Further Reflections on the Sorites Paradox

2021 ◽  
pp. 107-166
Author(s):  
Crispin Wright
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Sorites Paradox ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter revisits certain of the issues of Chapters 1 and 2. It is argued that Dummett’s ‘incoherentist’ response to the Sorites is unacceptable, and urges that we should distinguish a variety of types of Sorites, as individuated by the differing motivations for their various respective major premises, including what are here termed the No Sharp Boundaries paradox and the Tachometer paradox. The chapter rejects Christopher Peacocke’s contention that the major premises for Sorites can be motivated under the aegis of a behaviouristic conception of linguistic competence, so that jettison of the Governing View is beside the point as a response to Sorites paradoxes. It musters six objections to Peacocke’s own treatment of the Sorites, as representative of degree-theoretic approaches to vagueness in general. The chapter includes further discussion of the relationship between tolerance and observationality.

English Language Teaching and Intercultural Communication Competence

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (7) ◽  
pp. 55-59
Author(s):  
Xiaochi Zhang ◽  
Jinjing ZHANG
Keyword(s):  
English Language Learners ◽  
Intercultural Communication ◽  
Language Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Communication Competence ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Intercultural Communication Competence ◽  
The Relationship

This article discusses about the relationship between linguistic competence and intercultural communication competence, and then about the functions of English language teaching in improving students’ intercultural communication competence. Finally, it explores how to develop English language learners’ intercultural communication competence in English language teaching and gives some useful suggestions, so as to really realize the final objective of English language teaching.

Speculations on performance models

1968 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Fromkin
Keyword(s):  
Speech Act ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Performance Models ◽  
Syntactic Structures ◽  
Mechanistic Approach ◽  
Speech Performance ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Recurrent Patterns ◽  
The Relationship

The publication of Syntactic Structures in 1957 stimulated a much-needed re-evaluation among linguists as to the goals of linguistic theory and the nature of language. Part of the discussion which has ensued has centred around the question of linguistic competence versus performance. Competence has been related to performance as ‘langue’ is to ‘parole’. ‘Competence’ thus refers to the ‘underlying system of rules that has been mastered by the speaker-hearer’ (Chomsky, 1965) and ‘performance’ to the way the speaker-hearer utilizes this ‘internalized grammar’ when he actually produces and understands utterances. Despite the continued controversy about this distinction, little can be added to the justifications for it put forth over many decades (cf. Chomsky, 1957, 1964, 1965; Katz, 1964, 1966; Postal, 1966; Sapir, 1933; Levin, 1965; de Saussure, 1916; etc.). Yet there remains much vagueness as to the limits of each and the relationship between the two. For many years the confusion was due to the influence of Bloomfield who centred his attention on the speech act; his aim was the classification of the OUTPUT of performance, i.e. the utterances, and led to no theory about the dynamic process of performance itself (Bloomfield, 1924, 1926, 1927, 1933). While giving lip service to a concern for ‘langue’, his own mechanistic approach negated any possibility for the rules of ‘langue’ to be anything more than lists of recurrent patterns found in ‘parole’. And since he was of the opinion that ‘the physiologic and acoustic description of acts of speech belongs to other sciences than ours’ (Bloomfield, 1926: 153) he did not direct himself to those aspects of ‘parole’ which could explain speech performance.

Morphosyntactic Variation

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruth King
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Data ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
The Other ◽  
Linguistic Variable ◽  
Morphosyntactic Variation ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Feature Checking ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Statistical Results

This chapter first reviews early methodological and theoretical debates regarding the nature of variation above the level of phonology. These debates include whether or not the notion of the linguistic variable can be legitimately extended to morphosyntactic variation; the nature of the relationship between quantitative data and the statistical results based on them and linguistic competence; and what role linguistic introspection should play. The discussion deals with current trends in modeling morphosyntactic variation, or, put differently, with the emerging field of socio-syntax. There are two main responses to the question of where morphosyntactic variation comes from. One perspective involves the postulation of multiple grammars, most prominently in Kroch’s Competing Grammars model. The other relies on the Minimalist operations of feature interpretation and feature checking.

The Relationship Between Conceptual Level and Communicative Competence in French

1982 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine K. Horwitz
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Cognitive Complexity ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Conceptual Level ◽  
Language Aptitude ◽  
Foreign Language Aptitude ◽  
Interpersonal Maturity ◽  
The Relationship

This study explored the relationship between conceptual level a social cognitive variable and second language communicative competence. Conceptual level indexes both cognitive complexity and interpersonal maturity which have been related to first language communicative abilities. The research hypotheses stated that conceptual level was related to the development of communicative competence while foreign language aptitude was related to linguistic competence (mastery of the structural components of a second language).Conceptual level was found to be related to both communicative and linguistic competence(r = .54, p < .001;r = .48, p < .001)as was foreign language aptitude(r = .40, p < .01; r = .41, p < .01). However, foreign language aptitude was not found to be related to linguistic competence when conceptual level was statistically controlled (r = .20, p < .135). Conceptual level, on the other hand, was found to be related to communicative competence when foreign language aptitude was statistically controlled (r = .42, p < .01). Thus, conceptual level appears to be an important individual variable in second language learning.

