Ray Jackendoff
Tufts University, Cognitive Science, Faculty Member
This chapter focuses on the historical and conceptual development of mainstream generative grammar. The principles of argumentation in mainstream syntax are discussed. The history of modern mainstream syntactic theory is reviewed, showing... more
This chapter focuses on the historical and conceptual development of mainstream generative grammar. The principles of argumentation in mainstream syntax are discussed. The history of modern mainstream syntactic theory is reviewed, showing that most of the machinery of mainstream generative grammar — classical transformational grammar, GB Theory, Principles and Parameters Theory, and the Minimalist Program — is a consequence of four fundamental axioms.
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This chapter begins by exploring the consequences of a particular instantiation of Uniformity called UTAH (Uniform Theta-role Assignment Hypothesis). Repeated application of UTAH drives the development of MGG from Government/Binding... more
This chapter begins by exploring the consequences of a particular instantiation of Uniformity called UTAH (Uniform Theta-role Assignment Hypothesis). Repeated application of UTAH drives the development of MGG from Government/Binding Theory to later Principles and Parameters Theory. The Minimalist Program is considered in light of this development, and aspects of MP shared with earlier theories are highlighted. It is shown how the application of Uniformity in the development of mainstream generative grammar (MGG) has made the Minimalist Program indistinguishable in its essential architecture from Generative Semantics, long discredited. Finally, the chapter outlines the architectures of a theory that are motivated principally by Uniformity rather than empirical considerations, and which moreover introduce an arguably unacceptable cost in terms of theoretical complexity elsewhere in the grammar.
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This chapter discusses elliptical constructions. Topics covered include nonsentential utterance types, problems for a syntactic account of bare argument ellipsis, reasons to believe syntax is involved in BAE, generalizations behind... more
This chapter discusses elliptical constructions. Topics covered include nonsentential utterance types, problems for a syntactic account of bare argument ellipsis, reasons to believe syntax is involved in BAE, generalizations behind indirect licensing, a mechanism for indirect licensing, sluicing and sluice-stranding, and gapping.
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This book offers a perspective on the structure of human language. The fundamental issue it addresses is the proper balance between syntax and semantics, between structure and derivation, and between rule systems and lexicon. It argues... more
This book offers a perspective on the structure of human language. The fundamental issue it addresses is the proper balance between syntax and semantics, between structure and derivation, and between rule systems and lexicon. It argues that the balance struck by mainstream generative grammar is wrong. It puts forward a new basis for syntactic theory, drawing on a wide range of frameworks, and charts new directions for research. In the past four decades, theories of syntactic structure have become more abstract and syntactic derivations have become more complex. The book traces this development through the history of contemporary syntactic theory, showing how much it has been driven by theory-internal rather than empirical considerations. It develops an alternative that is responsive to linguistic, cognitive, computational, and biological concerns. At the core of this alternative is the Simpler Syntax Hypothesis: the most explanatory syntactic theory is one that imputes the minimum structure necessary to mediate between phonology and meaning. A consequence of this hypothesis is a richer mapping between syntax and semantics than is generally assumed. Through analyses of grammatical phenomena, some old and some new, the book demonstrates the empirical and conceptual superiority of the Simpler Syntax approach.
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As with passive and raising, the case for a non-movement approach to discontinuous dependencies has been under active development for many years, with the most extensive contributions occurring within GPSG and HPSG. This chapter shows how... more
As with passive and raising, the case for a non-movement approach to discontinuous dependencies has been under active development for many years, with the most extensive contributions occurring within GPSG and HPSG. This chapter shows how a wide range of discontinuous dependencies, many of the type referred to in the literature as A'-constructions, can be accounted for within the type of architecture being proposed. It discusses not only wh-questions (with extraction and with wh- in situ), but relative clauses of various types, topicalization, left and right dislocation, tough movement, heavy shift, and scrambling.
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(3) Bill bought a book for Mary. (4) Bill bought Mary a book. To explain differences between the two processes, standard analyses of the dative, for example Fillmore (1965), generally postulate two similar dative movement rules, one of... more
(3) Bill bought a book for Mary. (4) Bill bought Mary a book. To explain differences between the two processes, standard analyses of the dative, for example Fillmore (1965), generally postulate two similar dative movement rules, one of which applies to to-indirect objects, and the ...
