tb_comment, still MRG

The language faculty has at least two components: (i) a cognitive component and (ii) a performance component.

3. The cognitive component, that is, the syntactic componentproper, consists of a computational system, a lexicon and a phonological component (PHON). On the basis of some experiences of a particular language or primary linguistic data (PLD), this component of the language faculty, which varies across linguistic environments, can develop into a mature form, I-language, that is, _a generative procedure generating an infinite set of SDs.

4. The performance component includes those parts ofarticulatory-perceptual (A-P) system and the conceptual-intentional (C-I) system that are relevant to language use. The contents of this component are entirely inherent and not affected by the idiosyncrasy of the particular language to which an individual is exposed.

5. The cognitive component is embedded in the performancecomponent. It does not mean that the generative procedure is designed for use. The SDs generated are presumably ‘instructions’ for the A-P and C-I systems to carry out their tasks. Consequently the SDs must be interpretable by these ‘external’ (that is, non-syntactical) systems. In order that the A-P and C-I systems can ‘read’ an instruction, a SD (the expression of an I-language) must have a nature of, roughly, a sound and a meaning. There are two interface levels: Phonetic Form (PF) at the A-P interface and Logical Form (LF) at the C-I interface. The I-language generates a set of pairs (p, l), where p is a PF representation drawn from PF and l a LF representation drawn from LF. However, both p and l are formal representations of sound and meaning respectively—formal because they are determined by the syntactical or cognitive component.

And yet, that a SD must have two levels of representation is due to the design of the whole language faculty that has the A-P and C-I systems interface to the computational mechanism. (We humans must communicate in words or signs; telepathy is not applicable to us.) The interface systems impose some legibility requirements (called the Bare-Output Conditions) from ‘outside’.

6. CHL determines an infinite set of pairs (p, l), which satisfy thebare-output conditions. The generative procedure is a mapping of a certain lexical choice to a pair (p, l).

S, which explains language variation, is restricted to the property of the lexicon, rather than that of the computational system. In particular, it is concerned with the features of the functional elements of this lexicon like the N-feature and V-feature of Tense (T). In essence, parametric variation is a matter of morphology. These features are optionally either strong or weak. The word order of a particular language is due to the strength of the features of the functional categories.

MRG 4th dose

240506

i’ve just now changed the title of this page to MRG (standing of course for minimalist reading group, a slight variation on the theme from last year’s minimalist retreat group when we went to kausani with a lot of fanfare, didn’t we, and then everything fell apart, oh god, dont even remind me of that) from OnEdge, cos the latter was more inclusive, in the sense we did psycho, gender studies and of course a lot of syntax. do check the earlier versions of this page.

today we met as usual and went up to p27 of the 1st chapter of MP, not much in terms of coverage but isnt it Chomu bhaiyya who said that we’re NOT into coverage (read the interview) but explanation of why something is something. great! but we do agree when start looking at the problem of coverage (read, Typo), you are never going to cover everything anyway, certainly not in a lifetime but never. so forget about coverage, let’s see what we’ve actually done today.

1. re-iterated difference between I and E lg (a sure qn in any lingx job interview:)) and made sure everybody understood that E-lg is NOT external spoken lg but rather the system of “formal lg” as in progamming lgs and arithmetic (+, -, %, etc). and we have nothing really to do with E-lg. Our concern is I-lg, which is, basically, “narrow syntax” (comes up several times in minimalist discussions generally, so useful to know), ie, the lexicon and the mapping from D- to S-str, the computational system, that is.

2. lg out in the real world is only an epiphenomenon—a significant theme of Chomu’s ideas but not many ppl know about it or dare to engage in discussions. See for immediate reference p18 para beginning “it has sometimes …”.

3. a bit of revision of L1 topics like levels of adequacy (remember?) and what really is meant by explanatory adequacy in the minimalist progrom (not a spelling mistake!). Gladly Sarah asked questions about it and i could draw a horse! (of course khuong for some reason started to laugh, for the first time, at this point)

4. then of course the interesting para on p 20 starting with “We assume …”. It’s very interesting cos here i think for the 1st time chomu talks about checking. now we have revised it twice and i hope it’s clear to all present. pd (as in probal dasgupta) many yrs ago gave this exposition of minimalism when it was still hot from the bakers (or is THE baker?) in hyd in 1992. i recorded that talk/ exposition or most of it as i remember i had to rush to nampally station 40 kms away to catch a train to delhi. i dont know where that cassette is. but the fact of the matter is that he used a very vivid metaphor for exactly this point: earlier in GB we let affixes hang from branches of trees like PAST or -ed from the I node and walk from the V node etc. and then let movement (raising or lowering) take care of it. now (that is since 92 or so and certainly concretely in 95 when the present book came out), we take the whole guy and check whether s/he has hands, legs, etc at several departments, if you like. {this is where khuong started to laugh again, again for reason somewhat unknown to me!}. As i was saying, earlier limbs used to hang around and you had to construct a whole human, now you have the human, you just need to checking at several specialists, to make sure everything’s alright (yeah, it IS funny, isnt it?). anyway read the para again.

