chomsky's universal grammar

The idea of Universal Grammar (UG) put forward by Noam Chomsky has been a crucial driving force in linguistics. Whether linguists agree with it or not, they have defined themselves by their reactions to it, not only in terms of general concepts of language and language acquisition, but also in how they carry out linguistic description. From the 1960s to the 1980s, UG became a flash-point for disciplines outside linguistics such as psychology, computer parsing of language and first language acquisition, even if these areas have tended to lose contact in recent years. The aim of this book is to convey why Chomsky's theories of lan­guage still continue to be stimulating and adventurous and why they have important consequences for all those working with language.

This book is intended as an introduction to Chomsky's UG Theory for those who want a broad overview with sufficient detail to see how its main concepts work rather than for those who are specialist students of syntax, for whom technical introductions such as Adger (2003) and Hostein et al. (2005) are more appropriate. Nor does it cover Chomsky's political views, still as much a tho in the side of the US establishment as ever, for example Chomsky (2004a). While the book pays attention to the current theory, called the Minimalist Program, it concentrates on providing a background to the overall concepts of Chomsky's theory, which have unfolded over six decades. Where possible, concepts are illustrated through Chomsky's own words. The distinctive feature of the book is the combination of Chomsky's general ideas of language and language acquisi­tion with the details of syntax.

This opening chapter sets the scene by discussing some of the general issues of Chomsky's work on the notion of uc. Following this, chapter 2 discusses central concepts of the framework and how these relate to Chomsky's views on language acquisition. The next two chapters provide an introduction to the syntax of Govement/Binding Theory in terms of structure and 6f movement respectively. Chapter 5 looks at Chomskyan approaches to first language acqui­sition, chapter 6 at second language acquisition. Then chapters 7 and 8 outline the current Minimalist Program, again separating structure and movement.

Two conventions followed in this book need briefly stating. As usual in lin­guistics books, an asterisk indicates an ungrammatical sentence. Example sentences, phrases and structures are numbered for ease of reference, i.e.: