A Minimalist Program for Linguistic Theory

2014 ◽  
pp. 153-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Chomsky
Keyword(s):  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Linguistic Theory

Semantics in generative grammar

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-185
Author(s):  
Enrico Cipriani
Keyword(s):  
Universal Grammar ◽  
Formal Semantics ◽  
Generative Grammar ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Critical Survey ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Binding Theory ◽  
Minimalist Approach

Abstract I provide a critical survey of the role that semantics took in the several models of generative grammar, since the 1950s until the Minimalist Program. I distinguish four different periods. In the first section, I focus on the role of formal semantics in generative grammar until the 1970s. In Section 2 I present the period of linguistic wars, when the role of semantics in linguistic theory became a crucial topic of debate. In Section 3 I focus on the formulation of conditions on transformations and Binding Theory in the 1970s and 1980s, while in the last Section I discuss the role of semantics in the minimalist approach. In this section, I also propose a semantically-based model of generative grammar, which fully endorses minimalism and Chomsky’s later position concerning the primary role of the semantic interface in the Universal Grammar modelization (Strong Minimalist Thesis). In the Discussion, I point out some theoretical problems deriving from Chomsky’s internalist interpretation of model-theoretic semantics.

Le redoublement des sujets en français informel québécois: une approche variationniste

1998 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Auger
Keyword(s):  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Linguistic Competence ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Morphosyntactic Variation ◽  
Verb Agreement

AbstractThis article deals with morphosyntactic variation. Focusing on subject doubling in Québec Colloquial French (QCF), the author argues in favor of a conception of linguistic competence which allows for variation. Various analyses which exclude variation from linguistic competence are considered and rejected, and it is concluded that the alternation between doubled and non-doubled constructions is an integral part of the linguistic competence of QCF speakers. The author then raises the question of the plausibility of an analysis which posits variable subject-verb agreement. She demonstrates that variable agreement systems are common crosslinguistically and that the analysis proposed for QCF is in consequence a quite reasonable one. Finally, an analysis is sketched within Chomsky’s Minimalist Program, showing that current linguistic theory is equipped for handling language-internal morphosyntactic variation.

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.

The origins of language variation

2003 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Bouchard
Keyword(s):  
Language Variation ◽  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Linguistic Variation ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Initial State ◽  
Strong Basis ◽  
Causal Relations ◽  
Organic World

Linguistic variation derives from properties of the physical and conceptual make-up of human beings which were adapted to produce language. This adaptative approach is contrasted with the Minimalist Program, in which properties specific to language are said to be different from anything found in the organic world (Chomsky 1995). Six basic cases are compared. Whereas the analysis in the Minimalist Program is ultimately a listing of construction-specific features, the adaptative approach relies on properties of the initial state which are logically prior to linguistic theory and provide a strong basis for causal relations that explain why languages vary, and why they vary in the particular ways they do in these six cases.

RHYME AND REASON: AN INTRODUCTION TO MINIMALIST SYNTAX.Juan Uriagareka. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998. Pp. xlii + 669. $75.00 cloth, $45.00 paper.

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 556-557
Author(s):  
Susan Foster-Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Constant Change ◽  
Good For

Despite the energetically enthusiastic assertions of the publisher and of Piatelli-Palmirini, who offers an extensive foreword beginning “This dialogue is a gem,” I found that this enormous book did not live up to its hype. I was hoping to find an engaging discussion—in a format I liked from the earlier Lasnik and Uriagareka A course in GB syntax (1988)—that would bring me up to date on the Minimalist Program, from a position somewhere mid-GB. However, I rarely felt the dialogue was intended to welcome the uninitiated. First, its style is irritating, with attempts to be cute that just end up being distracting. Second, many parts of the discussion seem much more aimed at colleagues and rivals on the inside than those members of the larger community for whom the book is designed (as suggested, at least, by the blurb). This is particularly a shame, given that Piatelli-Palmirini's preface explicitly says, patronizingly, that the book will be good for those applied linguists who get irritated with constant change in linguistic theory (p. xxxiv).

No fear of George Kingsley Zipf

10.1558/37291 ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 242-263
Author(s):  
Stefano Rastelli ◽  
Kook-Hee Gil
Keyword(s):  
Minimalist Program ◽  
Classroom Research ◽  
Language Design ◽  
Efficient Computation ◽  
Generative Linguistics ◽  
The Third ◽  
Factor Effect ◽  
Language Classroom ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Insight Into

This paper offers a new insight into GenSLA classroom research in light of recent developments in the Minimalist Program (MP). Recent research in GenSLA has shown how generative linguistics and acquisition studies can inform the language classroom, mostly focusing on what linguistic aspects of target properties should be integrated as a part of the classroom input. Based on insights from Chomsky’s ‘three factors for language design’ – which bring together the Faculty of Language, input and general principles of economy and efficient computation (the third factor effect) for language development – we put forward a theoretical rationale for how classroom research can offer a unique environment to test the learnability in L2 through the statistical enhancement of the input to which learners are exposed.

The Arabic Origins of English and Indo-European “Definite Articles”: A Radical Linguistic Theory Approach

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Zaidan Ali Jassem
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Method ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
General Level ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Tree Model ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
European Languages ◽  
The Family ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Definite Articles

This paper traces the Arabic origins or cognates of the “definite articles” in English and Indo-European languages from a radical linguistic (or lexical root) theory perspective. The data comprises the definite articles in English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Latin, Greek, Macedonian, Russian, Polish, Sanskrit, Hindi, Bengali, Persian, and Arabic. The results clearly indicate that five different types of such articles emerged in the data, all of which have true Arabic cognates with the same or similar forms and meanings, whose differences are due to natural and plausible causes and different routes of linguistic change, especially lexical, semantic, or morphological shift. Therefore, the results support the adequacy of the radical linguistic theory according to which, unlike the Family Tree Model or Comparative Method, Arabic, English, German, French, Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit not only belong to the same language family, renamed Eurabian or Urban family, but also are dialects of the same language, with Arabic being their origin all because only it shares the whole cognates with them all and because it has a huge phonetic, morphological, grammatical, and lexical variety. They also manifest fundamental flaws and grave drawbacks which plague English and Indo-European lexicography for ignoring Arabic as an ultimate ancestor and progenitor not only in the treatment of the topic at hand but in all others in general. On a more general level, they also show that there is a radical language from which all human languages stemmed and which has been preserved almost intact in Arabic, thus being the most conservative and productive language

Language and Outer Space

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 80-87
Author(s):  
Laura Carmen Cuțitaru
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Native Language ◽  
Outer Space ◽  
Linguistic Theory ◽  
Human Knowledge ◽  
The Way

Abstract The 2016 much acclaimed American sci-fi movie Arrival is based on (what is in reality an extension of) the so-called “Sapir-Whorf” hypothesis, a linguistic theory set forth in the first half of the 20th century, according to which one’s native language dictates the way in which one perceives reality. By taking into account the latest in human knowledge, this paper tries to provide arguments as to why such a claim works wonderfully in fiction, but not in science.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document