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9 - Conclusion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2024

Norbert Hornstein
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, Baltimore
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Summary

This chapter rounds off the book by recapitulating the argument that the research program of modern Generative Grammar has provided profound insights into the structure of the faculty of language (FL) to explain both linguistic creativity and linguistic flexibility. The proposal is that the Generative enterprise has allowed us to examine what kinds of recursive procedures natural language grammars contain, and to understand key aspects of the fine structure of FL. The Minimalist Program then asks the obvious next question of why FL has the particular structure Generativists discovered it to have. It is argued that the central Minimalist thesis, the Merge Hypothesis (MH), explains how linguistic creativity is the product of a very simple combinatoric operation (i.e. Merge), and then showed how the MH can be extended (into the EMH) by the addition of labels to cover most of the generalizations discovered in the past sixty years of Generative research.

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Chapter
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The Merge Hypothesis
A Theory of Aspects of Syntax
, pp. 230 - 233
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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  • Conclusion
  • Norbert Hornstein, University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • Book: The Merge Hypothesis
  • Online publication: 15 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009415750.011
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  • Conclusion
  • Norbert Hornstein, University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • Book: The Merge Hypothesis
  • Online publication: 15 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009415750.011
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Conclusion
  • Norbert Hornstein, University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • Book: The Merge Hypothesis
  • Online publication: 15 February 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009415750.011
Available formats
×