Linguistics and the Parts of the Mind Or How to Build a Machine Worth Talking To

The study of language has always been closely allied to the study of philosophy. This book starts from a criticism of the neglect by linguists of the study of “macrolinguistics” – the nature and rules of sequence in dialogue of the larger linguistic units, such as statements, questions, retractions, various kinds of imperative, and expressions of attitudes and of emotion – and develops consequences of interest both to philosophers and to linguists. Its central thesis concerns the influence of macrolinguistic grammatical categories on theories of the mind.This book will be of interest to philosophers generally and philosophers of language and philosophers of mind in particular, as well as to linguists, especially those working in pragmatics and speech act theory. It will also appeal to computer and cognitive scientists, particularly those with an interest in natural language processing. It makes important contributions to both philosophy of language and philosophy of mind, abounding with new arguments and perspectives 46 years on from its completion.