Rhyme and reason : an introduction to minimalist syntax
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Rhyme and reason : an introduction to minimalist syntax
MIT Press, 2000, c1998
- : pbk
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Note
"First MIT Press paperback edition, 2000"--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references (p. 613-637) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This unusual book takes the form of a dialogue between a linguist and another scientist.
This unusual book takes the form of a dialogue between a linguist and another scientist. The dialogue takes place over six days, with each day devoted to a particular topic-and the ensuing digressions. The role of the linguist is to present the fundamentals of the minimalist program of contemporary generative grammar. Although the linguist serves essentially as a voice for Noam Chomsky's ideas, he is not intended to be a portrait of Chomsky himself. The other scientist functions as a kind of devil's advocate, making the arguments that linguists tend to face from those in the "harder" sciences.
The author does far more than simply present the minimalist program. He conducts a running argument over the status of theoretical linguistics as a natural science. He raises the general issues of how we conceive words, phrases, and transformations, and what these processes tell us about the human mind. He also attempts to reconcile generative grammar with the punctuated equilibrium version of evolutionary theory.
In his foreword, Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini says, "The vast number of readers who have been enthralled by Goedel, Escher, Bach may well like also this syntactic companion, a sort of 'Chomsky, Fibonacci, Bach.'".
Table of Contents
- Part 1 The first day - the minimalist viewpoint: the mystery of language acquisition
- the mystery of language variation
- knowledge of language
- simple learning methods
- simple universal minds
- economy
- language and form. Part 2 The second day - notation and reality: levels of representation
- words (repeat thrice)
- systems of features
- the inclusive nature of LF
- the invariant parts of the computational system
- representational alternatives
- optimality theory. Part 3 The third day - phrases and linearity: (virtually) necessary properties
- phrasal representations
- precendence by hierarchy
- some interesting predictions
- further intriguing predictions
- empty categories are not empty
- further consequences of linearization. Part 4 The fourth day - cyclic transformations: movement in languages "without movement"
- extending structures
- noncyclic mergers?
- adjunction
- the array as a numeration
- clockwork
- some open questions to exercise with. Part 5 The fifth day - chains and their checking domain: the minimal link condition
- well-formedness conditions versus ranking criteria
- further conditions pertaining to chains
- the overall shape of grammatical chains (and where it may come from)
- desperately seeking features
- there!
- heads and tails. Part 6 The sixth day - words and their internal domain: internal domains
- much ado about word formation
- the subcase principle
- departures from optimality
- on the origins of uninterpretable features
- evolution strikes back
- an abrupt and unexpected coda. Part 7 And on the seventh day...
by "Nielsen BookData"
