Yuko Sakai

Communicativism and Cognitivism in Linguistics Yuko Sakai

While many people say that language is a tool of communication, others say that it is an expression of thought. We can call the former "communicativists" and the latter, "cognitivists". From ancient Greece to modern times, many philosophers and linguists have shown these two views. They are not always conflicting consciously, sometimes the same person advocates the communicativism in some respects, and in other respects advocates the cognitivism. What is the relationship between the two ideas? In this work, we will follow the history of the linguistic study of Plato to Chomsky, clarify the logical relationship between the two, and show a direction for future linguistics.