Solving the UG Problem
Keywords:
Universal Grammar, learnability, structure dependence, semantics.Abstract
Many generalizations are impossible to learn via primary linguistic data, so they are assumed to be part of our genetic endowment. Generativists have tried to reduce Universal Grammar (UG) to a minimum, in particular by appealing to computational efficiency. In principle, this is an important improvement. The bottom line, however, is how well this computational approach explains the data. Unfortunately, it does not. Thus current analyses of subject–AUX inversion still appeal implicitly to several UG constraints in addition to structure dependence. Moreover, this fails empirically even in the wildest cases, such as forming questions by reversing the word order of a declarative. Fortunately, there is a way out of this impasse. Learners realize that different orders of constituents correlate with different meanings. Generating Tense in Comp compositionally derives a polar interrogative interpretation. The logically prior properties of the perceptual and conceptual systems impose constraints that are sufficient to explain language acquisition.Downloads
Published
2012-03-24
Issue
Section
Articles
License
Authors who submit to and publish with BIOLINGUISTICS agree to the following terms:- The author(s) retain(s) copyright and grant(s) the journal the right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons CC-BY License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in BIOLINGUISTICS.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., archiving a format-free manuscript in institutional repositories, on their personal website, or a preprint server such as LingBuzz, PsyArXiv, or similar) prior to and during the submission process, because we believe that this behaviour can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access).