The Central Question in Comparative Syntactic Metatheory

Two kinds of theoretical framework for syntax are encountered in current linguistics. One emerged from the mathematization of proof theory, and is referred to here as generative-enumerative syntax (GES). A less explored alternative stems from the semantic side of logic, and is here called model-theoretic syntax (MTS). I sketch the outlines of each, and give a capsule summary of some mathematical results pertaining to the latter. I then briefly survey some diverse types of evidence suggesting that in some ways MTS seems better suited to theorizing about the relevant linguistic phenomena.

[1]  Paul Kay,et al.  An Informal Sketch of a Formal Architecture for Construction Grammar , 2002, Grammars.

[2]  P. Postal.  The Openness of Natural Languages , 2002 .

[3]  M. Baltin,et al.  The Mental representation of grammatical relations , 1985 .

[4]  染田 利信.  Degrees of Grammaticalnessと意味との関係について , 1970 .

[5]  Thomas Graf,et al.  Some Interdefinability Results for Syntactic Constraint Classes , 2007, MOL.

[6]  Geoffrey K. Pullum,et al.  Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar , 1985 .

[7]  Jens Michaelis,et al.  Transforming Linear Context-Free Rewriting Systems into Minimalist Grammars , 2001, LACL.

[8]  James Rogers,et al.  Wrapping of Trees , 2004, ACL.

[9]  Carson T. Schütze.  The empirical base of linguistics: Grammaticality judgments and linguistic methodology , 1998 .

[10]  D. Everett.  Cultural Constraints on Grammar and Cognition in Pirahã , 2005, Current Anthropology.

[11]  Shalom Lappin,et al.  Local Constraints Vs. Economy , 1998 .

[12]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  Topics in the Theory of Generative Grammar , 1966 .

[13]  Geoffrey K. Pullum,et al.  Nostalgic views from Building 20 , 1996, Journal of Linguistics.

[14]  James Rogers,et al.  A descriptive approach to language-theoretic complexity , 1998 .

[15]  Alan Grafen,et al.  Formalizing Darwinism and inclusive fitness theory , 2009, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[16]  Louise McNally,et al.  Where (if anywhere) is transderivationality located , 1998 .

[17]  James Rogers.  The descriptive complexity of generalized local sets , 1999 .

[18]  George Lakoff,et al.  On Generative Semantics , 1969 .

[19]  R. Nozohoor-Farshi,et al.  On Formalizations of Marcus’ Parser , 1986, COLING.

[20]  John Doner,et al.  Tree Acceptors and Some of Their Applications , 1970, J. Comput. Syst. Sci..

[21]  H. Hughes.  The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language , 2003 .

[22]  On with generativity! , 1980, NLN publications.

[23]  E. Mark Gold,et al.  Language Identification in the Limit , 1967, Inf. Control..

[24]  S C Kleene,et al.  Representation of Events in Nerve Nets and Finite Automata , 1951 .

[25]  Heidi Riggenbach,et al.  Perspectives on Fluency , 2000 .

[26]  Emil L. Post.  Formal Reductions of the General Combinatorial Decision Problem , 1943 .

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

[28]  Carl Jesse Pollard,et al.  Generalized phrase structure grammars, head grammars, and natural language , 1984 .

[29]  A. Turing.  On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem. , 1937 .

[30]  Howard Lasnik,et al.  On the nature of proper government , 1990 .

[31]  J. Heijenoort.  From Frege to Gödel: A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879-1931 , 1967 .

[32]  A. Pawley,et al.  The One-clause-at-a-time Hypothesis , 2000 .

[33]  Paul M. Postal,et al.  Toward a Universal Characterization of Passivization , 1977 .

[34]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  On Certain Formal Properties of Grammars , 1959, Inf. Control..

[35]  Noam Chomsky.  A minimalist program for linguistic theory , 1992 .

[36]  Aravind K. Joshi,et al.  Natural language parsing: Tree adjoining grammars: How much context-sensitivity is required to provide reasonable structural descriptions? , 1985 .

[37]  Nabil A. Khabbaz.  A Geometric Hierarchy of Languages , 1974, J. Comput. Syst. Sci..

