the overwhelming evidence is that internal thought is playing some function for us, you know, planning, agonizing,...
:-D
and the earlier part:
other prof: well, you're thinking about what you're going to say to the other person.
chomsky: well, the other person could have died (and you might _still_ be thinking about it/them -- i.e. you're not going to be communicating with them while you're both alive, at least).
The lit crit community were into function, NC was all structure. Skinner was way ahead of them, and his time with his book Verbal Behavior. Language is a behavior guided by no special processes relative to other human behavior
:-D
and the earlier part: