Final Exam — Submit as email attachment by May 17th.
In his Cratylus, dialogue is the form of expression by means of which Plato explores the issues concerning the “correctness” of names. In the same rhetorical vein, write a dialogue concerning the issues raised by one of the following topics. The participants in your dialogue should be those named in the parenthesis (although you may, if you choose, add yourself as a Socratic ‘know-it-all’).
A. “Language is in each individual but nonetheless common to all” (Saussure and Chomsky)
B. “To understand the essential properties of human language you have to study how it develops over time, whether in phylogeny (early humans) or in ontogeny (children).” (Condillac and Chomsky OR Condillac and Tomasello)
C. “Language divides things according to their natures” (The modist Martin of Dacia and Saussure)
► Your dialogue should be an accurate and perspicacious presentation of the claims and supporting arguments of the two theorists in the dialogue. Strict maximum word limit = 2500 words.
