Local Constraints vs. Economy (Stanford Monographs in Linguistics) - Softcover

Johnson, David; Lappin, Shalom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1575861828 ISBN 13: 9781575861821

Publisher: The Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications, 1999

Synopsis

The book offers a detailed critique of the economy-of-derivation model of grammar that has emerged within the framework of Chomsky's Minimalist Program. It looks at the conceptual and computational complexity problems as well as the empirical consequences of both global and local economy principles. The book compares the economy-of-derivation model with a local constraint model of grammar that does not invoke conditions on sets of derivations or on possible operations in a derivation. It argues that the pure local constraint model of grammar avoids the complexity problems resulting from economy-of-derivation principles and provides a more satisfactory explanation of the linguistic facts that economy theorists have cited in support of their approach. The local constraint model also allows for a more natural and empirically well-motivated grammatical architecture than the one postulated by the Minimalist Program.

About this title

About the Author

Shalom Lappin is a senior researcher in the Linguistics and Theory of Science unit at the University of Gothenburg.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1575861828
• ISBN 13: 9781575861821
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160