Kant’s Transcendental Theory of Universal Grammar. The Cognitive Foundation of the Structure of Language
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Pierluigi D’Agostino
Abstract
In this paper I discuss Kant’s philosophy of grammar in order to argue that: (a) the formal analysis of language implies that there is a structural correspondence between logical and grammatical form; (b) there is a distinction between the sense in which logic is formal and the sense in which grammar is formal; (c) universal grammar descends from the system of categorial functions that are investigated in the transcendental analytic; (d) transcendental grammar implies that the universal form of human language has its ground in the universal structure of thought; (e) the concept of a grammatical norm is clarified once we combine the theory of universal grammar with how linguistic experience takes place.
Bibliography
All translations are quoted from The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant (1996) and the quotation rules followed are those established by the Akademie Ausgabe (AA). Kant, Immanuel (1900 ff): Gesammelte Schriften. Hrsg.: Bd. 1 – 22 Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Bd. 23 Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, ab Bd. 24 Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen. Berlin.
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titlepages
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Kant’s Transcendental Theory of Universal Grammar. The Cognitive Foundation of the Structure of Language
- Kant’s Semiotics and Hermeneutics in the 1760s
- Kant on First-Person Speech and Personhood
- Kantian Thoughts. Towards an Alternative to Russellian and Fregean Propositions
- Kant on Language and the (Self‐)Development of Reason
- Kant on Language, Communication and Objective Judgment
- Kant’s Philosophy of Language of Philosophy: On Philosophical Terminology
- Kant on Propositional Content and Knowledge
- Topics of the Kant Yearbook 2024, 2025 and 2026
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Titlepages
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Kant’s Transcendental Theory of Universal Grammar. The Cognitive Foundation of the Structure of Language
- Kant’s Semiotics and Hermeneutics in the 1760s
- Kant on First-Person Speech and Personhood
- Kantian Thoughts. Towards an Alternative to Russellian and Fregean Propositions
- Kant on Language and the (Self‐)Development of Reason
- Kant on Language, Communication and Objective Judgment
- Kant’s Philosophy of Language of Philosophy: On Philosophical Terminology
- Kant on Propositional Content and Knowledge
- Topics of the Kant Yearbook 2024, 2025 and 2026