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... From The MIT Press Classics Series: Consciousness and the Computational Mind Ray S. Jackendoff Table of Contents and Sample Chapters In Consciousness and the ComputationalMind, Ray Jackendoff probes one of the fundamental issues in... more
... From The MIT Press Classics Series: Consciousness and the Computational Mind Ray S. Jackendoff Table of Contents and Sample Chapters In Consciousness and the ComputationalMind, Ray Jackendoff probes one of the fundamental issues in cognitive psychology: How ...
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Simpler Syntax Hypothesis (SSH) states that syntactic structure should constitute the necessary minimum for mapping between phonological and semantic structure. Syntactic structure has always been seen as the basis for semantic... more
Simpler Syntax Hypothesis (SSH) states that syntactic structure should constitute the necessary minimum for mapping between phonological and semantic structure. Syntactic structure has always been seen as the basis for semantic interpretation. However, at several points in the history of MGG, this position has mutated into the stronger position that there is a covert syntactic structure that is virtually equivalent to semantic interpretation. This chapter adopts the simpler syntax hypothesis (SSH) and investigates whether the resulting theory has less overall complexity in syntax and the syntax-semantics interface combined. It is argued that the appropriate complexity for syntax is relatively flat: headed phrases that are linearly ordered and that correspond to constituents in Conceptual Structure, but not more.
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This chapter focuses on a second major class of fragment constructions, those that stand in freely for canonical VPs. Within this class there are two major types, VP ellipsis (1a) and do X anaphora (1b); X happen anaphora (1c) is a... more
This chapter focuses on a second major class of fragment constructions, those that stand in freely for canonical VPs. Within this class there are two major types, VP ellipsis (1a) and do X anaphora (1b); X happen anaphora (1c) is a variant of the latter. Pseudo-gapping (1d) is still another type. Within NPs, one-anaphora (1e) has characteristics parallel to do X anaphora. Two recent arguments that there is syntactic structure in the ellipted (that is, invisible) part of the ellipsis construction are considered. A summary of both Chapters 7 and 8 is presented.
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This chapter examines the standard constructions that motivated transformational grammar in the first place, the most notable of which are passive and raising (more generally, ‘argument movements’ or ‘A-movements’). It is argued that the... more
This chapter examines the standard constructions that motivated transformational grammar in the first place, the most notable of which are passive and raising (more generally, ‘argument movements’ or ‘A-movements’). It is argued that the system of so-called A-movements, the counterpart of the manipulations of RG, is essentially confined to subject and object positions, and excludes obliques. The grammatical function (GF) tier and raising, passive, binding reflexes in the GF-tier, and ways in which CS can be mapped to syntax are discussed.
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This chapter develops a competence theory of the syntax-semantics interface. The interface is described in terms of how semantics is mapped to syntax. Thus, the problem to be addressed is: given a conceptual structure CS that needs to be... more
This chapter develops a competence theory of the syntax-semantics interface. The interface is described in terms of how semantics is mapped to syntax. Thus, the problem to be addressed is: given a conceptual structure CS that needs to be expressed linguistically, how do the interface and the autonomous principles of syntax construct a syntactic structure SS in correspondence with CS? The opposite direction, mapping from syntax to semantics, will be shown to follow unproblematically from eventual formulation of the principles.
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This study proposed a substantial revision of the basic organization of language laid out by mainstream generative grammar. Many aspects of the revision have been in currency in one or another of the alternative frameworks such as LFG,... more
This study proposed a substantial revision of the basic organization of language laid out by mainstream generative grammar. Many aspects of the revision have been in currency in one or another of the alternative frameworks such as LFG, HPSG, Cognitive Grammar, Construction Grammar, Role and Reference Grammar, and Autolexical Syntax. There is a sense of an implicit consensus among the alternative frameworks — not a monolithic consensus by any means, but one with more of a family resemblance character. This chapter presents a summary of conclusions, highlighting the important elements of this consensus.
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Same-Except is a fundamental domain-general cognitive relation in which entities in proximity to one another are judged to be the Same, Except for some part or property where they differ. This relation can be attested in non-linguistic... more
Same-Except is a fundamental domain-general cognitive relation in which entities in proximity to one another are judged to be the Same, Except for some part or property where they differ. This relation can be attested in non-linguistic modalities such as vision, audition, and taste, and it plays an important role in non-linguistic categorization. The chapter shows that this relation is expressed linguistically by means of a wide range of devices, including (a) lexical expressions such as same and except, (b) contrastive stress, (c) anaphora (e.g. definite and indefinite NP anaphora and VP anaphora), (d) ellipsis (e.g. bare argument ellipsis, sluicing, gapping, and VP-ellipsis), and (e) fixed expressions such as vice versa. This approach thereby unifies the semantics of all these phenomena under a common account that is based on a domain-general cognitive principle. The approach is compared with accounts of ellipsis based on syntactic copying or deletion, showing that both approaches have their difficulties.
