BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Syntactic nuts\, Core and Periphery\, and Universal Grammar - Pete
 r Culicover\, The Ohio State University and Eberhard-Karls Universität T
 übingen
DTSTART:20070515T150000Z
DTEND:20070515T163000Z
UID:TALK7226@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Teresa Parodi
DESCRIPTION:In this talk I review some of the main points of _Syntactic Nu
 ts_ (Culicover 1999) and _Simpler Syntax_ (Culicover and Jackendoff 2005)\
 , and the arguments for them. The approach that we have taken in _Simpler 
 Syntax_ and other work leads to a perspective that is rather different fro
 m that of the mainstream\, motivated in large part by the Simpler Syntax H
 ypothesis: \n\nSimple Syntax Hypothesis (SSH):\n\nThe most explanatory the
 ory is one that imputes the minimum syntactic structure necessary to media
 te between phonology and meaning. \n\nThis hypothesis in principle embodie
 s an evaluation metric\, in the sense of Aspects. It allows us to rank acc
 ounts of the phonology/meaning mapping in terms of their relative complexi
 ty\, and it permits us to say when a particular mapping in a language is 
 “natural” or unmarked and when it is “exceptional” or marked. \n\n
 Mainstream generative grammar makes two divisions among linguistic phenome
 na\, with the goal of identifying those aspects of language where deep gen
 erality and rich abstract deductive structure are to be expected. The firs
 t is the traditional division between grammar – the rules of the languag
 e – and the lexicon\, which mainstream generative tradition takes to be 
 the locus of all irregularity. The second division\, introduced around the
  time of Lectures on Government and\n\nBinding\, distinguishes between two
  parts of the grammar itself\, the core and the periphery. The core rules 
 represent the deep regularities of language\, those that are governed by p
 arameter settings. The periphery represents “marked exceptions” such a
 s irregular verbs\, for which there are no deep regularities. \n\nThe logi
 c of Syntactic Nuts is that there are constructions beyond the level of in
 dividual words that are readily learned\, about which native speakers have
  sharp and reliable intuitions. They display various degrees of generality
  combined with irreducible syntactic idiosyncrasy. They must be acquired o
 n the basis of experience\, and cannot be accounted entirely on the basis 
 of parameter settings and general principles. \n\nI discuss a variety of s
 uch “peripheral” phenomena of English\, some well known\, some less so
 .They are presented with three morals in mind: \n\n-  “Peripheral” phe
 nomena are inextricably interwoven with the “core.” The distinction is
  one of convenience\, not principle.\n\n- The empirically most adequate an
 alyses of the peripheral phenomena conform to the Simpler Syntax Hypothesi
 s.\n\n- There is a continuum of phenomena between words and rules and betw
 een periphery and core. The distinction is one of degree\, not principle. 
 \n\nI draw two conclusions: \n\n- An idealization to the “core\,” whil
 e a priori reasonable\, has proven in practice to be systematically mislea
 ding.\n\n- The traditional distinction between lexicon and grammar is mist
 aken. 
LOCATION:GR-06/07\, English Faculty Building
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR