Cartesian Linguistics

by Noam Chomsky

  We have observed that the study of the creative aspect of language use develops from the assumption that linguistic and mental processes are virtually identical, language providing the primary means for free expression of thought and feeling, as well as for the functioning of the creative imagination. Similarly, much of the substantive discussion of grammar, throughout the development of what we have been calling “Cartesian linguistics,” derives from this assumption. The Port-Royal Grammar, for example, begins the discussion of syntax with the observation that there are “three operations of our minds: conceiving, judging, and reasoning” (p. 27), of which the third is irrelevant to grammar (it is taken up in the Port-Royal Logic, which appeared two years later, in 1662). From the manner in which concepts are combined in judgments, the Grammar deduces what it takes to be the general form of any possible grammar, and it proceeds to elaborate this universal underlying structure from a consideration of “the natural manner in which we express our thoughts” (p. 30).64 Most subsequent attempts to develop a schema of universal grammar proceed along the same lines.

  James Harris’s Hermes, which does not bear the imprint of the Port-Royal Grammar to the extent usual in eighteenth-century work, also reasons from the structure of mental processes to the structure of language, but in a somewhat different way. In general, he maintains, when a man speaks, “his Speech or Discourse is a publishing of some Energie or Motion of his soul” (p. 223).65 The “powers of the soul” are of two general types: perception (involving the senses and the intellect) and volition (the will, passions, appetites –” all that moves to Action whether rational or irrational” (p. 224). It follows that there are two kinds of linguistic acts: to assert, that is, “to publish some Perception either of the Senses or the Intellect”; or to “publish volitions,” that is, to interrogate, command, pray, or wish (p. 224). The first type of sentence serves “to declare ourselves to others”; the second, to induce others to fulfill a need. Continuing in this way, we can analyze the volitional sentences in terms of whether the need is “to have some perception informed” or “some volition gratified” (the interrogative and requisitive modes, respectively); the requisitive is further analyzed as imperative or precative, depending on whether the sentence is addressed to inferiors or non-inferiors). Since both interrogatives and requisitives serve “to answer to a need,” both types “require a return” – a return in words or deeds, to the requisitive, and in words alone, to the interrogative (p. 293f.).66 Thus the framework for the analysis of types of sentences is provided by a certain analysis of mental processes.

  Pursuing the fundamental distinction between body and mind, Cartesian linguistics characteristically assumes that language has two aspects. In particular, one may study a linguistic sign from the point of view of the sounds that constitute it and the characters that represent these signs or from the point of view of their “signification,” that is, “the manner in which men use them for signifying their thoughts” (Port-Royal Grammar, p. 41). Cordemoy announces his goal in similar terms: “in this discourse I make a precise survey of everything that speech [la Parole] derives from the soul and everything it borrows from the body” (Discours physique de la parole, Preface). Similarly, Lamy begins his rhetoric by distinguishing between “the soul of words” (that is, “their mental [spiritual] aspect,” “what is particular to us” – the capacity of expressing “our ideas”) from “their body” – “their corporeal aspect,” “what the birds that imitate the voices of men have in common with us,” namely, “the sounds, which are signs of their ideas” (De L’art de parler).

  In short, language has an inner and an outer aspect. A sentence can be studied from the point of view of how it expresses a thought or from the point of view of its physical shape, that is, from the point of view of either semantic interpretation or phonetic interpretation.

  Using some recent terminology, we can distinguish the “deep structure” of a sentence from its “surface structure.” The former is the underlying abstract structure that determines its semantic interpretation; the latter, the superficial organization of units which determines the phonetic interpretation and which relates to the physical form of the actual utterance, to its perceived or intended form. In these terms, we can formulate a second fundamental conclusion of Cartesian linguistics, namely, that deep and surface structures need not be identical. The underlying organization of a sentence relevant to semantic interpretation is not necessarily revealed by the actual arrangement and phrasing of its given components.

  This point is brought out with particular clarity in the Port-Royal Grammar, in which a Cartesian approach to language is developed for the first time, with considerable insight and subtlety.67 The principal form of thought (but not the only one – cf. p. 79 below) is the judgment, in which something is affirmed of something else. Its linguistic expression is the proposition, the two terms of which are the “subject, which is that of which one affirms” and the “predicate, which is that which is predicated” (p. 29; PRG 67). The subject and the attribute may be simple, as in “Earth is round”, or complex [composé], as in “An able magistrate is a man useful to the republic” or “Invisible God created the visible world.” Furthermore, in such cases as these, the propositions

  contain, at least in our mind, several judgments, from which one can make as many propositions. Thus, for example, when I say “Invisible God created the visible world” three judgments that pass through my mind are included in this proposition. For I judge: (1) that God is invisible;

  (2) that He created the world;

  (3) that the world is visible;

  and of these three propositions, the second is the principal and essential one of the original proposition. But the first and the third are only subordinate, and comprise only part of the principal proposition – the first composing its subject, the third its predicate.

