Simpler Syntax
Encyclopedia
Simpler Syntax is the title of a 2005 book by Peter Culicover
and Ray Jackendoff
. The authors argue that modern minimalist syntax is going in the wrong direction, adopting ever more complex structures and derivations, and making overly strong assumptions about linguistic universal
s. Richard Kayne
's theory of antisymmetry
is one example they cite. Antisymmetry proposes specifier-complement-head as the "basic" branching order
, based on the notion of an asymmetric c-command
. This leads to rather complex derivations of certain phenomena, such as Heavy NP shift
. For Culicover and Jackendoff, the difference in order between (1) and (2) is simply a different ordering of the children of the Verb Phrase
.
I gave the books I bought yesterday to John I gave to John the books I bought yesterday
In antisymmetric theories, a number of movements are required to derive both structures, with the "shifted" structure in (2) derived by one or more additional movements.
Culicover and Jackendoff propose that the syntactic
, semantic
and phonological
components of the language faculty are all generative; that is, there is no asymmetric dependence between any of these components. In contrast, it is traditionally assumed that syntax is the only generative component, the function of the semantic and phonological components being merely to "interpret" syntactic structures. Culicover and Jackendoff suggest that there is a flexible, constraint-based mapping between these different components which does not privilege any one over the others. In this, they are following the earlier proposals of Jerrold Sadock
in his Autolexical Syntax model.
Peter Culicover
Peter W. Culicover is Professor of Linguistics at Ohio State University.He works in the areas of syntactic theory , language learnability and computational modelling of language acquisition and language change....
and Ray Jackendoff
Ray Jackendoff
Ray Jackendoff is an American linguist. He is professor of philosophy, Seth Merrin Chair in the Humanities and, with Daniel Dennett, Co-director of the Center for Cognitive Studies at Tufts University...
. The authors argue that modern minimalist syntax is going in the wrong direction, adopting ever more complex structures and derivations, and making overly strong assumptions about linguistic universal
Linguistic universal
A linguistic universal is a pattern that occurs systematically across natural languages, potentially true for all of them. For example, All languages have nouns and verbs, or If a language is spoken, it has consonants and vowels. Research in this area of linguistics is closely tied to the study of...
s. Richard Kayne
Richard Kayne
Richard Stanley Kayne is Professor of Linguistics in the Linguistics Department at New York University.After receiving an A.B. in mathematics from Columbia College, New York in 1964, he studied linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving his Ph.D. in 1969...
's theory of antisymmetry
Antisymmetry
In linguistics, antisymmetry is a theory of syntactic linearization presented in Richard Kayne's 1994 monograph The Antisymmetry of Syntax. The crux of this theory is that hierarchical structure in natural language maps universally onto a particular surface linearization, namely...
is one example they cite. Antisymmetry proposes specifier-complement-head as the "basic" branching order
Branching (linguistics)
In linguistics, branching is the general tendency towards a given order of words within sentences and smaller grammatical units within sentences...
, based on the notion of an asymmetric c-command
C-command
In syntax, c-command is a relationship between nodes in parse trees. Originally defined by Tanya Reinhart ,it corresponds to the idea of "siblings and all their descendants" in family trees.-Definition and Example:...
. This leads to rather complex derivations of certain phenomena, such as Heavy NP shift
Heavy NP shift
"Heavy NP shift" is a grammatical phenomenon where a "heavy" noun phrase appears in a position to the right of its canonical position under certain circumstances...
. For Culicover and Jackendoff, the difference in order between (1) and (2) is simply a different ordering of the children of the Verb Phrase
Verb phrase
In linguistics, a verb phrase or VP is a syntactic unit composed of at least one verb and the dependents of that verb. One can distinguish between two types of VPs, finite VPs and non-finite VPs . While phrase structure grammars acknowledge both, dependency grammars reject the existence of a...
.
I gave the books I bought yesterday to John I gave to John the books I bought yesterday
In antisymmetric theories, a number of movements are required to derive both structures, with the "shifted" structure in (2) derived by one or more additional movements.
Culicover and Jackendoff propose that the syntactic
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing phrases and sentences in natural languages....
, semantic
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
and phonological
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
components of the language faculty are all generative; that is, there is no asymmetric dependence between any of these components. In contrast, it is traditionally assumed that syntax is the only generative component, the function of the semantic and phonological components being merely to "interpret" syntactic structures. Culicover and Jackendoff suggest that there is a flexible, constraint-based mapping between these different components which does not privilege any one over the others. In this, they are following the earlier proposals of Jerrold Sadock
Jerrold Sadock
Jerrold Sadock is Glen A. Lloyd Distinguished Service Professor in Linguistics and the Humanities Collegiate Division at the University of Chicago. Inter alia, he founded the grammatical theory of Autolexical Syntax...
in his Autolexical Syntax model.