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6 - Is there a universal Mentalese?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2014

Vyvyan Evans
Vyvyan Evans
Affiliation:
Bangor University
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Summary

Myth: Meaning in natural languages, like English or Japanese, derives, ultimately, from a universal language of thought: Mentalese. Mentalese is the mind’s internal or private language, and makes thought possible. It is universal in the sense that all humans are born with it. It is language-like, consisting of symbols, which can be combined by rules of mental syntax. Without Mentalese we could not learn the meanings of words in any naturally occurring language – spoken or signed.

The attentive reader will have noticed that, up until this point, we haven’t focused on meaning. The purpose of language, ultimately, is to convey ideas – meanings; hence this is an issue with which we must grapple, and to which we now turn – in this, and the next chapter. In the language-as-instinct thesis, in addition to a Universal Grammar, the human mind also comes pre-equipped with a universal ‘language of thought’: Mentalese. According to Jerry Fodor, who first advocated a language of thought back in the 1970s, it is precisely due to the existence of Mentalese that the meanings of any natural language – spoken or signed – can be learned at all.

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The Language Myth
Why Language Is Not an Instinct
 , pp. 161 - 191
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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