Chomskian universal grammar and theoretics: An evaluation on the question of meaning in Yalçın Koç

In philosophy, languages have institutionally been considered to be comprised of two main aspects. These can be summed up as the external aspect consisting of sounds and signs and the internal aspects consisting of thoughts and concepts. It is also considered that it is the internal aspect of language which gives meaning to its external aspect. The idea that languages are given meaning by thought stems from the idea that thought is invariant, but languages vary. Because of this basic assumption, thought was the heart of the philosophical investigations during a period which can be called the rational phase of language. However, in parallel with positive sciences, as empiricist philosophy questioned the source of thought, the thought lost its independence and the view that thought was related to the abstraction ability of language became dominant. This led to the question of what language rests on. Empiricists based language on criteria external to the language. But with his theory of Universal Grammar, which is one of the main research areas of this study, Noam CHOMSKY made claims that 1) the language faculty, which is inherent, is the basis of language, 2) language faculty forms a basis for thought 3) it is language faculty which gives meaning to language. Conversely, according to the Yalçın KOÇ's concept of Contemplation, which is another research area of the study, it is contradictory to think that individual languages form a basis for thought which transcends them. So, on the basis of the concept of Contemplative view of language, in this research the claims that 1) language learning is not improvement but a sort of narrowing down 2) the traditional distinction between language and thought is not essential 3) the meaning of linguistic expressions is based on a transcendental metaphorical experience will be made and justified. Key words: Noam CHOMSKY, Yalçın KOÇ, language and thought, universal grammar, transcendency.