Epistemology of Language

What must linguistic knowledge be like if it is to figure in the description and explanation of the various phenomena pre-theoretically classified as linguistic? In these 16 essays, philosophers and linguists address a variety of interconnected themes concerning our knowledge of language.

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Noam Chomsky's claim that ordinary speakers possess complex structures of linguistic knowledge was a trigger for the cognitive revolution in the mid-20th century. This and an associated claim, that linguistics is essentially in the business of rendering such knowledge explicit, have been the target of an evolving series of sceptical objections ever since.