Lingual Behavior: Extending Skinner's Analysis of Verbal Behavior

Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior concentrates on the controls over the verbalizer—speaker, writer, or gesturer. These controls derive from his experimental analysis of behavior and replace the hypothetical agency in conventional conceptions of meaning. His definition of verbal behavior requires a verbal community that shapes stipulated forms of action—language. Skinner addresses language and the lingual community and, more extensively, mediational actions. He forgoes their detailed examination for that of the verbalizer. Skinner’s Theory of Contingency Selection covers all components of lingual behavior. Lingual behavior results from the dynamic interaction among a lingual community, a mediator, and a verbalizer, and their respective milieus—social, physical, and biological. Skinner adumbrated the attributes of lingual behavior. A full account of lingual behavior requires the analysis of the dynamics and contingency controls over all attributes and their interaction.