> I fail to see much value in an abstract account of "pure language" as dissociated from the real communicative process But this assumption makes assumptions o

> I fail to see much value in an abstract account of "pure language" as dissociated from the real communicative process But this assumption makes assumptions of purity as well. The communicative process may just be a byproduct of a mental process which has little to do with communication. A mutation happens tens of thousands of years ago (say 50,000 years ago), a change happens in the Broca (and/or Wernecke) area of the brain, and suddenly a new mental process kicks off. This mental process can be modeled as a state machine, and has the abilities and limitations of a state machine. It also has known limitations of output, which Chomsky has talked about. You're assuming the mutations which gave rise to the brain changes which created an internal language generator and parser have only one purpose - communication. But that's an assumption on your part. The ability to communicate may be just one byproduct of those changes which made things like communication possible.