STUDY QUESTIONS
WEEK 4
Text: Quine, Word and Object, ch. 3
The main claim of this chapter is:
The main argument supporting this chapter is:
What are three objections to this argument?
What are three questions that you have about this paper?
Text: Chomsky, ‘Quine’s Empirical Assumptions’
The main claim of this paper is:
The main argument supporting this claim is:
What are three objections to this argument?
What are three questions that you have about this paper?
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1. What is the Humean theory of language acquisition?
2. Are language and theory distinct?
3. What is Chomsky’s objection to Quine’s postulation of an innate quality space?
4. Why does Chomsky think that Quine’s concept of reinforcement is nearly
vacuous?
5. Why does Chomsky think that Quine’s claim that one way in which we learn
language is learning by analogical synthesis is also nearly vacuous?
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6. Why does Chomsky think that Quine’s account of language is inconsistent?
7. What does Chomsky think of Quine’s thesis of the indeterminacy of translation?
How does it relate to the thesis of the under-determination of theory by data?
8. Why does Chomsky think that the indeterminacy of translation presents no special
problem for linguistics conceived as a natural science?
9. What empirical assumptions does Chomsky think Quine’s account of language
relies on? Are they true?
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Text: Quine, ‘Reply to Chomsky’
The main claim of this paper is:
The main argument supporting this claim is:
What are three objections to this argument?
What are three questions that you have about this paper?
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1. How does Quine think that the thesis of the indeterminacy of translation relates to
the thesis of the under-determination of theory by data?
2. Having read both Quine and Chomsky on the relation between the thesis of the
indeterminacy of translation relates to the thesis of the under-determination of
theory by data, what do you think that this relation is?
3. Is linguistics a natural science, according to Quine?
4. Having read both Quine and Chomsky on whether linguistics is a natural science,
what do you think about it? Is linguistics objective? Are there semantic facts, i.e.
facts about meaning?
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5. How does Quine explain the consistency of his views on the learning of sentences
and language consisting in a potentially infinite number of sentences?
6. How does Quine defend his attribution of innate ideas, understood as innate
dispositions to overt behaviour, to language users?
7. How does Quine rebut Chomsky’s charge that Quine’s account of language
contains an essential element of arbitrariness?
8. What does Quine think is the relationship between theory and language?
9. Summarise your views on whether Chomsky’s criticisms of Quine are correct.
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Text: Quine, ‘Mind and Verbal Dispositions’
The main claim of this paper is:
The main argument supporting this claim is:
What are three objections to this argument?
What are three questions that you have about this paper?
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