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

Two Spurious Counterexamples To the Principle of Phonology-Free Syntax

The System Development Foundation

The unfortunate divorce of English grammar from English literature

The disciplines of literature and linguistics have separated: it is possible for a student to earn a degree in English literature without having any linguistic expertise, and more specifically without knowing anything significant about the grammar of the English language. In part this is because of the increasing professionalization and scientific orientation of linguistics. But here I focus on a different issue: that even highly educated scholars of English typically hold mostly mistaken beliefs about English grammar. Education in the subject ossified more than 200 years ago. First, unsupportable claims about the structure of the language — artifacts of indefensible analyses — are still widely assumed; and second, ‘ghost rules’ that never correctly characterized the language are still commonly trusted. To illustrate the insupportable analyses I consider the definitions of lexical categories like noun or verb, the analysis of the infinitival marker to, and the misclassification of prepositions. To illustrate ghost rules I discuss split infinitives, restrictive which, genitive antecedents for pronouns, stranding of prepositions, and singular antecedents for they. I conclude with a brief plea for reunification of literary and linguistic studies