  (p. 68; PRG 99–100)

  In other words, the deep structure underlying the proposition “Invisible God created the visible world” consists of three abstract propositions, each expressing a certain simple judgment, although its surface form expresses only the subject-attribute structure. Of course, this deep structure is implicit only; it is not expressed but is only represented in the mind:

  Now these subordinate propositions are often in our mind, without being expressed in words, as in the example cited [viz. “Invisible God created the visible world”].

  (p. 68; PRG 100)

  It is sometimes possible to express the deep structure in a more explicit way, in the surface form, “as when I reduce the above example to these terms: ‘God WHO is invisible created the world WHICH is visible’” (pp. 68–69; PRG 100). But it constitutes an underlying mental reality – a mental accompaniment to the utterance – whether or not the surface form of the utterance that is produced corresponds to it in a simple, point-by-point manner.

  In general, constructions of a noun with a noun in apposition, an adjective, or a participle are based on a deep structure containing a relative clause: “all these modes of speech include the relative pronoun in their meaning, and may be resolved by using it” (p. 69; PRG 100). The same deep structure may be realized differently in different languages, as when Latin has “video canem currentem,” and French “Je voy un chien qui court” (pp. 69–70; PRG 100). The position of the relative pronoun in the “subordinate proposition” [proposition incidente] is determined by a rule that converts deep structure to surface structure. We see this, for example, in such phrases as “God whom I love” and “God by whom the world has been created.” In such cases,

  the relative pronoun is always placed at the beginning of the proposition (although, according to the meaning it ought to be only at the end), unless it is governed by a preposition, for the preposition comes first, at least ordinarily.

  (p. 71; PRG 101)

  In the case of each of the sentences just discussed, the deep structure consists of a system of propositions, and it does not receive a direct, point-by-point expre
ssion in the actual physical object that is produced. To form an actual sentence from such an underlying system of elementary propositions, we apply certain rules (in modern terms, grammatical transformations). In these examples, we apply the rule preposing the relative pronoun that takes the place of the noun of the incident proposition (along with the preposition that precedes it, if there is one). We may then, optionally, go on to delete the relative pronoun, at the same time deleting the copula (as in “Dieu invisible”) or changing the form of the verb (as in “canis currens”). Finally, we must, in certain cases, interchange the order of the noun and the adjective (as in “un habile magistrat”).68

  The deep structure that expresses the meaning is common to all languages, so it is claimed, being a simple reflection of the forms of thought. The transformational rules that convert deep to surface structure may differ from language to language. The surface structure resulting from these transformations does not directly express the meaning relations of the words, of course, except in the simplest cases. It is the deep structure underlying the actual utterance, a structure that is purely mental, that conveys the semantic content of the sentence. This deep structure is, nevertheless, related to actual sentences in that each of its component abstract propositions (in the cases just discussed) could be directly realized as a simple propositional judgment.

  The theory of essential and incident propositions as constituent elements of deep structure is extended in the Port-Royal Logic69 with a more detailed analysis of relative clauses. There, a distinction is developed between explicative (nonrestrictive or appositive) and determinative (restrictive) relative clauses. The distinction is based on a prior analysis of the “comprehension” and “extension” of “universal ideas,”70 in modern terms, an analysis of meaning and reference. The comprehension of an idea is the set of essential attributes that define it, together with whatever can be deduced from them; its extension is the set of objects that it denotes:

  The comprehension of an idea is the constituent parts which make up the idea, none of which can be removed without destroying the idea. For example, the idea of a triangle is made up of the idea of having three sides, the idea of having three angles, and the idea of having angles whose sum is equal to two right angles, and so on.

  The extension of an idea is the objects to which the word expressing the idea can be applied. The objects which belong to the extension of an idea are called the inferiors of that idea, which with respect to them is called the superior. Thus, the general idea of triangle has in its extension triangles of all kinds whatsoever.

  (p. 51; PRL 39–40)

  In terms of these notions, we can distinguish such “explications” as “Paris, which is the largest city in Europe” and “man, who is mortal” from “determinations” such as “transparent bodies, wise men” or “a body which is transparent, men who are pious” (pp. 59–60, 118; PRL 44–45, 89):

  A complex expression is a mere explication if either (1) the idea expressed by the complex expression is already contained in the comprehension of the idea expressed by the principal word of the complex expression, or (2) the idea expressed by the complex expression is the idea of some accidental characteristic of all the inferiors of an idea expressed by the principal word.

  (pp. 59–60; PRL 45)

  A complex expression is a determination if the extension of the idea expressed by the complex term is less than the extension of the idea expressed by the principal word.