Effects of in-country experience on the acquisition of oral communication skills in Japanese

1995 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 83-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonomi Atsuzawa-Windley ◽  
Sachiko Noguchi
Keyword(s):  
Communication Skills ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Oral Examination ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
Sociolinguistic Competence ◽  
Tentative Evidence ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This study aims to investigate the effects of in-country experience on oral communication skills in Japanese. Do students who have had in-country experience in Japan have a higher level of proficiency in any area of oral communication skills than those who have not? To what extent do students with in-country experience differ from those without in their acquisition of various areas of oral communication skills? The performance of subjects in the mid-year oral examination were used as data for this study and comparisons were made between those with and without in-country experience. We believe that linguistic competence alone is not sufficient for successful communication. The results of this study provide tentative evidence that in-country experience did have positive effects on the acquisition of oral communication skills. However, the relationship between the acquisition of more than one speech style and sociolinguistic competence also emerged as a complex issue.

scholarly journals About the transmission of cultural knowledge in teaching Vietnamese to foreign students

2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-107
Author(s):  
Vinh Thuy Tran
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Students ◽  
Communicative Competence ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Behavior Patterns ◽  
Cultural Communication ◽  
Intercultural Communicative Competence ◽  
Language And Culture ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Cultural Features

This paper discusses the relationship between language and culture, the goals and the approaches to convey culture in language teaching in order to improve linguistic competence and intercultural communicative competence for learners. The paper also presents a number of methods and contents to convey culture in teaching Vietnamese for foreign learners; to clarify the socio-cultural communication information, the typical utterances or behavior patterns which are used in communication as well as cultural features which are reflected in Vietnamese vocabulary; and at higher step to assist students in naturally expressing this sociocultural knowledge in the Vietnamese language.

scholarly journals On Enhancing Students’ Discourse Competence in Reading

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Pan
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
English Teaching ◽  
Important Index ◽  
Written Texts ◽  
Discourse Competence ◽  
The Relationship

Discourse competence, as important index in discourse analysis, plays an important role in developing learners’ receptive and productive skills in English. With good discourse competence, learners can understand spoken or written texts better, both at the local and global levels. Besides, they can produce more cohesive discourse to promote their speaking and writing abilities. However, English teaching classroom often focuses heavily on linguistic competence, weighing too much on vocabulary, and grammar. This paper aims to explore the relationship between cohesion and coherence and how to develop students’ discourse competence in reading.

Group belonging beyond language boundaries: Language, religion and identity in the multilingual Greek community of Georgia

2016 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Concha Maria Höfler
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Approach ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Language Competence ◽  
Modern Greek ◽  
Group Belonging ◽  
Language Boundaries ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Discursive Resources

AbstractIn Georgia’s multilingual Greek community, the construction of belonging appears to be tied to religion and ancestry, with competence in Standard Modern Greek (SMG) not always being seen as necessary in order to “be Greek”. Forty-nine semi-structured interviews are analyzed, combining a quantitative and conversation analytical approach. Intriguingly, language competence in SMG does not always correlate with whether an interviewee deems this competence important for belonging to the Greek community. The interviews are embedded in their historical and socio-political context to elucidate the discursive resources interviewees may draw on when talking about the relationship between linguistic competence and belonging.

Language-Mastery and the Sorites Paradox

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-102
Author(s):  
Crispin Wright
Keyword(s):  
Natural Language ◽  
Positive Answer ◽  
Propositional Knowledge ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Sorites Paradox ◽  
Basic Level ◽  
Language Mastery

This chapter, originally written for Gareth Evans’s and John McDowell’s edited anthology of papers, Truth and Meaning, on the philosophical issues raised by Davidsonian truth-theoretic semantics for natural language, reprises the key arguments of Chapter 1, but with a more explicit focus on the question: what is the nature of linguistic competence? Can it, at least at the most basic level, be viewed as consisting in propositional knowledge of, and a consequent ability to follow, semantic and syntactic rules? The suggestion is that the Davidsonian programme is implicitly invested in a positive answer to that question, and that one lesson of the Sorites is to make that answer seriously doubtful, mandating a ‘more purely behaviouristic’ conception of basic linguistic competence.

What Neurobiology Can Buy Language Theory

1995 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Friedemann Pulvermüller
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Language Theory ◽  
Biological Research ◽  
Binding Theory ◽  
Government And Binding Theory ◽  
The Government ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
P 53

In their paper on Universal Grammar, language acquisition, and neurobiology, Eubank and Gregg (1995) attack current attempts to specify the neurobiological correlates of language acquisition. While these authors address a large variety of topics, they make two major assertions that call for brief discussion.First, they believe that some neurobiological accounts of language acquisition must be rejected because the authors of these accounts “give no evidence of knowing what it is that needs to be explained” (p. 53). Eubank and Gregg argue that only a language acquisition theory rooted in Government and Binding theory can be the basis of a neurobiological account of language acquisition. Government and Binding theory must be chosen because, according to these authors, it is the only welldeveloped theory of linguistic competence. To put it in a nutshell, “It is [language] acquisition theory that sets the problems for neurobiology to solve” (p. 53), and acquisition theory must conform to the Government and Binding approach. This master-and-slave view of the relationship between linguistics and biology is hard to accept, especially if one considers what Eubank and Gregg have to say about the master: Like most generative linguists, they do not hesitate to emphasize that the only well-developed linguistic theory is "not complete, of course, not yet correct in all or even most of its details, and perhaps not even in some of its fundamentals" (p. 51). It is inadequate to postulate that such a potentially insufficient construct must necessarily form the basis of biological research. This strategy may be unproductive, especially if theory-internal assumptions turn out to be wrong.

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