Minimalism, Modularity and Derivations

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9817569Hornstein & UriagerekaABSTRACTChomsky calls a 'Strong Minimalist Thesis' the conjecture that language is a perfect solution to interface conditions. The language faculty is thought to interact with other faculties of mind, including those responsible for articulation/perception and intentionality/conceptualization. Thatinteraction determines crucial properties of linguistic representations. In turn, the linguistic system is seen as computational, and optimal in the derivation of interface representations. The conjecture opens an obvious research program. To begin with, it forcesus to rethink many notions that sustained the Principles and Parametersframework. For instance, we are not allowed to arbitrarily postulate levelsof representations or give mere notational conventions a deep ontologicalstatus. More profoundly, if the linguistic system is computational, andoptimally so, derivational dynamics, crucially sensitive to complexity, should be responsible for a variety of effects which were previously taken to follow from static primitive conditions.Whether the strong minimalist thesis is tenable will depend on how well itexplains the wealth of data that previous models accounted for, and how naturally it fits within the general enterprise of studying the human mind. The present research tries to undertake these goals within the LinguisticsDepartment at the University of Maryland, as well as its Cognitive Scienceand Neuroscience program.