Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
935908 Lingua 2008 36 Pages PDF
Abstract

This paper presents a research program for normalization-driven syntax. It takes the Minimalist research agenda as a starting point (Chomsky, 1995b) and explores the question of how the CI interface determines syntactic operations. The proposal provides specific content to the notion of bare output conditions and the nature of the CI interface. It does so by drawing on the tools provided by Relational Theory, a branch of set-theoretic mathematics, and Database Theory, a branch of computer science. It is demonstrated that core components of Narrow Syntax (phrase structure, selection and AGREE) are all definable in terms of Relational Theory. Then, it is shown that the process of relation optimization, or normalization, can derive chain formation. The article concludes with two speculations on the implementation of phases within a normalization-driven grammar and the implications of such a system for the learnability of the lexicon.

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Social Sciences and Humanities Arts and Humanities Language and Linguistics