The internal, the external and the hybrid: The state of the art and a new characterization of language as a natural object

Abstract

The state of the art of the debate between externalist and internalist concepts of language is reviewed in this paper, and a new conceptualization of language as a “developmental hybrid” is suggested that entails that it equally comprises environmental and organism-internal component pieces, in an ultimately non dissociable way. The key for understanding this hybrid status is to be found in development, for when individually evolving, a general dynamic is observed in which organism-internal facilities selectively apply to certain designated aspects of the environmental stimulus, which in their turn have a facilitatory impact on these very same facilities. These kinds of loops inspire the conclusion that the internal and the external compose a single, integrated developmental unit.

Realization in biology?

“…This entails that units with the kind of scaffolding role specified in the previous paragraph are ultimately of an organism-external provenance, yet they end up being part and parcel of the system of computation capable of manifesting the PDA+ property. From this, Balari and Lorenzo (2018) conclude that language is a case of developmental hybridization (Chiu and Gilbert 2015;Giorgi and Bruni 2015;Griesemer 2014a, b), partially made from external and internal contributors, but in the end transcending one and the other characterization.…”

“…Clearly, function ascription is a more complex enterprise than R F appears to presuppose. Functional profiles vary in developmental time and, in the end, appear to be but a fuzzy, entangled net of actions and reactions, ultimately given by the primary properties of the active units themselves, yet modulated by the varying environmental circumstances-both in an organism-internal and external sense (Anderson 2010;Balari and Lorenzo 2018;Bergeron 2007;Bock and von Wahlert 1965;Love 2007;Mahner and Bunge 2001;Wouters 2003).…”

“…I said i that Peter saw an unexplained flying object jokingly i . Among other arguments, Balari and Lorenzo (2018) base on such an unsystematic character the idea that markers primarily serve to scaffold the capacity for establishing connections -see below in main text-rather than to express them. Lorenzo (2018) points out some relevant parallels in the domain of locomotion.…”

“…The issue of what its role may possibly be in a language system is an obscure and open one (Barlow and Ferguson 1988). However, a reasonable developmental explanation is provided in Balari and Lorenzo (2018) and Lorenzo (2018), based on some clinical findings made by Harald Clahsen and coworkers.…”

“…In short, when children were subjected to rehabilitation specifically focused on the former, their performance in the latter also spontaneously improved, but not the other way around. Based on this datum, Balari and Lorenzo (2018) suggest that units containing non-interpretable material have a developmental role within the system of computation, namely that of scaffolding the achievement of the capacity for processing with the powers associated to the PDA+ property.…”