Lecture 7 (optional) - Linguistic Acts

So, as we saw last time, there are three
distinct levels of language.

Linguistic level, the speech level, and
the conversational level, and all of these

levels of meaning affect arguments.
So, in the next three lectures, we want to

work through these levels one by one.
And this lecture is going to deal in

particular with the linguistic level of
language, which is simply the production

of a meaningful utterance.
So, in order to form a linguistic act,

all you have to do is utter a set of words
that are meaningful,

that fit together according to the
semantics,

that is, the meanings of particular words,
and the syntax, or the grammar of the

language in general.
For example, it's easy.

It's easy is a linguistic act because it's,
is a contraction, you're allowed to

contract it and is according to the rules
of English, and easy is a word.

So, it's easy follows the semantics and
the syntax of the language of English.

That's all there is to it.
Although linguistic acts are really

simple, they do require some special
components that are worth separating out.

For example, they require meaningful
words.

When you simply hum a tune, like
hm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm-hm, then you're not

performing a linguistic act because there
are no meaningful words in it.

But when you sing a song, I love Miranda
and Nicholas too, then you are performing

a linguistic act because you uttered words
that were meaningful when they were put

together in that way.
And I've been taking this for granted but

of course the words you utter have to be
meaningful.

It's not going to be a linguistic act if
you utter what looks like a sentence,

namely a set of sounds, that look like
words if they're not really words.

So, if you say, `Twas brillig and the
slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the

wabe, and so on from Lewis Carroll's
famous Jabberwocky poem.

Then, it's not going to be a linguistic
act if those words are not meaningful

words in any language.
And you can also get nonsense when you

take words that have meanings, and put
them together in an order that doesn't make

any sense.
My dog has fleas makes sense, but dog

fleas my has doesn't make any sense.
So, meaningful words with the wrong

grammatical structure won't work.
And Noam Chomsky from MIT taught us that

you can also get nonsense when you take
words that make sense, and you put them

together with the right grammatical
structure,

but they still don't fit together, because
of the relation between the meanings.

His example here was colorless green ideas
sleep furiously.

What does that mean?
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously?

Well, colorless makes sense.
Green, that's a word.

Ideas.
Sleep.

Furiously. Each of those words makes sense
and they're each in their appropriate

grammatical role, but altogether it
doesn't make any sense.

So, there are lots of ways you can get
nonsense in language, and when you do,

you're not performing a linguistic act.
Now, there's some really fun examples

where it's not clear whether or not the
utterance is meaningful.

Some of these examples, among my favorites
are garden path sentences.

Here's one.
The man who whistles tunes pianos.

Wait a minute.
What does that mean?

If you think of it as the man who whistles
tunes as one unit,

then you don't understand what the word
pianos is doing.

Because the man who whistles tunes sounds
like a reference to a particular man, and

pianos is not a verb.
But if you think of it as the man who

whistles as one unit,
And the second unit is tunes pianos,

So it's the man who whistles tunes pianos,
Then it makes sense. Because it's the man

who's whistling also tunes piano.
So, you have to be able to carve the set

of words up into the right units and see
what grammatical structure they have in

order to understand the sentence.
Because tunes can either be a verb, which

tells you what the man is doing to the
pianos, or it can be a noun, which refers

to the thing that the man is whistling.
And you have to get those grammatical

categories straight, and the garden path
sentences lead you astray and make you

think of it in the wrong way.
There'll be some more examples of that in

the exercises.
But my favorite example of all is Buffalo

buffalo buffalo.
What does that mean?

Well, buffalo or American bison,
Okay? But buffalo, the word buffalo in

English that is, can also be used as a
verb to refer to tricking or fooling

someone.
So you can have buffalo, American bison,

buffaloing,
That is tricking or fooling, buffalo,

American bison.
Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

This can go even further because there is
a city in New York named Buffalo.

And, of course, there can be buffalo, that
is American bison, from the city of

Buffalo, New York and they're called
Buffalo buffalo.

And, when they trick or fool other American
bison from Buffalo, New York, then you

have Buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo
buffalo, or Buffalo buffalo buffalo

buffalo buffalo, which doesn't sound like
a meaningful utterance, but it is.

And you can go even further.
You can actually build it out to eleven

straight utterances of the word buffalo.
Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo

buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

Now, tell me what that means.
I'm not going to explain it to you because it

takes a while to explain it.
But, if you think about it, you might be

able to figure it out.
And even if you can't figure out eleven

baffaloes in a row, the point still holds.

Because the point's just that sometimes, what
doesn't seem meaningful turns out to be

meaningful.
And if you're careful and charitable,

and do your best to interpret what it
really means,

Then you might be able to make sense out
of some utterances that don't seem to make

sense at first.
And when you can make sense of them, then

they're linguistic acts.
For now, I don't have time to go into any

detail on semantics or syntax.
Although, we will discuss some details

when we discuss vagueness and ambiguity in
the discussion of fallacies later in this

course.
But, I hope that the linguistic level is

pretty simple and understandable so we can
go on and look in more detail at the

speech act level and the conversation act
level.