5. then we read this 3rd para on p21 and i confessed that i didnt know that levels of representations like PF and LF (what about D and S str?) must satisfy three conditions: universality, interface-like, uniformity.

6. related: and on this i think we’d some discussion last march/ april on the MRG website (link from my site again), that PF and LF are external interface levels and D-str is the internal interface level.

7. Variations in lgs would mean 2 things: lexicon, and point where S-str is. On this last point (see p26) we discussed for long the case of wh-in-situ (but only apparently in-situ) lgs and question semantics. Also, Q-movement for scope reasons.

8. brief intro to full interpretation (end of p27) and on p28, end of first para, and i quote: ”...when matters are properly understood, [economy principles] subsume much of what appears to the specific character of particular principles.” Here I briefly mentioned (the part Rose missed cos she had a dentist appointment, too many chocolates?) the case of bounding theory in GB being derived from Relativised Minimality and the Minimal Link Condition of MP.

Finally, I DIDN’T talk about lg evolution, my favourite topic, today (but i did on the 22nd!)

Bye and post reactions if any

MRG 3rd dose

OnEdge (_Finally_)
220506

Finally it happened today, there was more teaching than reading tho’, which was fine by most. Khuong did the IP structure and CP structure for Rose and Sara and I explained the nature of differences between the minimalist program and the rest of the earlier P&P approach. this was to mainly do with the implications of Merge which are 10 a bottom up approach and also 2) derivations in parallel.
We read a bit, at least the one about the I-lg and E-lg and decided (along with Chomsky) that the latter was of no importance to us linguists.
I also chalked out the nature of derivation in MP, e.g. that feratures specify more than one thing, viz, subcategorization and principles like EPP, e.g.
Then a bit of a diversion about evolution of lg and diff ideas (the burgess shell story of Gould) connected to that. this was to give an idea of what FL is, as will encounter it very often soon.
Stick around, it’s going to be useful for all of you (and me) as i am doing L5, L13, L14 all together in one class.
The reading for the next meeting (on 240506) is still chap 1 of course, pages 1-50. See ya!

MRG 2nd dose

OnEdge (_Agian_)
200506

Well, finally it’s going to start, at least Rose, Khuong, Sara and Chandan (?) are going to start from Ch1 of the Minimalist Program book.

I think the first session slotted for Monday 22nd May.

I will try to come in as many sessions as possible but mostly you guys should do it regularly.

It’s not the case that you’ll find in it very useful things for your dissertations in the book, but this is definitely a good way to get into the subject and develop a “feel” for the field. And Chap 1 is a good way to get into some of the topics discussed there (binding theory, section 1.4.2, Case theory etc.) Remember that this chapter was co-written with Howard Lasnik and it’s only the beggining of the idea of minimalism (which really flowers fully in chap 4). Also note that the levels of representations D-str, S-str etc are still retained in this chapter.

Let me know the final date/time. Venue is going to be my room.
see ya

Not that it matters anymore

yup, am blogging again after a longwhile (looks nice as a one word) after so many mountains and so many rivers and jungles. now that you're all grown ups (yes, in few weeks you can call yourselves linguists, true!
Am posting stuff from another cyberspace (mine of course!) which lists day to day activities (and sometimes, no activities) during or even outside our choTaa MRG or the minimalist reading group, oh god, am actually very impresed with meself, how many universities (or even committed so-called teachers) run a reading group during the bloody hot summer in a tropical lace like delhi??? I DO! and my lovely students do, yup!
Ok, now the stuff in very random and unorganised fashion:
290406

Am creating this new board, to clear up the mess from the earlier board, use this from now.

Will add members s-l-o-w-l-y. Again, keep the password to yourself.

I want to start OnEdge, tho’ am busy and it’s hot, we can do it at my place in the evenings, every week. What say??