[38]  James Rogers,et al.  wMSO theories as grammar formalisms , 2003, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[39]  M. de Rijke,et al.  Modal Logic , 2001, Cambridge Tracts in Theoretical Computer Science.

[40]  David J. Weir.  A Geometric Hierarchy Beyond Context-Free Languages , 1992, Theor. Comput. Sci..

[41]  Geoffrey K. Pullum,et al.  Argument or no argument? , 2007 .

[42]  Claire Gardent,et al.  A Specification Language for Lexical Functional Grammars , 1995, EACL.

[43]  Janet D. Fodor,et al.  Understanding stimulus poverty arguments , 2002 .

[44]  Zellig S. Harris,et al.  Mathematical structures of language , 1968, Interscience tracts in pure and applied mathematics.

[45]  Edward P. Stabler,et al.  Derivational Minimalism , 1996, LACL.

[46]  David E. Johnson,et al.  Arc Pair Grammar , 1980 .

[47]  T. Cornell.  MODEL-THEORETIC SYNTAX , 1996 .

[48]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  वाक्यविन्यास का सैद्धान्तिक पक्ष = Aspects of the theory of syntax , 1965 .

[49]  Richard Montague,et al.  The Proper Treatment of Quantification in Ordinary English , 1973 .

[50]  Leon A. Jakobovits,et al.  Semantics: An Interdisciplinary Reader in Philosophy, Linguistics and Psychology , 1971 .

[51]  Martin Kay,et al.  Syntactic Process , 1979, ACL.

[52]  R. Nozohoor-Farshi,et al.  Context-Freeness of the Language Accepted by Marcus’ Parser , 1987, ACL.

[53]  M. R. Manzini.  Locality: A Theory and Some of Its Empirical Consequences , 1992 .

[54]  Stanley Peters,et al.  Goals of linguistic theory , 1972 .

[55]  Daniel Götzmann.  Multiple Context-Free Grammars , 2007 .

[56]  Geoffrey K. Pullum,et al.  Phonology in syntax: The Somali optional agreement rule , 1983 .

[57]  J. Fodor,et al.  The Structure of Language: Readings in the Philosophy of Language , 1966 .

[58]  Leonid Libkin,et al.  Elements Of Finite Model Theory (Texts in Theoretical Computer Science. An Eatcs Series) , 2004 .

[59]  Emil L. Post.  Introduction to a General Theory of Elementary Propositions , 1921 .

[60]  Stephan Kepser,et al.  On the Complexity of RSRL , 2004, FGMOL.

[61]  Jean-Pierre Koenig,et al.  Lexical and Constructional Aspects of Linguistic Explanation , 1998 .

[62]  Christopher Potts.  Three kinds of transderivational constraint ∗ , 2001 .

[63]  D. Terence Langendoen,et al.  The vastness of natural languages , 1984 .

[64]  Peter Jay Ludlow,et al.  The Philosophy of Generative Linguistics , 2011 .

[65]  Ronald M. Kaplan,et al.  The Formal Architecture of Lexical-Functional Grammar , 1989, J. Inf. Sci. Eng..

[66]  Geoffrey K. Pullum,et al.  On the Distinction between Model-Theoretic and Generative-Enumerative Syntactic Frameworks , 2001, LACL.

[67]  Brian D. Joseph,et al.  Studies in relational grammar , 1984 .

[68]  Gerald Gazdar,et al.  Unbounded Dependencies and Coordinate Structure , 1981 .

[69]  Emil L. Post.  Recursive Unsolvability of a problem of Thue , 1947, Journal of Symbolic Logic.

[70]  J. Katz.  The Unfinished Chomskyan Revolution , 1996 .

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

[72]  Stuart M. Shieber,et al.  Evidence against the context-freeness of natural language , 1985 .

[73]  R. Stainton.  Contemporary debates in cognitive science , 2006 .

[74]  D. Fox.  Economy and scope , 1995 .

[75]  Robert J. Matthews,et al.  The Plausibility of Rationalism , 1984 .

[76]  Mitchell P. Marcus,et al.  A theory of syntactic recognition for natural language , 1979 .

[77]  Geoffrey K. Pullum,et al.  Recursion and the infinitude claim , 2010 .