Faculty Disputes

Abstract

Abstract: Jerry Fodor, among others, has maintained that Chomsky'slanguage facultyhypothesis is anepistemologicalproposal, i.e. the faculty comprises propositional structures known (cognized) by the speaker/hearer. Fodor contrasts this notion of a faculty with an architectural (directly causally efficacious) notion of amodule. The paper offers an independent characterisation of the language faculty as an abstractly specified non‐propositional structure of the mind/brain that mediates between sound and meaning—a function in intension that maps to a pair of structures that determine sound‐meaning convergence. This conception will be elaborated and defended against a number of likely complaints deriving from Fodor's faculty/module distinction and other positions which seek to creditknowledge of languagewith an empirical or theoretical significance. A recent explicit argument from Fodor that Chomsky must share his conception will be diagnosed and the common appeal toimplicit knowledgeas a foundation for linguistic competence will be rejected.

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