8
votes
Accepted
What is the modern general communication language writing system with simplest letter symbols?
Cree syllabics seems to the be simplest by any count. The letters ᐊ ᐸ ᑕ ᑲ ᒐ ᒪ ᓇ ᓴ ᔭ represent the consonants Ø p t k ch m n s y (this is the "a" form), and vowels are indicated by the ...
- 77k
5
votes
Accepted
Question on move operation
First, let me get the usual caveats out of the way: MP is a program, not a theory. It tells you what kinds of questions to ask about syntax, and guides you in comparing the answers from competing ...
- 2,605
4
votes
What happens when a bilingual uses a grammatical subject with a different number system than the verb?
If a bilingual English and Arabic speaker would have to use an English subject with an Arabic verb, it is fully up to the speaker, no matter which language the context is in, to choose which form ...
- 75
3
votes
Accepted
Minimalism - a question about a property of merge operation
Not precisely (for the order implications see Kayne 1994 - The antisymmetry of syntax - but note that the work is not uniformly accepted within Minimalism).
Merge is asymmetrical because one of the ...
- 201
3
votes
Accepted
Why is there no D-structure or S-structure within Minimalism
TL;DR: In the Government and Binding framework, D-structure had to be built completely before any movement could occur, while in Minimalism movement occurs as the structure is being built, eliminating ...
- 46
2
votes
How is T-subject agreement realized on a verb in minimalist syntax?
The mechanism of Agree(ment) has been redefined since Chomsky 1995. Since Chomsky 2000, 2001, it does not rely on Spec-Head agreement anymore. Regarding the relation between the subject and V, if ...
- 326
2
votes
How can merge produce grammatical strings if mathematical sets do not have an order?
Most versions of minimalism assume linearization constraints that are independent of the structure building operation. This becomes obvious when you see that different languages have different V S O ...
- 1,033
2
votes
How can merge produce grammatical strings if mathematical sets do not have an order?
Because there is structural asymmetry of some sort in the resulting structure. I don't think you ever get to linearize just the {V, DP}. Instead, be it phase-size or complete CP structure, the ...
- 1,066
2
votes
Are there any empirical arguments for eliminating 'Deep Structure' in Minimalist Syntax?
There is empirical evidence against DS, though it has nothing to do with MP. DS is required for transformationalist theories to move things around so as to get constituents where they are observed to ...
- 12.3k
2
votes
What is the difference between vPs and v*Ps?
They are not the same. 1. v* (with this label) corresponds to a verb projection with a full argument structure or what is called a Core Functional Category (CFC) with transitivity. This v*P is the ...
- 1,068
2
votes
Accepted
Which is the most accepted case theory from a generative syntax perspective?
You're asking a number of different questions here, that range from simple
description of surface features to theory-internal ideas from specific frameworks (and asking about two different frameworks)...
- 2,605
2
votes
Does a null-subject language always have to satisfy EPP?
No. Not in the Turkish that is spoken in Istanbul. The evidence comes from scope relations when the subject is not dropped.
When you say:
Bütün çocuk-lar gel-me-di.
all kid-pl come-neg-pst
...
- 21
2
votes
Accepted
Difference between the Merge postion and the base position
Generative theories of syntax generally propose a few different "operations", which are invoked in various ways to build the tree. If you're a computationalist, you might prefer to call ...
- 60.2k
2
votes
Diagnostics for probes in phase theory (advanced syntax)
I'm not sure I fully understand the question, but maybe Burzio's generalization is relevant? There is argued to be a "weak" v, which appears in unaccusatives and passives, and a "strong" v, which ...
- 194
1
vote
Does a null-subject language always have to satisfy EPP?
EPP entails that [Spec; TP] must be filled. However, the subject can move out from [Spec; TP] to an adjunct position, leaving a trace at [Spec; TP]. An example of such a movement is topicalization, ...
- 39
1
vote
Problem with [NOMINATIVE] Case in GB & Phase Theory (MP)
The short, oversimplified answer is that Berber languages merge their "oblique" and "nominative" in much the same way that English merges its "oblique" and "accusative". Plenty of other languages do ...
- 2,605
1
vote
What is the difference between successive-cyclic wh-movement and long-distance wh-movement?
Well, compare TG ( Transformational Grammar) and GPSG (Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar). TG allows the formulation of rules that perform long distance movement, using the variables of a ...
- 12.3k
1
vote
Syntactic Analysis of Spoken data,
There are quite a few options. I'd recommend either LFG or a parser for Universal Dependencies. Syntactic dependencies (and null arguments) can be directly extracted from both of them.
- 2,518
1
vote
How can merge produce grammatical strings if mathematical sets do not have an order?
Merge does not directly produce surface utterances. Fixing linear order can be treated as phonological (a terrible misinterpretation of phonology in my opinion), and there is also Move.
- 77k
1
vote
How can merge produce grammatical strings if mathematical sets do not have an order?
There have been several syntactic theories based on unordered constituents, among them Relational Grammar (with Arc Pair Grammar) and GPSG. The idea is that tree sisters are fundamentally without any ...
- 12.3k
1
vote
Accepted
What languages have been documented using Minimalism?
The Syntax of French by P.Rowlett (see here) would be a canonical answer for French.
That said, I think it is worth pointing out that the project of writing a full grammar of a given language (...
- 1,886
1
vote
Has Ray Jackendoff's Parallel Architecture paradigm received a formal review or criticism(s) from Chomsky and/or others?
I sketched out a conservative approach to the interface among syntax, morphology, and phonology in another answer here, which depends essentially on parallel processing and does not distinguish in ...
- 12.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible