한국언어과학회

Why do we dream things that are illogical? This article tries to give an answer to this question. Based on the un-Cartesian hypothesis (Hinzen, 2017), one might say that we speak, therefore we think like this. However, once this linguistic ability has been affected by some sorts of mental disability, one cannot think normally. Seeing that the illogical dreams and abnormal thoughts have similar contents, this article suggests that these two might be the results of one cause: the lack of regulation made by one’s world view. This world view regulates the highly productive linguistic construction building ability. When dreaming and during certain mental illnesses, this regulation does not seem to work properly, causing to freely produce structures which are illogical and abnormal, and this is the main reason why we dream illogical things and think abnormally. This article also suggests that phases (DP, CP, vP) are the crucial points which regulate the production. Children’s cognitive development process and the characteristics of lucid dreaming are in line with this view.