Language is 'the infinite use of finite means'. Wilhelm von Humboldt |
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| Votes: 304 |
Comments: 10 |
Added: September 2003 |
Comments:
| Italianbro - 13th November 2003 00:26
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| Knowing, to say the least, very little about Wilhelm von Humboldt and his theory, however my mere opinion is: having fixed grammatical rules “finite means” one can generate and create as many new ways of expressing himself using words “infinite”, and I refer to what I have already said in the poll section regarding “language evolves and words evolve”. Yet, non really happy of this answer, I shall come back with a more clear explanation.
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| willbut - 28th December 2003 00:30
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| Chomsky says that since you cannot generate a non-arbitrary number for the total of sentences then it's infinite.
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| Rusty - 8th January 2004 16:39
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It is widely assumed that Chomsky is correct to apply this algorithmic theorum from math to linguistics, we ARE finite.
Dont be overwhemled by large numbers in the next few lines-
Our life is a finite period of time (maximum 120 years) each sentence is a finite length (perhaps 16-60 hours long, with the relevant finite number of words)
and there are a finite number of words in any language.
so there are a FINITE number of possible sentences that can be uttered
Where the hell does the infinite output come from?
If i am missing something tell me,
Rusty
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| willbut - 15th January 2004 02:03
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| I actually asked him and that was the answer he gave, To be honest, I disagree; just because we cannot calculate something does not mean it is not capable of being counted.
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| NThompson - 8th December 2004 03:33
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Words are signs. They, among other things; 1)point to something in the external world 2) attribute a quality to a subject 3)express some relation between objects. Words do not mean anything in themselves - their meaning is arbitrary. Essentially words are a metaphore that man overlay's on the external world.
Consider: "I am mean"
I = subject, am = relation, mean = quality.
I have now expressed 'SOME' quality about myself. In order for this sentence to be TRUE to me - it must refere to some understanding i have of my own past. In order for this statement to be TRUE to someone else - It must refere to some persons subjective observation of my behavior or action. As you can see there are a plentitude of meanings this statement can have considering what reference of understanding(who is listening or reading my statement). Not to mention the infinite possible FALSE meanings this statement might have. Perhaps i am not mean. Perhaps what you understand by my saying this statement isn't true.
A few other ways to interpret this statement.
1) if language always refers to the external world and the external world is always changing. The meanings of the words themselves must always be changing. The meaning of the words themselves must always be changing.
2) If all we can know (linguistically in this case) are the content of our own mind and never the contents of anyone else's mind. Then the meanings of words must be established by an observer experiencing how the words are used. Each Observer will come to know how a word is used in a different manner. Therefore any given word will have a different meaning for each person that 'understands' the word.
(post must be cut short do to beers i must drink. perhaps i will continue this post another time.)
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| nevar111 - 10th November 2006 22:10
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Try this formula:
Chomsky - Computer=+ Dr. Johnson
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| Bon Cunanan - 17th January 2007 04:47
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| Obviously, the reason is self-evident. This, however, runs counter to the principles in empiiricism and behaviorism.
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| adriatik - 7th May 2007 22:14
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| grettings from Tirana
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| brot - 20th November 2007 04:06
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Finite means: the words {I, John, Mary, knows, that, is, tall}
Infinite use: "John knows that Mary knows that John knows that Mary knows.......that John is tall."
Aside from obvious orthagonal constraints such as memory, fatigue, mortality, the human language faculty can construct a sentence of infinite length using a finite set of words.
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| stunning - 23rd April 2008 01:08
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| well all, in relation to language acquisition this would mean that words you come to possess in the beginning of language development are not restricted to the sentences you first heard them in. for example as an infant you were probably assulted with the phrase "can you say mama?" however these words 'can' 'you' 'say'.... are not limited to the phrase "can you say mama?' but rather used in different contexts as you begin to develop language creating infinite uses of these words in different ways in different sentences. I mean could you imagine having to make up different words for each sentecense you uttered. So finite means would refer to you only hearing "can you say mama?' and the infinite use would refer to you being able to say "mama could you please be quiet!"a few days down the road
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