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We discuss the conventionalization process in Central Taurus Sign Language (CTSL), an emerging sign language in its initial stages, and present evidence from four studies for the amount of lexical and structural variation it harbors. The... more
We discuss the conventionalization process in Central Taurus Sign Language (CTSL), an emerging sign language in its initial stages, and present evidence from four studies for the amount of lexical and structural variation it harbors. The four studies together portray the architecture of a young system under construction. Study 1 looks at signs for everyday objects and finds considerable variation in their degree of conventionalization. Study 2 examines modifier-head and negation-head relationships, showing substantial conventionalization. Study 3 addresses the emergence and conventionalization of various word orders as argument structure markers. It shows that conventionalization increases over successive cohorts of signers, but it decreases as argument structure becomes more complex. Study 4 demonstrates the emergence and conventionalization of distinctive morphological markers to signal the subtle semantics of symmetry and reciprocity. Finally, we raise the issue of whether CTSL p...
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ABSTRACT
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The book has three interwoven themes: a morphological theory, the structure of the lexicon, and an integrated account of the language capacity and its place in the mind. These themes together constitute the theory of Relational Morphology... more
The book has three interwoven themes: a morphological theory, the structure of the lexicon, and an integrated account of the language capacity and its place in the mind. These themes together constitute the theory of Relational Morphology (RM), itself an extension of the Parallel Architecture of Jackendoff’s Foundations of Language, and closely related to Construction Grammar and Construction Morphology. A fundamental feature is that phonology, syntax, and semantics are independent components of language, linked by interfaces. Another feature is the continuity between lexicon and grammar. RM extends these features to the internal structure of words. In particular, morphology is constituted of a morphosyntactic component and its interfaces to phonology, phrasal syntax, and semantics. Furthermore, RM expresses regularities among words not in terms of rules that derive morphologically complex words, but in terms of declarative schemas that capture patterns of shared structure. The chapter concludes with a survey of similarities and differences between phrasal syntax and morphosyntax.
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This chapter asks what is happening to linguistic representations during language use, and how representations are formed in the course of language acquisition. It is shown how Relational Morphology’s theory of representations can be... more
This chapter asks what is happening to linguistic representations during language use, and how representations are formed in the course of language acquisition. It is shown how Relational Morphology’s theory of representations can be directly embedded into models of processing and acquisition. Central is that the lexicon, complete with schemas and relational links, constitutes the long-term memory network that supports language production and comprehension. The chapter first discusses processing: the nature of working memory; promiscuous (opportunistic) processing; spreading activation; priming; probabilistic parsing; the balance between storage and computation in recognizing morphologically complex words; and the role of relational links and schemas in word retrieval. It then turns to acquisition, which is to be thought of as adding nodes and relational links to the lexical network. The general approach is based on the Propose but Verify procedure of Trueswell et al. (2013), plus conservative generalization, as in usage-based approaches.
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This chapter explores the notion of motivation. It is typically explicated in terms of inheritance: lexical items inherit properties from more general patterns. Inheritance is attractive for morphology partly because it has also been... more
This chapter explores the notion of motivation. It is typically explicated in terms of inheritance: lexical items inherit properties from more general patterns. Inheritance is attractive for morphology partly because it has also been invoked in the organization of concepts. It explores three models of motivation. The impoverished entry theory claims that lexical entries contain only idiosyncratic material, and higher-order items or schemas fill in the predictable parts. The full entry theory claims that words are encoded in full, and they are motivated by virtue of being redundant with schemas. The chapter argues that the proper realization of motivation is in terms of relational links, which mark pieces of structure shared between lexical items, both between words and schemas, and both horizontally and vertically. Hence motivation is extended beyond the typical top-down relations.
