2007 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The Study of Generative Prccedures from Syntax to Interpretive Systems
| Project/Area Number |
16520258
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Linguistics
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| Research Institution | Keio University |
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Principal Investigator |
KITAHARA Hisatsugu Keio University, Institute of Cultural and linguistic Studies, Associate Professor (50301495)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2004 – 2007
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| Keywords | Generative Grammar / the Minimalist Program / the Strongly Derivational Model / the Syntactic System / the Interpretive Systems / the Cyclic Generative Procedure |
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| Research Abstract |
The Minimalist Program, whether tenable or not, set a new standard for genuine explanation. That is, under a minimalist perspective, any departure from what would constitute a perfect system is taken to be a problem, and a specific goal of the Minimalist Program is to find a new answer (ideally) with no departure at all (Chomsky 2000, 2001, 2005, 2006). There are two important research guidelines in the Minimalist Program: the "simple computation" guideline (seeking to reduce operative complexity for computation) and the "minimum design" guideline (seeking to minimize the class of descriptive devices). Assigning the former guideline slightly more prominence, this study investigated to what extent the reduction of operative complexity is a crucial factor in determining the minimalist design of language. Specifically, it examined what has been called the strongly derivational model of syntax (Epstein, et al. 1998, Epstein and Seely 2002, 2006), under which each transformational mapping transfers the relevant aspects of its output to the phonological component and to the semantic component. Thus, all the syntactic relations required for "LF-level" interpretation, for example, are no longer read off of the final form of LF representation; instead, "LF-level" interpretation must naturally follow from the generative procedure itself. To show that the strongly derivational approach is correct, it presented a preliminary analysis of "conflicting c-command relations", producing a number of arguably interesting conceptual shifts along with some empirically welcome results.
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Research Products
(15 results)
