Modularity and Constraints in Language and Cognition

Modularity and Constraints in Language and Cognition PDF Author: Megan R. Gunnar
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317782208
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
One of the central problems in the study of modern cognition is the degree to which higher cognition is modularized: that is, how much are higher functions carried out by domain-specific, specialized, cognitive subsystems, rather than a highly general cognitive learning and inferring device? To date, ideas and proposals about modularity have been best developed in the study of vision and grammar. In the present volume, the usefulness of approaches employing modularity and domain specificity are further explored in papers on the development of biological thought, word meaning, symbols, and emotional development, as well as in the core area of grammar itself, by leading researchers in these fields. The volume also contains an introduction to some basic ideas and concepts in the study of modularity and domain-specificity, and some critical discussion of the overall problems of the modularity constraints approach to analyzing development.

Modularity and Constraints in Language and Cognition

Modularity and Constraints in Language and Cognition PDF Author: Megan R. Gunnar
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1317782208
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
One of the central problems in the study of modern cognition is the degree to which higher cognition is modularized: that is, how much are higher functions carried out by domain-specific, specialized, cognitive subsystems, rather than a highly general cognitive learning and inferring device? To date, ideas and proposals about modularity have been best developed in the study of vision and grammar. In the present volume, the usefulness of approaches employing modularity and domain specificity are further explored in papers on the development of biological thought, word meaning, symbols, and emotional development, as well as in the core area of grammar itself, by leading researchers in these fields. The volume also contains an introduction to some basic ideas and concepts in the study of modularity and domain-specificity, and some critical discussion of the overall problems of the modularity constraints approach to analyzing development.

Modularity in Language

Modularity in Language PDF Author: Etsuyo Yuasa
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110197529
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
In Modularity in Language, Etsuyo Yuasa investigates exceptions and idiosyncrasies in various complex clauses in Japanese and English within the framework of multi-modular approaches to grammar. She proposes original analyses of various complex clauses in Japanese and English, which deviate from the norms of other complex clauses in the same language or in other languages, and shows how these cases of syntax-semantics mismatch justify the independence (or 'autonomy') of different levels of grammatical structures. Yuasa's significant contribution is the incorporation of the notion of 'construction' from Construction Grammar into multi-modular approaches to grammar. She claims that the idiosyncratic cases examined in this study are instances of constructional and categorial mismatches where a syntactic representation of a prototypical construction is paired with a semantic representation of another prototypical construction. Modularity in Language is aimed at those interested in grammatical theories in general, the parallel architecture of grammar (including Lexical-Functional Grammar, Autolexical Grammar, Representational Modularity), Constructional Grammar, syntax/semantics interface, and Japanese linguistics.

Phi-features and the Modular Architecture of Language

Phi-features and the Modular Architecture of Language PDF Author: Milan Rezac
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9048196981
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
This monograph investigates the modular architecture of language through the nature of "uninterpretable" phi-features: person, number, gender, and Case. It provides new tools and evidence for the modular architecture of the human language faculty, a foundational topic of linguistic research. At the same time it develops a new theory for one of the core issues posed by the Minimalist Program: the relationship of syntax to its interfaces and the nature of uninterpretable features. The work sets out to establish a new cross-linguistic phenomenon to study the foregoing, person-governed last-resort repairs, which provides new insights into the nature of ergative/accusative Case and of Case licensing itself. This is the first monograph that explicitly addresses the syntactic vs. morphological status of uninterpretable phi-features and their relationship to interface systems in a similar way, drawing on person-based interactions among arguments as key data-base.

A Guide to Morphosyntax-phonology Interface Theories

A Guide to Morphosyntax-phonology Interface Theories PDF Author: Tobias Scheer
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110238624
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 902

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Book Description
This book reviews the history of the interface between morpho-syntax and phonology roughly since World War II. Structuralist and generative interface thinking is presented chronologically, but also theory by theory from the point of view of a historically interested observer who however in the last third of the book distills lessons in order to assess present-day interface theories, and to establish a catalogue of properties that a correct interface theory should or must not have. The book also introduces modularity, the rationalist theory of the (human) cognitive system that underlies the generative approach to language, from a Cognitive Science perspective. Modularity is used as a referee for interface theories in the book. Finally, the book locates the interface debate in the landscape of current minimalist syntax and phase theory and fosters intermodular argumentation: how can we use properties of morpho-syntactic theory in order to argue for or against competing theories of phonology (and vice-versa)?

