What are the defining characteristics of human I-Languages which differentiate them from, for example, artificial languages (math & computers) or from animal.
Radford, A. (2004). Minimalist syntax: Exploring the structure of English. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University
By Mayada Zaki
Studying language is part of the wider study of cognition. What exactly should the linguist study?
The role of the linguist is to determine what it is that native speakers know about their native language which enables them to speak & understand the language.
Tacit Grammatical knowledge Any native speaker knows the grammar of his language and how to interpret expressions. I don’t like it * I no like it Grammatical knowledge of how to form and interpret expressions is subconscious.
Native speaker’s Grammar Competence: • Tacit knowledge of language (form & interpret words, phrases and sentences)
Performance • The actual use of language in concrete situations (imperfect due to slips of the tongue) mis-production and misinterpretation are performance errors.
Cognition Internalized Language System (ILanguage):
System internalized within the brain of the native speaker of English which makes native speakers proficient in English. (I-Language is studied by linguists to describe the grammar of the language).
UG Theory What is Grammar? It is a theory of the I-Language under investigation. What is Universal Grammar? Chomsky aims to device a theory of UG that generalizes from the grammars of particular I-Languages to the grammars of all possible human internalized languages. UG is a theory about the nature of possible grammars of human languages.
Adequacy Criteria of UG Theory 1. Universality
2. Descriptive 3. Explanatory 4. Constrained
5. Minimal & simple 6. Learnability
1. Universality 2. Descriptively adequate UG theory should provide the tools needed to adequately describe the grammar of any & every human I-Language.
3. Explanatory Adequacy UG theory must explain why do I-Languages grammar have the properties they do. How native speakers of a
language can arrive at the knowledge of that language.
What are the defining characteristics of human I-Languages which differentiate them from, for example, artificial languages (math & computers) or from animal communication systems (eg. Tail wagging dance by bees to communicate the location of a food source to other bees).
4. Constrained UG must have constrained technical devices to be only
limited to describe natural languages, and are not appropriate for the description of other communication systems. It should show why certain syntactic structures are not found in natural langauges.
5. Minimal Theoretical Apparatus The theory should provide the minimal theoretical
apparatus required to describe language and its grammar should be as simple as possible. Why? In-order NOT to find a lot of violations to its principles, later. “Minimalist program for linguistic theories” (1995).
Minimalist Program Assumption Language is a perfect system with an optimal design in
the sense that natural language grammars create structures which are designed to interface perfectly with other components of the mind. Grammar = Lexicon (words)+ Syntax
Internalized Language System is perfect and simple Lexicon Syntax
Syntactic Structure
See the book page 9
Semantic component PF component
Semantic represent ation PF representa tion
Thought System Speech Systems
6. Learnability an adequate linguistic theory must provide
adequate grammars which are learnable by young children in a relatively short period of time. i.e., it must account for the uniformity and rapidity of language acquisition, given the poverty of stimulus.
Analysis Question How does this principle comply with the adequacies of the theory? Principle of Structure Dependency Subject-auxiliary inversion in English 1. – She will laugh. – Will she laugh?
2. – The student who is taking good notes will get an A. – Is the student who taking good notes will get an A.
