Minimalism, Modularity and Derivations

乔姆斯基把语言是接口条件的完美解决方案这一猜想称为“强极简主义命题”。语言能力被认为与心智的其他官能互动，包括那些负责发音/感知和意向性/概念化的官能。这种相互作用决定了语言表征的关键属性。反过来，语言系统被视为计算性的，并且在接口表示的推导中是最优的。这一猜想开启了一个明显的研究计划。首先，它迫使我们重新思考支撑原则和参数框架的许多概念。例如，我们不允许任意假设表示的层次，或者仅仅给符号约定一个深刻的本体论地位。更深刻的是，如果语言系统是计算性的，并且是最优的，那么对复杂性极其敏感的衍生动力学，应该负责以前从静态原始条件中得到的各种影响。强极简主义理论是否站得住脚，将取决于它如何很好地解释之前模型所解释的大量数据，以及它在多大程度上自然地适用于研究人类思维的一般事业。目前的研究试图在马里兰大学语言系及其认知科学和神经科学项目中实现这些目标。

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.