Research Interests: Psychology and Lexicon
This chapter shows why declarative schemas are preferable to procedural rules as the means of encoding linguistic regularities. Traditionally, the function of rules is to create novel structures that are not stored in the lexicon.... more
This chapter shows why declarative schemas are preferable to procedural rules as the means of encoding linguistic regularities. Traditionally, the function of rules is to create novel structures that are not stored in the lexicon. Declarative schemas fulfill this generative function by using Unification to create new structures. However, schemas can also perform an additional relational function, motivating patterns within the lexicon that are not fully productive. It is not evident how rules can perform such a function. The chapter’s conclusion, the Relational Hypothesis, is that all schemas encode patterns in the lexicon, and that a subset of them can be used productively to create novel structures. This changes the dynamic of linguistic inquiry from a narrow focus on productive processes to the full range of patterns, from productive to the most marginal.
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This chapter asks how affixes can affect the phonology of their stems, as in harmony/ harmonic/harmonious. Within the Parallel Architecture, phonology is an algebraic form of representation, while phonetic representation is analog in... more
This chapter asks how affixes can affect the phonology of their stems, as in harmony/ harmonic/harmonious. Within the Parallel Architecture, phonology is an algebraic form of representation, while phonetic representation is analog in character. Their relation is negotiated by an interface that relates phonological segments and sequences to positions and trajectories in phonetic space. In these terms, the chapter explores aspiration, final devoicing, vowel shift and vowel reduction, affixes like -ity and -ious that manipulate the phonology of their bases, and affixes that can blend with their bases, for instance flattery (= flatter+ery). Again the formal machinery of sister schemas plays an important role in the account, taking over the work done in other theories by derivation (as in SPE and Lexical Phonology) and constraint ranking (as in Optimality Theory)
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Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Narrative, Comics, and 3 moreLinguistics, Blank, and P
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Cognitive Science, Languages and Linguistics, Narrative, Comics Studies, and 15 moreDiscourse, Electroencephalography, Linguistics, Language, Cognitive Neuroscience, Medicine, Comics and Graphic Novels, Brain, Evoked Potentials, Narration, Humans, Grammar, Comprehension, Female, and Male
This chapter reflects on conclusions from the study. Relational Morphology has some features that are necessary in any theory of morphology; other features are shared with other constraint-based theories. Some features, especially the... more
This chapter reflects on conclusions from the study. Relational Morphology has some features that are necessary in any theory of morphology; other features are shared with other constraint-based theories. Some features, especially the centrality of relational links and the dual functions of schemas, are innovations. RM stresses the continuity between words and schemas, which confers advantages in many applications. The theory also stresses the continuity between productive patterns, nonproductive patterns with numerous instances, and truly marginal phenomena. The chapter proposes that Relational Morphology is attractive not just for its ability to account for morphological phenomena, but equally for its ability to integrate linguistic theory, psycholinguistics, and the understanding of human cognition more generally
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Research Interests: Psychology, Cognitive Science, Human Evolution, Cognition, Psycholinguistics, and 11 moreLanguage Evolution, Syntax, Metacognition, Linguistic Theory, Animal communication, Exaptation, Diachronic linguistics, Language Culture and Communication, Denial, Cognitive Ability, and Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
Research Interests: Psychology, Communication, Phonology, Language Acquisition, Cognition, and 15 moreSpeech perception, Language Evolution, Syntax, Evolution, Minimalism, Linguistics, Language, Medicine, Anatomy, Humans, Minimalist program, Verbal behavior, Vocal Tract, Neural Control, and Psychology and Cognitive Sciences
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We explore the capacity for music in terms of five questions: (1) What cognitive structures are invoked by music? (2) What are the principles that create these structures? (3) How do listeners acquire these principles? (4) What... more
We explore the capacity for music in terms of five questions: (1) What cognitive structures are invoked by music? (2) What are the principles that create these structures? (3) How do listeners acquire these principles? (4) What pre-existing resources make such acquisition possible? (5) Which aspects of these resources are specific to music, and which are more general? We examine these issues by looking at the major components of musical organization: rhythm (an interaction of grouping and meter), tonal organization (the structure of melody and harmony), and affect (the interaction of music with emotion). Each domain reveals a combination of cognitively general phenomena, such as gestalt grouping principles, harmonic roughness, and stream segregation, with phenomena that appear special to music and language, such as metrical organization. These are subtly interwoven with a residue of components that are devoted specifically to music, such as the structure of tonal systems and the contours of melodic tension and relaxation that depend on tonality. In the domain of affect, these components are especially tangled, involving the interaction of such varied factors as general-purpose aesthetic framing, communication of affect by tone of voice, and the musically specific way that tonal pitch contours evoke patterns of posture and gesture.