Interface Strategies

Abstract

Attempting to expand the empirical basis of syntactic theory, a substantial theoretical machinery got accumulated. The move in current syntactic theory (Chomsky's minimalist program) has been to check how much of this machinery is actually necessary. The theoretical goal is that syntactic operations - the computational system - should be driven only by purely formal and mechanical considerations, like checking morphological features. In a way, this stage is the sharpest statement of the thesis of the autonomy of syntax. We know, by now, that it is strictly impossible to derive the properties of the computational system from any functional considerations of language use.