The Minimalist Program

1998 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 213-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAN-WOUTER ZWART
Keyword(s):  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Principles And Parameters

Noam Chomsky,The Minimalist Program. (Current Studies in Linguistics 28.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995. Pp. 420.The Minimalist Program, by Noam Chomsky, is a collection of four articles, ‘The Theory of Principles and Parameters’ (written with Howard Lasnik, 13–127), ‘Some notes on Economy of Derivation and representation’ (129–166), ‘A Minimalist Program for linguistic theory’ (167–217), and ‘Categories and transformations’ (219–394). The first three articles have appeared elsewhere, and are reprinted here with minor revisions. The fourth was circulated in manuscript form earlier in 1995 and is commonly referred to as ‘Chapter four’. The volume opens with an ‘Introduction’ (1–11) and closes with a general bibliography and an index (395–420).The work collected here is based on material presented by Chomsky, and discussed by participating students, faculty, and visitors, in Chomsky's fall term lecture-seminars at MIT in the period of 1986 through 1994. For those who have ever wanted to attend these class lectures, but were never in the position to, this is a must read. The MIT Press is to be commended for having made this collection available in such an exemplary inexpensive volume.

scholarly journals Tough-Constructions and Their Derivation

2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 535-566 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glyn Hicks
Keyword(s):  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Role Assignment ◽  
Null Operator ◽  
Principles And Parameters

This article addresses the syntax of the notorious tough(-movement) construction (TC) in English. TCs exhibit a range of apparently contradictory empirical properties suggesting that their derivation involves the application of both A-movement and Ā-movement operations. Within previous principles-and-parameters models, TCs have remained “unexplained and in principle unexplainable” (Holmberg 2000:839) because of incompatibility with constraints on θ-role assignment, locality, and Case. This article argues that the phase-based implementation of the Minimalist Program (Chomsky 2000, 2001, 2004) permits a reanalysis of null wh-operators capable of circumventing the previous theoretical difficulties. Essentially, tough-movement consists of A-moving a constituent out of a “complex” null operator that has already undergone Ā-movement, a “smuggling” construction in the terms proposed by Collins (2005a,b).

The Recovery of Case

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
David Berlinski ◽  
Juan Uriagereka
Keyword(s):  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Principles And Parameters

Jean-Roger Vergnaud’s famous 1977 letter to Noam Chomsky and Howard Lasnik assumed that case is obligatory. As Juan Uriagereka and David Berlinski argue, Vergnaud’s case filter was a vindication of the principles and parameters approach to language. Case is an aspect of Universal Grammar itself.

scholarly journals Goal of Language Acquisition is to Develop Communications Skills

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 49-50
Keyword(s):  
Language Acquisition ◽  
Coming Out ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Communications Skills

Volumes about language teaching and language acquisition have been coming out ever since Noam Chomsky had leveled at structural linguistic theory. Books have been written about the approaches and methods of teaching a language. But the Undenying fact is that those volumes have failed to suggest an obvious impact on the listener. Though we have traditional methods such as “Audio lingual method” and “situational language teaching method”, none has brought the desired result..

scholarly journals Some preliminaries to the study of traces in linguistics

2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-187
Author(s):  
Javier Arias
Keyword(s):  
Programming Language ◽  
Preliminary Analysis ◽  
Mathematical Linguistics ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Matrix Product ◽  
Mathematical Structures ◽  
Noam Chomsky ◽  
Ongoing Work ◽  
Matrix Calculus ◽  
To Come

The present paper constitutes a brief advance of much longer and more detailed ongoing work on the concept of “trace” in contemporary linguistic theory, particularly in syntax. It is commonly believed that the idea was coined by Noam Chomsky. However, we already detect its use, with a very accurate value, in the early work of Zellig Harris on mathematical linguistics or, to be more precise, on mathematical structures of language. In its origins, rather than being an index responsible for marking the location occupied by a unit previous to its syntactic movement (which always takes the form of fronting ), the trace was the result of a matrix product between n-adic functions. Thus, in Harris the trace is primarily a concept anchored in matrix calculus, or, put it differently, an algebraic notion. Chomsky’s notion, on its turn, is closely related with the LISP programming language. This text seeks to provide a preliminary analysis of the conceptual complexity implied in the concept of trace, which linguists should become aware of, for otherwise they will be doomed to be entangled in misunderstandings unfruitful to our discipline for decades to come.

Foucault and Chomsky on Grammar and Governmentality

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 285-301
Author(s):  
Conor Barry
Keyword(s):  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Mutual Influence ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Political Freedom ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Grammatical Structure ◽  
Noam Chomsky

Abstract This essay explores the use of the notions of grammar and governmentality in the work of Michel Foucault and Noam Chomsky. The goal is to exhibit the contrast but also mutual influence of these thinkers. Chomsky places his own linguistic theory in what he calls a tradition of Cartesian linguistics. Foucault’s presents an archaeology of general grammar in the French Classical Era. Chomsky and Foucault equally posit principles of governmentality. Both differ in terms of what they think the study of language brings to our understanding of ethical and political freedom. Governmental structure and grammatical structure, for Foucault, are always conventional, rather than essential – merely expressions of power dynamics. For Chomsky, the innate and natural human universality implied by underlying structures, in contrast, intimates a path to freedom from governmental coercion and oppression.

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