The three chapters of this book are somewhat elaborated versions of three lectures, the Beckman lectures, that I delivered at the University of California, at Berkeley, in January 1967. The first is an attempt to evaluate past contributions to the study of mind that have been based on research and speculation regarding the nature of language. The second is devoted to contemporary developments in linguistics that have a bearing on the study of mind. The third is a highly speculative discussion of directions that the study of language and mind might take in coming years. The three lectures, then, are concerned with the past, the present, and the future.

Given the state of research into the history of linguistics, even the attempt to evaluate past contributions must be regarded as highly tentative. Modern linguistics shares the delusion – the accurate term, I believe – that the modern “behavioral sciences” have in some essential respect achieved a transition from “speculation” to “science” and that earlier work can be safely consigned to the antiquarians. Obviously any rational person will favor rigorous analysis and careful experiment; but to a considerable degree, I feel, the “behavioral sciences” are merely mimicking the surface features of the natural sciences; much of their scientific character has been achieved by a restriction of subject matter and a concentration on rather peripheral issues.