ABSTRACT
This is a very strong claim and others have sought to dilute it,15 but since effability is a principlelanguages are in principle effable-the fact that speakers are often at a loss for words, or feel that their thoughts cannot be expressed by language is a contingent one, as Katz observes. They simply lack the ability to use language to its full capacity. So it is the speaker who fails and not language. In support of this contention he points to the distinction made by Chomsky between speaker’s competence (the linguistic knowledge) and speaker’s performance.
