Proverbiallinguist Email Series 2004

On Chomsky’s “Psychological Reality” and Analysis of Proverbs:

A Ka:rmik Linguistic Review 4
Chilukuri Bhuvaneswar, CIEFL, Hyderabad

According to Chomsky (Knowledge 1986a, pp. 19 - 56; Language and Mind 1972a,
p.103), language is an internalised system, a product of the human brain/mind, and his
ultimate goal is to characterise the nature of the internalised linguistic system ( or I -
language ) which enables humans to speak and understanfd their native language, and
to uncover the neurophysiological mechanisms which make language possible. In other
words, a theory of language should be based on principles which are psychologically
plausible." (Radford 1988: 29 ). As such, the technical devices of the linguistic theory
should not contradict the neurophysiological mechanisms.

Let us see how is the nature of the internalised linguistic system that enables humans to
speak and understand proverbs in their native language. For any human to do so, first,
he must have memory to remember and recollect proverbs used  and transmitted in his
society; second, he must know how to apply and comprehend them - to do so, he
requres certain intellectual abilities such as the ability to infer and interpret the
proverbial meaning ( prototypical meaning derived from the referential meaning ) and
the contextual meaning of the proverb relevant to the context; similarly, he should be
able to categorise the contextual action under a prototype as exemplified in a proverb;
and finally, choose an appropriate proverb to suit the socio-cultural demands of
politeness, and appropriateness. In other words, he should have memory, and
interpretation, reasoning, and decision-making abilities at the psychological level to
acquire, use, and understand proverbs.

We observe in our daily conversation that proverbs are used automatically and
effortlessly. How does this happen? Such an use is possible only if the contextual action
is automatically prototypicalised under a particular proverb by parallel processing.That
is, the speaker does not first, rummage through all the proverbs he knows one by one
by an algorithmic method; second, arrive at the proverbs which are prototypical to the
categorial action; and finally, choose an appropriate one according to the socio-cultural
context. He spots the socio-culturally appropriate proverb by one hit and at the same
time produces it. In other words, the cognition and production of the appropriate
proverb take place simultaneously by automaticity of behaviour. Such a behaviour
demands both innate abilities such as memory, intellection, and parallel processing as
well as acquired skill and practice in using proverbs. It is just like driving in a busy
street which demands both innately constituted intelligence and consciously practised
and acquired skill of co-ordinating multiple driving activities. If the driver does not do
parallel, accurate, and contextually appropriate processing, the traffic may do it for him

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Proverbiallinguist Email Series 2004

fatally!

Loritz (1999: 20,134 - 135, 143 -148 ) rejects Chomsky's view that " the basic elements of a
representation are chains" ( Chomsky 1995) and strongly criticises the presumption held
by Chomsky " that serial language must be the product of a serial processor". He further
points out that owing to such a presumption which was proved to be wrong by
scientists " generative grammar tree diagrams of the basic structure of the clause came
to look more and more like stimulus - response chains and crayfish brains" ( Loritz
1999:147 ). Ramon y Cajal ( who won a Nobel prize in 1906 ) showed that neurons do
combine  and each brain cell makes synaptic connections to thousands and thousands
of other brain cells.Furthermore, brain cells function in subnetwork combinations with
other brain cells , and these combinations run into a mind boggling number  10 to the
power of 7,111,111 approximately - incidentally, this factor is a strong evidence against
the innateness hypothesis of Chomsky, which we will discuss a little later under that
section. Later on Grossberg (1972) " showed not only that the brain was a parallel
processor but also that it computed XORs ubiquitously " (Loritz 1999: 169 ). Most
importantly, Hopfield (1982) published his theory of  ' content -addressable' memory
which later on led to the massively parallel computers of IBM.

It appears that - If my assumption is correct - this content -addressable memory of the

brain is at work in the spontaneous use of proverbs in contexts of casual conversation
and uncultivated speech and spontaneous writing also. In fact, it is not the brain or
mind that is capable of memory but the consciousness operating through the
brain.These are only instrumental in the performance of lingual action. Otherwise, even
a dead man should talk and use proverbs!

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