Minimalism vs. Organic Syntax

In this paper, we discuss Minimalism versus Organic Grammar, and define Organic Grammar for syntax (Organic Syntax) as an alternative to theMinimalist Program. We argue that language learners gradually acquire a Master Tree for a particular language that ends up including all possible functional projections for that language. Further, we provide a reanalysis of recent data from child vs. adult L2 acquisition of root infinitives using our own theory.

[1]  A. Vainikka.  Verb Raising in Questions , 1996 .

[2]  Dan I. Slobin,et al.  The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition : Volume 4 , 1995 .

[3]  J. Grimshaw.  Projection, heads, and optimality , 1997 .

[4]  Mark C. Baker,et al.  Incorporation: A Theory of Grammatical Function Changing , 1988 .

[5]  K. Hale,et al.  Ken Hale: A Life in Language , 2001 .

[6]  Kenneth Wexler.  Optional infinitives, head movement and the economy of derivation in child grammar , 1992 .

[7]  D. Poeppel,et al.  The full competence hypothesis of clause structure in early German , 1993 .

[8]  J. Weissenborn.  Functional Categories and Verb Movement: The Acquisition of German Syntax Reconsidered , 1990 .

[9]  Andrew Radford,et al.  SMALL CHILDREN'S SMALL CLAUSES , 1988 .

[10]  Andrew Radford,et al.  Syntactic Theory and the Acquisition of English Syntax: The Nature of Early Child Grammars of English , 1990 .

[11]  Thomas Roeper,et al.  Null Subjects in Early Child English and the Theory of Economy of Projection , 2000 .

[12]  M. Young-Scholten,et al.  Morphosyntactic Triggers in Adult SLA , 1998 .

[13]  Anne Vainikka,et al.  The roots of syntax and how they grow: Organic Grammar, the Basic Variety and Processability Theory , 2006 .

[14]  Anne Marjatta Vainikka,et al.  Deriving syntactic representations in Finnish , 1989 .

[15]  Peggy Speas.  Constraints on Null Pronouns , 2001 .

[16]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Lectures on Government and Binding , 1981 .

[17]  George admires Adolf,et al.  Tense and Aspect , 2004 .

[18]  Jürgen M. Meisel,et al.  The Acquisition of verb placement : functional categories and V2 phenomena in language acquisition , 1996 .

[19]  N. Hyams.  The Genesis of Clausal Structure , 1992 .

[20]  Howard Lasnik,et al.  The minimalist program in syntax , 2002, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[21]  Julia Herschensohn,et al.  The Second Time Around – Minimalism and L2 Acquisition , 2000 .

[22]  Christine Dimroth,et al.  Topics, assertions, and additive words: how L2 learners get from information structure to target-language syntax , 2002 .

[23]  Rex A. Sprouse,et al.  L2 cognitive states and the Full Transfer/Full Access model , 1996 .

[24]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Minimalist inquiries : the framework , 1998 .

[25]  David Lebeaux,et al.  Language acquisition and the form of the grammar , 2000 .

[26]  Anne Vainikka,et al.  Direct Access to X’-Theory: Evidence from Korean and Turkish adults learning German , 1994 .

[27]  Anne Vainikka,et al.  Gradual development of L2 phrase structure , 1996 .

[28]  S. Pinker,et al.  The faculty of language: what's special about it? , 2005, Cognition.

[29]  M. Penke,et al.  The Acquisition of Agreement Morphology and its Syntactic Consequences: New Evidence on German Child Language from the Simone-Corpus , 1992 .

[30]  Anne Vainikka,et al.  The Three Structural Cases in Finnish , 1993 .

[31]  H. Clahsen.  Constraints on Parameter Setting: A Grammatical Analysis of Some Acquisition Stages in German Child Language , 1990 .

[32]  Fabio Pianesi,et al.  Tense and Aspect: From Semantics to Morphosyntax , 1997 .

[33]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  On Nature and Language , 2002 .

[34]  Lydia White,et al.  Missing Surface Inflection or Impairment in second language acquisition? Evidence from tense and agreement , 2000 .

[35]  D. Slobin,et al.  The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition , 2000 .

[36]  Jane Grimshaw,et al.  A morphosyntactic explanation for the mirror principle , 1986 .

[37]  Manfred Pienemann,et al.  Language Processing Capacity , 2008 .

[38]  Luigi Rizzi,et al.  Some Notes on Linguistic Theory and Language Development: The Case of Root Infinitives , 1993 .

[39]  Lynn Eubank,et al.  What is the 'L2 initial state'? , 1996 .

[40]  G. Cinque.  Adverbs and Functional Heads: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective , 1999 .

[41]  Anne Vainikka,et al.  Case in the Development of English Syntax , 1993 .

[42]  Roger Hawkins.  Persistent selective fossilisation in second language acquisition and the optimal design of the language faculty , 2000 .

[43]  Harald Clahsen,et al.  The Seeds of Structure: A Syntactic analysis of the acquisition of Case marking , 1994 .

[44]  Urpo Nikanne,et al.  Case and other functional categories in Finnish syntax , 1993 .

[45]  Kevin R. Gregg.  SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION AND UNIVERSAL GRAMMAR , 2004, Studies in Second Language Acquisition.

[46]  María del Pilar,et al.  R. Hawkins 2001: Second Language Syntax: A Generative Introduction , 2003 .

[47]  Richard S. Kayne.  The Antisymmetry of Syntax , 1994 .

[48]  J. Zwart.  The Minimalist Program , 1998, Journal of Linguistics.

[49]  Joseph E. Emonds,et al.  A unified theory of syntactic categories , 1985 .

[50]  Hiromu Sakai,et al.  The visibility guideline for functional categories: Verb raising in Japanese and related issues , 2003 .

[51]  R. Hawkins.  Second Language Syntax: A Generative Introduction , 2001 .