Transcript Minimalism and Applied Linguistics

Minimalism and (Applied)
Linguistics
Elly van Gelderen
16 April 2010
Outline
• Introduce Minimalism
• What I find fascinating about this program
• Share some applications
(especially regarding features and parameters)
Minimalist Program
Factors:
1.
2.
3.
Genetic endowment
Experience
Principles not specific to language
Chomsky (2007: 3)
“(1) genetic endowment, which sets limits on the
attainable languages, thereby making language
acquisition possible; (2) external data, converted
to the experience that selects one or another
language within a narrow range; (3) principles
not specific to FL. Some of the third factor
principles have the flavor of the constraints that
enter into all facets of growth and evolution....
Among these are principles of efficient
computation”.
My aim
Insight in the Faculty of Language
through language change
in particular where features are concerned
And attribute regularity of change to Economy
(=third factor)
Language Acquisition and Change:
Klima (1965) etc.
Generation n
I-language
Generation n+1
I-language
E-language
E-language
Figure 1: Model of language acquisition
(based on Andersen 1973).
Building blocks
Features
– semantic
– phonological
– Formal
Parameters: only in terms of features
- CS
- L2 and L1
A derivation
Selection from the Lexicon:
{saw, it, T, Martians}
Merge:
saw
[…]
Martians
[…]
Further Merge (EM and IM) and
Agree/valuation of the features
Ctd:
(1)
v
VP
[i-ACC]
[u-phi] V
D
saw
Martians
[i-3P]
[u-ACC]
Two interfaces
After merge and agree:
PHON
(was PF)
Sensorimotor
SEM
(was LF)
ConceptualInterpretative
+/- Interpretable Features
Interpretable ones (Person and number on
nouns, Tense, Aspect, Mood) are:
Relevant at C-I Interface
But:
Why do languages have uninterpretable
features (as well as Edge and EPP?)
L1 (Interpretable)
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
all gone (Allison 1:8, Bloom 1973)
walk school (Allison 1:8, Bloom 1973)
baby eat cookie (Allison 1:10, Bloom 1973)
sit down right here next truck
(Allison 1:10, Bloom 1973)
horse cow ‘horse and cow’
(Allison 1:10, Bloom 1973)
Late Merge of like
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
(5)
(6)
like a cookie (Abe, 3.7.5)
no the monster crashed the planes down like this
like that (Abe, 3.7.5)
I wan(t) (t)a show you something # I mean like this
thin ? (Abe, 3.7.5)
I feel like having a pet do you? (Abe, 4.8.20)
watch it walks like a person walks. (Abe, 4.9.19)
Daddy # do you teach like you do [//] like how they
do in your school? (Abe, 4.10.1)
For: P to C
(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
this picture is mine for myself (Abe 2.7.18)
how long you grow up for a minute
(Abe 2.9.27)
Mom # I'm glad you are making a rug for
out in the hall. (Abe 2.8.14)
yeah and I said I was waiting and waiting
for you to come and I [/] (Abe, 3.2.1)
What is happening to the features?
(1)
Momy you wiping
(Allison 1:8, Bloom 1973)
The child `discovers’ uninterpretable
features:
(2) I'm gonna sit on here
(Allison 2:4, Bloom 1973)
What should UG give the learner?
Phi-features
`Case'
(for head-marking) (for dependent-marking)
yes
no
Korean
u-F
i-F
English Navajo
yes
Korean
English
no
Navajo
Economy?
Feature Economy
Minimize the semantic and interpretable
features in the derivation, e.g:
Adjunct Specifier
semantic >
[iF] >
Head
[uF] >
affix
[uF]
Let’s look at Language Change:
Specifier > Head:
Demonstrative pronoun that to C
Demonstrative pronoun to article
Negative adverb to negation marker
Adverb to aspect marker
PP to C
Full pronoun to agreement
Late Merge and language change:
On, from P to ASP
VP Adverbials > TP/CP Adverbials
Like, from P > C (like I said)
Negative objects to negative markers
Modals: v > ASP > T
Negative verbs to auxiliaries
To: P > ASP > M > C
PP > C (for him to do that ...)
Grammaticalization
Grammaticalization
(1)
phrase > word/head > clitic > affix > 0
adjunct > argument > agreement > 0
(2)
lexical head > grammatical > 0
Cognitive Economy Principles
help the learner, e.g:
Phrase > head (minimize structure)
Avoid too much movement
XP
Spec
X'
X
YP
Y
…
Head Preference and Late Merge
(1) a.
FP
…
F
pro
(2) a.
b.
F’
pro
…
F
TP
T
might
FP
b.
VP
TP
T
VP
V’
V
...
V
might
V'
...
Examples of Cycles
Subject and Object Agreement
demonstrative/emphatic > pronoun > agreement > zero
Copula Cycle
a demonstrative > copula > zero
b verb > aspect > copula
Case or Definiteness or DP
demonstrative
> definite article > ‘Case’ > zero
Negative
a negative argument > negative adverb > negative particle
> zero
b verb > aspect
> negative > C
Future and Aspect Auxiliary
A/P > M > T > C
Negative Cycle in Old English
450-1150 CE
a.
no/ne
early Old English
b.
ne
after 900, esp S
c.
(ne) not
d.
not >
(na wiht/not)
after 1350
-not/-n’t
after 1400
The Negative Cycle
XP
Spec
na wiht
X'
X
not > n’t
YP
…
DP Cycle (old way)
a.
dem
DP
b.
D'
D

NP
DP
D'
D
art

c.

DP
D'
D
-n>0
renewal
through LMP
NP
N
(=HPP)
NP
N
or through Feature Economy:
a.
DP
>
that
D'
[i-ps] D
NP
[i-loc][u-#] N
[i-phi]
Hence
(1)
(2)
b.
DP
D'
…
D
the
[u-phi]
*I saw the
I saw that/those.
NP
N
[i-phi]
Dutch-Afrikaans
(1)
(2)
die man daar
that man there
Daardie teenstrydighede was egter nie
those contradictions were however not
How are parameters and features
relevant to AL
L1 and L2
CS and bilingualism
Text recognition
Some references
Chomsky, Noam 2007. Approaching UG
from below, in Uli Sauerland et al. (eds),
Interfaces + Recursion = Language, 1-29.
Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Gelderen, Elly van to appear. The Linguistic
Cycle: Language Change and the
Language Faculty. OUP.