Dupre, G (2022) Balancing Evolution and Acquisition in Theoretical Linguistics. In: Philosophical Approaches to Language and Communication. Studies in Philosophy of Language and Linguistics (1). Peter Lang. ISBN 9783631868812

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Abstract

The history of generative linguistics is a history of a tension between, on the one hand, incorporating all the complexity suggested by detailed descriptions of natural languages and the innate knowledge humans bring to the task of acquisition, and on the other the sparsity that seems to be forced on such innate contributions by developmental and evolutionary biology and psychology. In this paper I describe these pressures in detail, and then outline the strategy currently adopted by ‘Minimalist’ linguistic theorizing, which involves deriving the complexity of linguistic competence from an underlying simple system. I close with some remarks on the remaining difficulties and prospects for such an explanatory strategy.

Item Type: Book Section
Additional Information: The final version of this chapter and all relevant information related to it, including copyrights, can be found on the publisher website.
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HA Statistics
P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Divisions: Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Social, Political and Global Studies
Depositing User: Symplectic
Date Deposited: 18 Mar 2022 12:49
Last Modified: 27 May 2022 09:47
URI: https://eprints.keele.ac.uk/id/eprint/10730

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