Three factors in language design

N Chomsky - Linguistic inquiry, 2005 - ieeexplore.ieee.org
N Chomsky
Linguistic inquiry, 2005ieeexplore.ieee.org
The biolinguistic perspective regards the language faculty as an “organ of the body,” along
with other cognitive systems. Adopting it, we expect to find three factors that interact to
determine (I-) languages attained: genetic endowment (the topic of Universal Grammar),
experience, and principles that are language-or even organism-independent. Research has
naturally focused on I-languages and UG, the problems of descriptive and explanatory
adequacy. The Principles-and-Parameters approach opened the possibility for serious …
The biolinguistic perspective regards the language faculty as an “organ of the body,” along with other cognitive systems. Adopting it, we expect to find three factors that interact to determine (I-) languages attained: genetic endowment (the topic of Universal Grammar), experience, and principles that are language- or even organism-independent. Research has naturally focused on I-languages and UG, the problems of descriptive and explanatory adequacy. The Principles-and-Parameters approach opened the possibility for serious investigation of the third factor, and the attempt to account for properties of language in terms of general considerations of computational efficiency, eliminating some of the technology postulated as specific to language and providing more principled explanation of linguistic phenomena
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