Introductory Remarks on Theoretical Neurolinguistics

Abstract

There is widespread agreement among linguists that the empirical basis for languages is to be found in the utterances of the speakers of a language and in the psycho-physiological mechanisms which produce and interpret these utterances. However, since Saussurean structuralism and until Chomskyan generativism most linguists also agree that utterances and psycho-physiological processes should not be studied directly; study of the structure of language- "la langue" or competence- should instead have methodological priority.