1. The Tension Raised by Parameters in a Minimalist Setting (original) (raw)

2009

Abstract

It is widely assumed that the Minimalist Program imposes a boundary condition on theories of language, namely, that the human language faculty (FL) has a Principles and Parameters (P&P)-like architecture (Chomsky 1981, 1993). Hornstein (et. al) (2005:5), for example, maintains that this perspective represents the “consensus view of the overall structure of the language faculty”. Accompanying this core tenet is the Strong Minimalist Thesis (SMT), which holds that FL is perfectly/optimally designed to meet the interactive needs of the language-external (but organism-internal) cognitive subsystems with which it interfaces, namely, the Conceptual-Intentional (C-I) and Sensorimotor (SM) systems. Taken together, these two hypotheses raise a fundamental tension that is rarely considered. One goal of this squib is to bring this issue to light in hopes of stimulating sustained productive discussion and thus begin chipping away at admittedly broad and challenging related inquiries. The basic ...

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