Grammar in Mind and Brain

Grammar in Mind and Brain PDF Author: Paul Douglas Deane
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 9783110131833
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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Book Description


Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax

Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax PDF Author: Derek Bickerton
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262549123
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 491

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Book Description
Interdisciplinary perspectives on the evolutionary and biological roots of syntax, describing current research on syntax in fields ranging from linguistics to neurology. Syntax is arguably the most human-specific aspect of language. Despite the proto-linguistic capacities of some animals, syntax appears to be the last major evolutionary transition in humans that has some genetic basis. Yet what are the elements to a scenario that can explain such a transition? In this book, experts from linguistics, neurology and neurobiology, cognitive psychology, ecology and evolutionary biology, and computer modeling address this question. Unlike most previous work on the evolution of language, Biological Foundations and Origin of Syntax follows through on a growing consensus among researchers that language can be profitably separated into a number of related and interacting but largely autonomous functions, each of which may have a distinguishable evolutionary history and neurological base. The contributors argue that syntax is such a function.The book describes the current state of research on syntax in different fields, with special emphasis on areas in which the findings of particular disciplines might shed light on problems faced by other disciplines. It defines areas where consensus has been established with regard to the nature, infrastructure, and evolution of the syntax of natural languages; summarizes and evaluates contrasting approaches in areas that remain controversial; and suggests lines for future research to resolve at least some of these disputed issues. Contributors Andrea Baronchelli, Derek Bickerton, Dorothy V. M. Bishop, Denis Bouchard, Robert Boyd, Jens Brauer, Ted Briscoe, David Caplan, Nick Chater, Morten H. Christiansen, Terrence W.Deacon, Francesco d'Errico, Anna Fedor, Julia Fischer, Angela D. Friederici, Tom Givón, Thomas Griffiths, Balázs Gulyás, Peter Hagoort, Austin Hilliard, James R. Hurford, Péter Ittzés, Gerhard Jäger, Herbert Jäger, Edith Kaan, Simon Kirby, Natalia L. Komarova, Tatjana Nazir, Frederick Newmeyer, Kazuo Okanoya, Csaba Plèh, Peter J. Richerson, Luigi Rizzi, Wolf Singer, Mark Steedman, Luc Steels, Szabolcs Számadó, Eörs Szathmáry, Maggie Tallerman, Jochen Triesch, Stephanie Ann White

Microvariation in Syntactic Doubling

Microvariation in Syntactic Doubling PDF Author: Lambertus Christiaan Jozef Barbiers
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1848550200
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 496

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Book Description
Contains seventeen papers on microvariation in syntactic doubling. This work provides an overview of the syntactic doubling phenomena attested and of the theoretical analyses available. It discusses the syntactic doubling phenomena including, among others, subject pronoun doubling, WH pronoun doubling, clitic doubling and auxiliary doubling.

Microvariation in Syntactic Doubling

Microvariation in Syntactic Doubling PDF Author: Sjef Barbiers
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 1848550219
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 495

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Book Description
Contains seventeen papers on microvariation in syntactic doubling. This work provides an overview of the syntactic doubling phenomena attested and of the theoretical analyses available. It discusses the syntactic doubling phenomena including, among others, subject pronoun doubling, WH pronoun doubling, clitic doubling and auxiliary doubling.

The Substance of Language Volume I: The Domain of Syntax

The Substance of Language Volume I: The Domain of Syntax PDF Author: John Mathieson Anderson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199608318
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 447

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Book Description
The Domain of Syntax explores the consequences for syntax of assuming that language is grounded in cognition and perception. He considers whether this permits a lexicalist approach to syntax that would allow it to dispense not only with structural mutations but with universal grammar itself.

Between Syntax and Semantics

Between Syntax and Semantics PDF Author: C.T. James Huang
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135217580
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 487

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Book Description
This indispensable volume contains articles that represent the best of Huang's work on the syntax-semantics interface over the last two decades. It includes three general topics: (a) questions, indefinites and quantification, (b) anaphora, (c) lexical structure and the syntax of events.