The Oxford Companion to Philosophy Part 52. The book is alphabetized by the whole headings of entries, as distinct from the first word of a heading. Hence, for example, abandonment comes before a priori and a posteriori. It is wise to look elsewhere if something seems to be missing. At the end of the book there is also a useful appendix on Logical Symbols as well as the appendices A Chronological Table of Philosophy and Maps of Philosophy. | 490 language knowledge of or swimming. However competent speakers are in receipt of a vast range of complex knowledge. They can understand indefinitely many sentences they have never heard before sentences that conform to complex grammatical rules that speakers are unable to articulate. To account for these facts Noam Chomsky proposes that speakers tacitly know the rules of grammar for their language. Furthermore he argues that each child s acquisition of language depends on a body of innate knowledge that equips it to develop a language. On this view each child has a dedicated language faculty configured in accordance with universal grammar and the grammar of each language is a refinement of it. Knowledge of word meaning is less plausibly a matter of innate endowment but it can be conceived as knowledge of rules for the correct use of words. Explaining our immediate and effortless knowledge of what our words mean and our ability to follow rules for their use remains a philosophical challenge. . B. C. Smith Understanding Language Proceedings of the Aris- totelian Society 1992 . language logically perfect see logically perfect language. language meta- see metalanguage. language object see object language. language private see private language problem. language problems of the philosophy of. The philosophy of language explores the relationships between ourselves and our language and our language and the world. The first kind of exploration asks what it is for us to invest words and sentences with a certain meaning whilst the second investigates the relationships between words and the things to which they refer or the facts that they describe. The former topic is sometimes called pragmat-ics and the latter semantics although the lines between them can easily blur. It is given by the nature of a language that some things may be inferred from others. If a shape is square then it is four-sided and if a person is a bachelor then he is unmarried. It is evident that .
