Citation glitch being perpetually reiterated by AI

[wolfpup]

@Mangetout

Sentences contain and embody concepts and instructions and queries and logic - in order to get really good at learning sentence completion, aquisition of concepts and such just happens along the way.
The possibly-disturbing implication for us fleshies is that maybe we’re not actually as smart as we think we are - that maybe aspects of our intelligence are encoded in the structure and rules of our language - in maybe the same way that your ability to navigate to a destination is, sure, in part a result of your skill at driving, but also in part, just a feature of the roads.

That’s an astute point and I know that a lot of research has been done in this area. But I was vague on the details … so I asked ChatGPT!

Maybe the skeptics here might want to comment on the performance of this alleged “bullshit generator” and point out the bullshit parts! (Maybe there are some, I’m not an expert in linguistics, but I’ve certainly heard of Chomsky’s work on the theory of universal grammar.)

There have been studies done focused on the idea that logic and intelligence are part of the inherent structure of language. Is there a name for this theory and who have been its major proponents?

ChatGPT:

Yes, the idea that logic and intelligence are part of the inherent structure of language has been explored in various ways across philosophy, linguistics, and cognitive science. While there’s no single, universally agreed-upon name for this theory, it’s often associated with a few overlapping concepts and traditions. Here are the main ones:

---

1. Rationalist Linguistics / Nativism (Chomskyan tradition)

• Main Idea: Language is not just a cultural artifact, but rooted in the biological structure of the human mind. The structure of language reflects deep, innate logical and cognitive capacities.
• Key Proponent: Noam Chomsky
  • Key Concepts: Universal Grammar, generative grammar
  • Chomsky argued that the ability to acquire and use language is innate, and that language reflects deep logical structures, like recursion and hierarchical organization.
  • He emphasized the rationalist tradition (e.g., Descartes) that sees thought and reasoning as prior to language, but expressed and structured through it.

---

2. Logical Grammar / Categorial Grammar

• Main Idea: Language has a formal structure that can be mapped onto logical forms.
• Key Proponents:
  • Richard Montague (Montague Grammar)
    • Tried to show that natural language can be treated with the same rigor as formal logic.
    • Bridged the gap between formal logic and natural language semantics.
  • Ajdukiewicz, Bar-Hillel – earlier proponents of categorial grammar, which ties linguistic categories directly to logical types.

---

3. Linguistic Relativity vs. Linguistic Universals

• Some thinkers argue the structure of language reflects universal cognitive patterns, which are tied to reasoning.
• Others suggest language shapes thought (Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis), though that’s slightly different from saying that logic is inherent in language.

---

4. Cognitive Linguistics & Conceptual Metaphor Theory

• Main Idea: Language encodes how we structure and reason about the world.
• Key Proponents:
  • George Lakoff and Mark Johnson
    • In Metaphors We Live By, they argue that metaphors are not just poetic, but reflect underlying conceptual structures used in reasoning.
    • Lakoff also worked on the idea that mathematics and logic are cognitive constructs, deeply tied to language.

If you’re looking for a single name, Montague Grammar is probably the closest explicit theory that formalizes the idea of logic being inherent to language structure, though Chomsky’s Universal Grammar also touches the core idea from a more biological and cognitive stance.

Let me know if you want to dive into any one of these more deeply!