The native speaker is dead!

By Thomas M. Paikeday

Subjects: Language acquisition, Criticism and interpretation, Native language, Language and languages, Philosophy

Description: In Syntactic Structures (The Hague, 1957) and elsewhere, Noam Chomsky claims that the test of whether or not a sentence is well formed or grammatical is its acceptability to the native speaker. In the format of a dialogue, Paikeday's book examines and criticizes that claim. The colloquy is peopled with some well-known and impressive representatives from linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. There are even lexicographers here. Paikeday's point is that the native speaker is ``an ideal, a convenient fiction, a shibboleth'' with no more reality or reference than a unicorn. Difficulties with the native speaker concept are brought out by comparing it with such related themes as mother tongue, fluency, linguistic competence, and the phenomenon of non-native linguistic proficiency. Discussion often veers into problems concerned with the metaphysical status of language; and at these times, the Chomsky character taxes his critics with raising pseudo-problems and reifying language in the manner of Platonic objects. This reviewer is still inclined to Chomsky's view of things, and to the belief that the title of the book has not been vindicated. -- from http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca (Feb. 5, 2014).