Language, Science, and Structure : A Journey into the Philosophy of Linguistics

This work provides a new framework for understanding some of the most profound theories of human language. Ryan M. Nefdt touches on philosophical questions of what languages are, how they evolved and what the science of language should be. He takes insights and results from the natural and formal sciences and translates them into a new domain. His book offers the reader new ways of appreciating how the most unique of human traits--our ability to process and produce natural language--has been and can be studied from a scientific point of view.

What is a language? What do scientific grammars tell us about the structure of individual languages and human language in general? What kind of science is linguistics? These and other questions are the subject of Ryan M. Nefdt''s Language, Science, and Structure.Linguistics presents a unique and challenging subject matter for the philosophy of science. As a special science, its formalisation and naturalisation inspired what many consider to be a scientific revolution in the study of mind and language. Yet radical internal theory change, multiple competing frameworks, and issues of modelling and realism have largely gone unaddressed in the field. Nefdt develops a structural realist perspective on the philosophy of linguistics which aims to confront the aforementioned topics in new ways while expanding the outlook toward new scientific connections and novel philosophical insights. On this view, languages are real patterns which emerge from complex biological systems. Nefdt''s exploration of this novel view will be especially valuable to those working in formal and computational linguistics, cognitive science, and the philosophies of science, mathematics, and language.