Scientific modelling in generative grammar and the dynamic turn in syntax

In this paper, I address the issue of scientific modelling in contemporary linguistics, focusing on the generative tradition. In so doing, I identify two common varieties of linguistic idealisation, which I call determination and isolation respectively. I argue that these distinct types of idealisation can both be described within the remit of Weisberg’s (J Philos 104(12):639–659, 2007) minimalist idealisation strategy in the sciences. Following a line set by Blutner (Theor Linguist, 37(1–2):27–35, 2011) (albeit for different purposes), I propose this minimalist idealisation analysis for a broad construal of the generative linguistic programme and thus cite examples from a wide range of linguistic frameworks including early generative syntax (i.e. Standard Theory, Government and Binding and Principles and Parameters), Minimalism (Chomsky in The minimalist program, MIT Press, Cambridge, 1995), the parallel architecture (Jackendoff in Foundations of language: brain, meaning, grammar, evolution, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002) and optimality theory (Prince and Smolensky in Optimality theory: constraint interaction in generative grammar, 1993/2004). Lastly, I claim that from a modelling perspective, the dynamic turn in syntax (Kempson et al. in Dynamic syntax—the flow of language understanding, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford, 2001; Cann et al. in The dynamics of language: an introduction, Elsevier, Oxford, 2005) can be explained as a continuation, as opposed to a marked shift (or revolution), of the generative modelling paradigm (despite radical theory change). Seen in this light, my proposal is an even broader construal of the generative tradition, along scientific modelling lines. Thus, I offer a lens through which to appreciate the scientific contribution of generative grammar, amid an increased resistance to some of its core theoretical posits, in terms of a brand of structural realism in the philosophy of science and specifically scientific modelling.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Interaction Grammars

Interaction Grammar (IG) is a grammatical formalism based on the notion of polarity. Polarities express the resource sensitivity of natural languages by modelling the distinction between saturated and unsaturated syntactic structures. Syntactic composition is represented as a chemical reaction guided by the saturation of polarities. It is expressed in a model-theoretic framework where grammars are constraint systems using the notion of tree description and parsing appears as a process of building tree description models satisfying criteria of saturation and minimality

The foundations of linguistics : mathematics, models, and structures

The philosophy of linguistics is a rich philosophical domain which encompasses various disciplines. One of the aims of this thesis is to unite theoretical linguistics, the philosophy of language, the philosophy of science (particularly mathematics and modelling) and the ontology of language. Each part of the research presented here targets separate but related goals with the unified aim of bringing greater clarity to the foundations of linguistics from a philosophical perspective. Part I is devoted to the methodology of linguistics in terms of scientific modelling. I argue against both the Conceptualist and Platonist (as well as Pluralist) interpretations of linguistic theory by means of three grades of mathematical involvement for linguistic grammars. Part II explores the specific models of syntactic and semantics by an analogy with the harder sciences. In Part III, I develop a novel account of linguistic ontology and in the process comment on the type-token distinction, the role and connection with mathematics and the nature of linguistic objects. In this research, I offer a structural realist interpretation of linguistic methodology with a nuanced structuralist picture for its ontology. This proposal is informed by historical and current work in theoretical linguistics as well as philosophical views on ontology, scientific modelling and mathematics

Theorizing about the syntax of human language: a radical alternative to generative formalisms

Linguists standardly assume that a grammar is a formal system that ‘generates’ a set of derivations. But this is not the only way to formalize grammars. I sketch a different basis for syntactic theory: model-theoretic syntax (MTS). It defines grammars as finite sets of statements that are true (or false) in certain kinds of structure (finite labeled graphs such as trees). Such statements provide a direct description of syntactic structure. Generative grammars do not do this; they are strikingly ill-suited to accounting for certain familiar properties of human languages, like the fact that ungrammaticality is a matter of degree. Many aspects of linguistic phenomena look radically different when viewed in MTS terms. I pay special attention to the fact that sentences containing invented nonsense words (items not in the lexicon) are nonetheless perceived as sentences. I also argue that the MTS view dissolves the overblown controversy about whether the set of sentences in a human language is always infinite: many languages (both Brazilian indigenous languages and others) appear not to employ arbitrarily iterative devices for embedding or coordination, but under an MTS description this does not define them as radically distinct in typological terms.Linguistas em geral pressupõem que uma gramática seja um sistema formal que ‘gera’ um conjunto de derivações. Aqui delineio uma base diferente para a teoria da sintaxe: a sintaxe modelo-teórico (SMT). Ela define as gramáticas como conjuntos de declarações que são verdadeiras (ou falsas) em determinados tipos de estruturas (gráficas finitas rotuladas, como árvores). Tais declarações fornecem uma descrição direta da estrutura sintática. As gramáticas gerativas não fazem isso; elas são supreendentemente mal-adaptadas para dar conta de certas propriedades familiares das línguas humanas, como o fato de que a agramaticalidade e uma questão de grau. Muitos aspectos de fenômenos linguísticos parecem radicalmente diferentes quando vistos nos termos STM. Eu presto atenção especial aqui ao fato de que que orações que contêm palavras inventadas sem sentido lexical (não se encontram no léxico) são mesmo assim percebidos como orações. Eu também argumento que a STM acaba com a controvérsia exagerada sobre se o conjunto de orações de uma língua humana é sempre infinito: muitas línguas (seja uma língua indígena brasileira ou outra língua qualquer) parecem não empregar dispositivos arbitrários e iterativos para o encaixamento ou a coordenação, mas sob uma descrição STM isso não as definem como radicalmente distintas em termos tipológicas

Linguistic Optimization

Optimality Theory (OT) is a model of language that combines aspects of generative and connectionist linguistics. It is unique in the field in its use of a rank ordering on constraints, which is used to formalize optimization, the choice of the best of a set of potential linguistic forms. We show that phenomena argued to require ranking fall out equally from the form of optimization in OT's predecessor Harmonic Grammar (HG), which uses numerical weights to encode the relative strength of constraints. We further argue that the known problems for HG can be resolved by adopting assumptions about the nature of constraints that have precedents both in OT and elsewhere in computational and generative linguistics. This leads to a formal proof that if the range of each constraint is a bounded number of violations, HG generates a finite number of languages. This is nontrivial, since the set of possible weights for each constraint is nondenumerably infinite. We also briefly review some advantages of HG