  (p. 60; PRL 45)

  In the case of an explicative relative clause, the underlying deep structure actually implies the judgment expressed by this clause, when its relative pronoun is replaced by its antecedent. For example, the sentence “men, who were created to know and love God, . . .” implies that men were created to know and love God. Thus an explicative relative clause has the essential properties of conjunction. But in the case of a restrictive relative clause (a determination), this is obviously not true. Thus in saying “Men who are pious are charitable,” we do not affirm either that men are pious or that men are charitable. In stating this proposition,

  we form a complex idea by joining together two simple ideas – the idea of man and the idea of piety – and we judge that the attribute of being charitable is part of this complex idea. Thus the subordinate clause asserts nothing more than that the idea of piety is not incompatible with the idea of man. Having made this judgment we then consider what idea can be affirmed of this complex idea of pious man.

  (p. 119; PRL 89–90)

  Similarly, consider the expression “The doctrine which identifies the sovereign good with the sensual pleasure of the body, which was taught by Epicurus, is unworthy of a philosopher.”71 This contains the subject “The doctrine which . . . taught by Epicurus” and the predicate “unworthy of a philosopher.” The subject is complex, containing the restrictive relative clause “which identifies the sovereign good with the sensual pleasure of the body” and the explicative relative clause “which was taught by Epicurus.” The relative pronoun in the latter has as its antecedent the complex expression “the doctrine which identifies the sovereign good with the sensual pleasure of the body.” Since the clause “which was taught by Epicurus” is explicative, the original sentence does imply that the doctrine in question was taught by Epicurus. But the relative pronoun of the restrictive clause cannot be replaced by its antecedent, “the doctrine,” to form an assertion implied by the full sentence. Once again, the complex phrase containing the restrictive relative clause and its antecedent expresses a single complex idea formed from the two ideas of a doctrine and of identifying the sovereign good with the sensual pleasure of the body. All this information must be represented in the deep structure of the original sentence, according to the Port-Royal theory, and the semantic interpretation of this sentence must proceed in the manner just indicated, utilizing this information (pp. 119–120; PRL 90).

  A restrictive relative clause is based on a proposition, according to the Port-Royal theory, even though this proposition is not affirmed when the relative clause is used in a complex expression. What is affirmed in an expression such as men who are pious, as noted above, is no more than the compatibility of the constituent ideas. Hence in the expression “minds which are square are more solid than those which are round,” we may correctly say that the relative clause is “false,” in a certain sense, since “the idea of being square” is not compatible with “the idea of mind understood as the principle of thought” (p. 124; PRL 93).

  Thus sentences containing explicative as well as restrictive relative clauses are based on systems of propositions (that is, abstract objects constituting the meanings of sentences);72 but the manner of interconnection is different in the case of an explicative clause, in which the underlying judgment is actually affirmed, and a determinative clause, in which the proposition formed by replacing the relative pronoun by its antecedent is not affirmed but rather constitutes a single complex idea together with this noun.

  These observations are surely correct, in essence, and must be accommodated in any syntactic theory that attempts to make the notion “deep structure” precise and to formulate and investigate the principles that relate deep structure to surface organization. In short, these observations must be accommodated in some fashion in any theory of transformational generative grammar. Such a theory is concerned precisely with the rules that specify deep structures and relate them to surface structures and with the rules of semantic and phonological interpretation that apply to deep and surface structures respectively. It is, in other words, in large measure an elaboration and formalization of notions that are implicit and in part expressly formulated in such passages as those just discussed. In many respects it seems to me quite accurate, then, to regard the theory of transformational generative grammar, as it is developing in current work, as essentially a modern and more explicit version of the Port-Royal theory.

  In the Port-Royal theory, the relative pronoun that occurs in the surface form does not always
have the dual function of standing for a noun and connecting propositions. It may be “shorn of its pronominal nature” and may thus serve only the latter role. For example, in such sentences as “I suppose that you will be wise” and “I tell you that you are wrong” we find that, in the deep structure, “these propositions, ‘you will be wise’, ‘you are wrong’, make up only part of the whole propositions ‘I suppose . . .’ and ‘I tell you . . .’” (Grammaire, p. 73; PRG 104–105).73

  The Grammar goes on to argue that infinitival constructions play the same role in the verbal system that relative clauses play in the nominal system, providing a means for extending the verbal system through the incorporation of whole propositions: “the infinitive is, among the other moods of the verb, what the relative is among the other pronouns” (pp. 111–112; PRG 139); like the relative pronoun, “the infinitive has, over and above the affirmation of the verb, the power to join the proposition in which it appears to another proposition” (p. 112; PRG 139). Thus the meaning of “scio malum esse fugiendum” is conveyed by a deep structure based on the two propositions expressed by the sentences “scio” and “malum est fugiendum.” The transformational rule (in modern terms) that forms the surface structure of the sentence replaces “est” by “esse”, just as the transformations that form such sentences as “Dieu (qui est) invisible a créé le monde (qui est) visible” perform various operations of substitution, reordering, and deletion on the underlying systems of propositions. “And from this has come the fact that in French we almost always render the infinitive by the indicative of the verb and the particle ‘que’: ‘Je sais que le mal est à fuir’” (p. 112; PRG 140). In this case, the identity of deep structure in Latin and French may be somewhat obscured by the fact that the two languages use slightly different transformational operations to derive the surface forms.