De-syntacticising Syntax? Concerns on the Architecture of Grammar and the Role of Interface Components

This article discusses different ways in which interface components could potentially affect syntax (or what have traditionally been analysed as syntactic phenomena). I will distinguish four types of potential effects that the interface components could have onto syntax: (i) no real interaction, sin...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Aritz Irurtzun
Format: Article
Language:Catalan
Published: Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2019-12-01
Series:Catalan Journal of Linguistics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://revistes.uab.cat/catJL/article/view/231
Description
Summary:This article discusses different ways in which interface components could potentially affect syntax (or what have traditionally been analysed as syntactic phenomena). I will distinguish four types of potential effects that the interface components could have onto syntax: (i) no real interaction, since almost nothing pertains to syntax: everything (beyond Merge) is externalization; (ii) computations at interface components actively affect the syntactic computation; (iii) Properties of interface representations function to inform biases for language acquisition; (iv) interface components impose Bare Output Conditions (legibility conditions) that constrain the range of possible syntactic representations at the interface. I argue that the first two are problematic, whereas the latter two may help us understanding a range of universal and variable phenomena.
ISSN:1695-6885
2014-9719