that is, they are iconic and refer intimately to sounds like splash,
click, whoosh, fizzle, etc.

INDEX OR INDEXICAL
An index is a sign whose form has characteristics which are only associated in nature
with its meaning. Recognising an indexical sign can be a little tricky.

The sign above is a skull and crossed bones which traditionally mean poison or
danger. Another example of indexical sign is cutleries (plates, forks, spoon, etc.),
when posted by the highway or roadside, they suggest a restaurant or food services.

The difference between iconic signs and index are not perfectly clear. According to
some scholars, spoon and fork may be considered an actual characteristic (icon) of a
restaurant or only an association (index with food). The interpreter or interpretation
is crucial to the determination of a sign as an icon or a symbol.

SYMBOLS
A symbol is a sign whose form is arbitrary or conventionally associated with its
meaning. These are necessarily presented in their secondary, written forms as
ordinarily spelt and in phonetic writings, for example, PUSH /puʃ/.

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